The Right Approach

A Mr Mulliner short story

Augustus Mulliner meets Hermione Brimble at a bazaar in aid of the Wimbledon Social Purity League and naturally decides his wooing will be improved by a display of spirituality and saintliness. After daily visits to the Brimble home he proposes but she declines.

Visiting again, he is stopped by the butler. Enter Oswald Stoker, well pickled, a large dog and its new owner Russell Clutterbuck, the latter even more soused than Oswald. Clutterbuck attempts to launch the house with a bottle of champagne, which works to Augustus's advantage ...

Characters

Mr Mulliner	the narrator
Augustus Mulliner	his nephew, in love with
Hermione Brimble	a pretty girl
Mrs Willoughby Gudgeon	her aunt
Oswald Stoker	Mrs Gudgeon's stepson, a novelist
Russell Clutterbuck	an American publisher
Staniforth	Mrs. Gudgeon's butler

Publishing Information

A Few Quick Ones

First published January 1959 in Playboy magazine.

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Notes and Quotes

'... a suggestion of the chamois of the Alps springing from crag to crag.'
- a favourite of Wodehouse, and used by many others, but I cannot trace its origin.

Supralapsarianism
- one of four ways of ordering God's eternal decree, which states that God first decided to elect some and reprobate the rest then caused the creation (translation: elect and reprobate = save and condemn). The other three ways put the creation first.

Saturday Evening Post
- a US weekly magazine, running from 1821 to 1969, that carried the first publication of many of PG's books and short stories.

Gesundheit
- German for health, often said after a sneeze.

Kempton Park
- a racecourse in Surrey, since 1878 and currently (2007) under refurbishment.

Clergyman's sore throat
- a common name for the genuine occupational disease or condition experienced by clergyman, street traders and others who use their voices a lot. Possibly it's the condition known as catarrhal laryngitis.

'... what Shakespeare calls a sea of troubles.'
- from Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1, Hamlet's soliloquy.

Boat Race night
- the night of the rowing race between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, no longer widely celebrated.

Swain
- a young rustic or (jocular) a lover or suitor.

'... take to themselves the wings of a dove ...'
- referring to Psalm 55, Verse 6.

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

The Star-Spangled Banner
- officially the US national anthem since 1931. The lyrics come from a poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, about an incident in the War of 1812 between the USA and Britain.

Hammerhead
- dunce, blockhead.

Bohunkus
- US slang for buttocks, used to mean a stupid person.

Johnston office
- formally the Motion Picture Association of America of which Johnston was the president. It was Hollywood's means of self-censorship.

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Comparison of story versions

Factor	Joy Bells for Barmy	The Right Approach (magazine)	The Right Approach (book)
The hero	Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps	Augustus Brattle	Augustus Mulliner
His girl	Hermione Brimble	Evangeline Elphinstone-Golightly	Hermione Brimble
Her mother	Mrs Wilberforce Gudgeon	Mrs Elphinstone-Golightly	Mrs Willoughby Gudgeon
Her home	Balmoral	Chatsworth	Balmoral
The mother's relative	Mervyn Potter (stepson)	Oswald Stoker (nephew)	Oswald Stoker (stepson)
His job	An Empire builder	Music publisher	Novelist
His girl	Angelica Wapshott	Yvonne	Yvonne
Her job	Unknown	Ballad composer	In the TV industry
The butler	Bulstrode	Staniforth	Staniforth
The meeting place	Garden bazaar	Droitgate Spa	Garden bazaar
The second drunk	(None)	J. Lester Clam	Russell Clutterbuck
His job		Music publisher	Book publisher

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A re-write of the earlier magazine story of the same name with a Mulliner setting and the beginning of Joy Bells for Barmy. Joy Bells also re-appeared as two chapters of the book Barmy in Wonderland. A master class in re-cycling.