Education
Bertie's early education took place at the semi-fictional Malvern House Preparatory School. Wodehouse himself attended a school by that name, located in Kearsney, Kent; however, the Malvern House which appears in the stories is located in the fictional town of Bramley-on-Sea.
He was further educated at the non-fictional Eton and at Magdalen College, Oxford.
Most of Bertie's friends and fellow Drones Club members depicted in the stories attended one or more of these institutions with him. Also, Bertie's former schoolmaster at Malvern House, Aubrey Upjohn, appears or is mentioned several times.
One detail of Bertie's school life which comes into several stories is his winning of the prize for Scripture Knowledge while at Malvern House. Bertie speaks with pride of this achievement on several occasions; however, in Right Ho, Jeeves, the character of Gussie Fink-Nottle, while intoxicated, publicly accuses Bertie of having achieved the award through cheating. (Bertie stoutly denies this charge, however, and on the same occasion Gussie makes other completely groundless accusations against other characters.)
Bertie's scriptural knowledge (like most of his mental catalogue) often retains at least part of the literal quote, while completely losing the original meaning and context. In one story, Bertie complains about the lavish and constant attentions of a woman in whom he has no interest by referring to her as "old sticketh closer than a brother" in an annoyed fashion. The verse (Proverbs 18:24) that Bertie partially quotes actually is praising the value of close friendship when it refers to a "friend that sticketh closer than a brother".
Read more about this topic: Bertie Wooster
Famous quotes containing the word education:
“There are words in that letter to his wife, respecting the education of his daughters, which deserve to be framed and hung over every mantelpiece in the land. Compare this earnest wisdom with that of Poor Richard.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“With a generous endowment of motherhood provided by legislation, with all laws against voluntary motherhood and education in its methods repealed, with the feminist ideal of education accepted in home and school, and with all special barriers removed in every field of human activity, there is no reason why woman should not become almost a human thing. It will be time enough then to consider whether she has a soul.”
—Crystal Eastman (1881–1928)
“Casting an eye on the education of children, from whence I can make a judgment of my own, I observe they are instructed in religious matters before they can reason about them, and consequently that all such instruction is nothing else but filling the tender mind of a child with prejudices.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)