The Politeness of Princes and Other School Stories

School Stories

by P.G. Wodehouse

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Humor, Short Stories, Fiction, British Literature, Classics, School

72 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE, was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read over 40 years after his death. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained that of prewar English upper-class society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career.

An acknowledged master of English prose, Wodehouse has been admired both by contemporaries such as Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by more recent writers such as Douglas Adams, Salman Rushdie and Terry Pratchett. Sean O'Casey famously called him "English literature's performing flea", a description that Wodehouse used as the title of a collection of his letters to a friend, Bill Townend.

Best known today for the Jeeves and Blandings Castle novels and short stories, Wodehouse was also a talented playwright and lyricist who was part author and writer of fifteen plays and of 250 lyrics for some thirty musical comedies. He worked with Cole Porter on the musical Anything Goes (1934) and frequently collaborated with Jerome Kern and Guy Bolton. He wrote the lyrics for the hit song Bill in Kern's Show Boat (1927), wrote the lyrics for the Gershwin/Romberg musical Rosalie (1928), and collaborated with Rudolf Friml on a musical version of The Three Musketeers (1928).

Reviews

[Margie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love watching Jeeves and Wooster (actually I love watching anything Stephen Fry is in), but I've not read anything by Wodehouse until now.

These are early stories. They're charming and humorous, but I get the feeling that he got funnier as his career progressed. All of these stories are set in a boys' school. One focuses on cricket, and was nearly impenetrable to this cricket know-nothing.

[Neon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not like any of his other works. But this book has a strong P. G. Wodehouse signature. Apparently this his early work. He just got better later.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains a number of school stories (as mentioned in the title) that were published n the earlier part of Wodehouses' writing career.
The Politeness of Princes (1905)
Shields' and the Circket Cup (1905)
An international Affair (1905)
The Guardian (1908)
A corner in Lines (1905)
The Authograph Hunters (1905)
Phillingshot, Detective (1910)
What they have in common is that they play a public schools and put the ingenuity of students against the character of their teachers and/or school rules.
Of course they are all funny, have a few unexpected twist and a happy end.
Wodehouse will grow during his career but these are very much worth reading. Light reading, that is.

[Joe Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection of short schoolboy stories was collected after PG Wodehouse's death, after reading it I can see why he never published the collection himself. The main virtue here is that the stories and the collection are both short enough to wade through quickly. There is a bit of resemblance to O Henry here if OH had been significantly less clever and if you squint you can get as many as three or four glimpses of the stellar writer PGW would become.

[Keshav Prasad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wodehouse school stories

Read this one first, then the other early stories re Public school life. Names are mentioned to hat pop up in other school stories, and even in other stories - mention of a certain publisher will make Wodehouse fans' ears prick up (and yes, I know that usage is archaic, so's the writing, and I live it anyway, so there!).

[Shannon (That's So Poe) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great collection of Wodehouse's schoolboy stories, filled with all kinds of scrapes and ridiculous scenarios. Perfect when you need a bit of quick, light reading to make you laugh.

Content Warnings:
bullying

[Kathy England · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book of stories about a boy's boarding "public" school in England. I always enjoy P.G. Wodehouse's humor, but I have to admit that although I read every work I understood very little in the story about cricket.

[Prashanth Baskaran · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the earlier collections. Although it doesn't have lot of comedy, it still is stuff enough to warrant time. Wodehouse is God, as always.

[Lee Belbin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wodehouse is predictable. Stories are simple and these are a wonderful reflection of public school days. Very mild by today's standards, but that makes them diverting.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Droll stories about public school boys. An early work which leads us to the pleasure of Jeeves and Blandings Castle sagas

[Vinaya Wagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny stories... Good fun reading this short one

[Abhinay · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first P.G Wodehouse short stories were The Clicking of Cuthbert ones. Needless to say, the beginning lent itself to high standards. And so I was pretty nonchalant when I started this (obtained it thanks to Project Gutenberg). It is a collection of stories based on school kids, quite like the short story The prize poem which was a part of the tenth grade school syllabus for Indian ICSE students (2007). The length of the stories being very small, the book as such is a very sweet read. It was fun cozing over this one, I only wished it could last longer. But that is pretty much the same with most of Wodehouse's books. Fantastic read, for the ones who have only read the popular ones from P.G Wodehouse :)

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps 2½ stars... I have loved P.G. Wodehouse's books since I first was introduced to Jeeves and Bertie in my teen years, but this collection of early short stories was a little disappointing. These stories are all set in an English boys' school and therefore some aspects of them were very British; I am an Anglophile but at least one of these stories was too English even for me! (Shields and The Cricket Cup)

[Phil Syphe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five of the seven stories in this collection were written in 1905 and, having read longer stories by P. G. Wodehouse from this period, I didn't have high expectations. Thus I was pleasantly surprised to find six out of seven stories to be good entertainment, featuring lots of witty dialogue that the author is so good at.

The one story that failed to interest me was "Shield's and the Cricket Cup", owing to the amount of focus on cricket and my dislike of this sport. Otherwise this collection was a worthwhile read.

[Trudy Pomerantz · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a minute and a half, the form-master wearied. "Have you looked at this, Dunstable?" he asked. There was a time-honoured answer to this question. "yes, sir," he said. Public-school ethics do not demand that you should reply truthfully to the spirit of the question. The letter of it is all that requires attention. Dunstable had looked at the lesson. He was looking at it then. Masters should practise exactness of speech.

[Barbara Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

PG Wodehouse was a master of comedy. This particular piece (an e-book, downloaded for free from iBooks) was a collection of short stories that took place at a boy's school, and centered upon the exploits of several of the inhabitants.

[Andypants · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charming wodehouse, not his funniest. Quick read, as always.

[A.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally enjoyable, although the first story ended in rather an abrupt manner, as though finished at a later date.

[Rupertt Wind · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its hilarious Its good :)

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jolly school stories. Work netter than a whole novel and not quite so much concentration on sporting activity

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

2010 collection of short stories many of which first appeared in a collection "Tales of Wrykyn" in the journal Captain in 1905. Fun and sometimes disturbingly topical early Wodehouse.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy Wodehouse's school stories. Good fun.

[Jishnu Bhattacharya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best of Wodehouse. Don't expect side-splitting stories.

[Carey Tynan]

Loved it

[Yi-hsin Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally enjoy Wodehouse but didn't think this one was as good as some of the others. Part of the problem may be that I'm not familiar with life in an English boys' school, so couldn't relate to some of the details. If you're reading Wodehouse for the first time, maybe pick one of the other collections of short stories.