The Corner

Wodehouse’s Mosley

Derb: The Wodehouse character based on Oswald Mosley that your reader is looking for is Sir Roderick Spode. In one speech, Spode proclaims to his brown-shorted cadre, “Nothing stands between us and victory–except defeat!” Spode could hold up well in this year’s Democratic TV debates. Bertie blackmails Spode on Gussie’s behalf in one of the tales (Spode runs a womens’ lingerie line on the side; not what you’d expect from a budding fascist dictator), with the crucial help of Jeeves, of course.

Steven F. Hayward is senior resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies, and a lecturer in both the law school and the political science department, at the University of California at Berkeley.
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