I think the OP’s question is like someone from 2100 AD asking “How is it possible that young, un/under-employed New Yorkers could live in spacious loft apartments with wardrobes full of designer clothes? American sitcoms from the 1990-2020 period feature these people all the time.”
While the answers would include facts like rent-controlled apartments, the real answer is closer to “Because we only want so much truth in our entertainment. Plus, it’s hard to film a sitcom in a closet and the Salvation Army didn’t sponsor the costumes.”
Remember that the novels of Jane Austen, and others, are full of women who are trying precariously to maintain a lifestyle which they can’t quite afford and hoping to make a good marriage which will set them up for life, or that their daughters will. Leave it too late, and you get left on the shelf. Income might be settled on you for life, or until marriage, by your father, but after death the capital might revert. And the Longbourne property was entailed, so that it would be of no benefit to Mr Bennet’s daughters after he was gone, it would revert to a male relative.
Most of the wealth of the country was still in land rather than manufacturing, though that was changing.
Bertie Wooster is a younger son (as is Lord Peter Wimsey), he has no prospect of inheriting a title/estate, and no great personal wealth though, like most of the characters who are his friends, he gets an allowance to maintain him in the style to which he is accustomed. Though many of the books are set in the '20s or '30s, Bertie and his set really belong to a remoter period, before 1914, as Wodehouse explains somewhere (Performing Flea, I think) - the father thinks, “Dammit, can’t let Algy starve” and makes him an allowance. After the War, with taxation and the decline in land values, Fathers started to think “Dammit, why shouldn’t Algy starve?” and told him to start making his own way in the world.
where do you get this? I don’t remember anything about an older brother and I always assumed Bertie is rich. he lives in London or New York or cruises or stays in Cannes: how is he not rich?
I think the point is he is not independently rich. Wooster is always one hair brained scheme away from losing the car, or, not being able to afford that cruise. I know it’s not a perfect comparison but I imagine Wooster to be similar to many a huckster businessman today who live a lifestyle they can’t quite sustain. He tends to live greater than his means.
Another Trumplike idiosyncrasy of the fictional British idle rich of the Victorian/Edwardian period was a disinclination to pay their creditors.
I’ve always been impressed by the generosity of London tailors, haberdashers, hatters, jewelers, etc., to run extensive tabs for clients who reside in the Albany. In novels, anyway.
Maybe they felt it was good for business. Having the Nobs flittering about might draw in other customers with ready money.
They would also be waiting on the young gentleman’s “expectations”–he might not have much dosh right now, but if his uncle’s a baronet or otherwise titled, he could come into money and/or an estate later on.
ETA: I don’t recall Bertie having a brother, either. He mentioned a sister and nieces in one story.
Bertie is the heir of his uncle Lord Yaxley .
The "Wooster millions " are mentioned .
Bertie complains that while he’s "rolling in the stuff " he’s unable to lend money to his chums who need it as they have scruples about taking money from a friend .
In a story set in New York , Bertie produces a play to help a struggling playwright who is a friend . He says it’s a remarkably easy business , just a matter of signing cheques .
I’ve never noticed his prospective brides as being great heiresses . In fact Aunt Agatha tries to foist the daughter (sister ?) of a vicar on him. She turns out to be a con artist .
The Wooster backstory changes somewhat over the years with the needs of the plot of each novel, though on looking over the Wikipedia entry he does not appear to have a brother. But essentially Bertie’s ‘set’ are the ‘knuts’ - younger sons, people who have to at least make a pretence of pleasing the person who they depend on for their fairly-comfortable lifestyle, if they want to go on living it.
I don’t understand where you get any of this. the money schemes are all other peoples - his are never about money they about helping friends or getting out of engagements or avoiding the wrath of an Aunt, constable or judge.
yes, his circumstances change around some but he has TONS of money and never has to worry about it.
I swear you are thinking of some other series or something
