The image of romantic love in the works of P. G. Wodehouse

This article examines the portrayal of romantic love in the works of P. G. Wodehouse, the preeminent English humorist of the 20th century. The concept of «romantic love» is considered through the lens of early German Romantic philosophy. By analyzing the works of F. Schelling, F. Schlegel, Novalis, as well as major scholarly studies on early German Romanticism, the article elucidates the Romantic concept of love. The image of romantic love in Wodehouse's oeuvre is analyzed using examples from different periods of the author's career, including early novels (Ruth in Exile, A Gentleman of Leisure), mature works (The Luck of the Bodkins), and later texts (French Leave, Money in the Bank). Particular attention is paid to the short story The Reverent Wooing of Archibald. The study employs the comparative method. Wodehouse's works are compared with texts by the early German Romantics and A. Tennyson, specifically his cycle Idylls of the King. Wodehouse's writing is also examined within the framework of Yu. N. Tynyanov's theory of parody. Drawing on existing scholarly literature, the article interprets the motif of chivalric love in Wodehouse's work. This study is the first in both Russian and international literary scholarship to focus specifically on the image of romantic love in his writing. While previous researchers have traditionally emphasized the comic aspects of love in Wodehouse's works, this article argues that irony and parody function not to diminish the concept of romantic love, but to reveal and revitalize it. This leads to the conclusion that the portrayal of love created by Wodehouse is unique in 20th-century literature. The findings of this research provide grounds for a partial reconsideration of the established view of Wodehouse's place in the 20th-century literary process and may be utilized in courses on the history of English literature.