Sam the Sudden by P. G. Wodehouse

by P.G. Wodehouse

Not so fresh off the tramp steamer from America, Sam Shotter settles in the sleepy suburb of Valley Fields. His pastoral peace is short-lived, however, when Soapy Molly, Dolly the Dip and Chimp Twist arrive on the scene looking for two million dollars they seem to have mislaid in the vicinity. Sam discovers not only that he's living right bang next door to the girl of his dreams but also that he's sitting, rather embarrassingly, on a goldmine. Some rather superior sleuthing will be required.

Genres: Humor, Fiction, Comedy, British Literature, Classics, 20th Century

Paperback

First published October 15, 1925

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

[W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wodehouse wrote that he was very fond of this book.One reason was that it was set in the suburb of Valley Fields,which was a thin disguise for Dulwich,where he had spent happy days.

Another reason was that his recurring characters,Chimp Twist,Dolly Molloy and Soapy Molloy made their first appearance in this book.

There is,as usual,a love affair.Sam Shotter falls in love with the photograph of a girl,though he
doesn't know her name.

But then,he finds himself living right next door to her.The two even do some relentless detection to track down the loot of two million dollars hidden by Chimp Twist and the Molloys.

I found the book short on laughs,and the plot very thin.I used to love Wodehouse unreservedly,when I was twenty.Now I've become more critical of him.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

TL;DR: Funny, but far from compelling due to fairly generic characters.

I've been tearing through books lately, in a way that was noticable given I'm not a fast reader at all. But with this 314 page book it felt like my pace slowed to a crawl, and I've been thinking about why.

Now, I love Wodehouse. I love his style, his cadences, his diction. I love his humor. I love his contrived and convoluted plots.

Did you notice what's not there?

It's not that I don't like his characters. I think there are two factors. First, I tend not to identify with most of them. (They do tend to be of a certain class and type.) And second, his narrative style is more distant than most of the other stuff I read, closer to an objective omniscient than the more intimate styles popular these days.

I suspect that's why his series books, with their recurring characters, and particularly the Jeeves stories, with their first person narration, are his most popular works.

I've loved a lot of his standalones too, but here, Sam and Kay feel like particularly generic Wodehouse protagonists, and so, while I enjoyed this whenever I picked it up, it was very easy to set down again.

This particular book's claim to fame, were I to pick one, would probably be as the first appearance of that trio of crooks, Dolly & Soapy Molloy, and Chimp Twist.

So, I'll round this up to a 4, since it's better than the "meh", "adequate", "fine" my 3 usually signifies. But only because of Wodehouse's writing.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the rabbit-faced young men said that he could never understand how fellows--or women, for that matter--thought up ideas for stories--or plays, for the matter of that--or, as a matter of fact, any sort of ideas, for that matter.

I have often wondered whether P.G.Wodehouse started being funny at birth. Like, from the first day, upon arrival. Like, as soon as he entered the world and was ping-slapped on his baby butt, I wonder if he ponged his deliverer with a snappy retort; perhaps a word of thanks to all involved for 'the smooth ride into the home stretch'... or some such. 

~ because, whenever it was that the author was first discovered to be a verbal pip, it was certainly early on. 

Wodehouse started publishing in 1902, at age 21. But, so far, the earliest book of his that I've read has been 'Psmith in the City' (1910), which is rather hilarious. 'Sam the Sudden' (1925) is his 26th novel. As near-perfect as 'Psmith in the City' is, 'STS' represents wonderful development in Wodehouse's ability. 

The story of 'STS' is, like pretty much all of the author's work, intricate simplicity itself - and a synopsis of it isn't all that necessary. Suffice it to say it's a romp involving romance, a hefty handful of eccentric types, some arbitrary thieves, one LARGE / deliciously befuddled dog (Amy!), and a non-stop wizardry with words. This is a funny, funny, funny book. 100 years on, it remains funny; time has here been nothing but kind to P.G (which, overall, is true of most of his work). 

It seems that, as his career progressed into its second half (mainly post-WWII), Wodehouse sort of eased up in the execution of his output. His plots would become more streamlined, his books would generally become half the length and most of his work was found in serial form (Jeeves and Wooster; Blandings)--so he wouldn't have to invent completely new characters on a more regular basis. 

Earlier novels like 'STS', thus, take on a more sumptuous form. They tend to be longer; more resplendent in language; the construction might be a bit trickier but it's just as disciplined--only a bit more generous. ~ which seems to reflect that the author loves the reader's company and desires more time. 

By the time I finally finished the read, I was beyond contentment - and as snug as is possible to be. As was Sam. He had secured his long-longed-for dream for life, was musing on it with private satisfaction... and I couldn't have been happier for him:

'If everybody was like you, sir,' said the constable at length, in a deep, throaty voice, 'the world would be a better place.'
'The world couldn't be a better place,' said Sam. 'Good night.'
'Good night, sir,' said the constable reverently.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was having a rotten time of it -- it happens to us all -- when I suddenly said to myself, “Now why don't you pick up a P. G. Wodehouse novel you haven't read before?" Well, I did, and before you know it, that blister of a boss of mine receded into the distance and I was laughing my head off.

Sam the Sudden is not the best or the funniest of Wodehouse's novels, but there is enough there to render your world a jollier place, what with those scamps Chimp Twist and Soapy and Dolly Molloy trying to dig up some buried loot, and Sam "The Sudden" Shotter intercepting them in their foul deeds and finding true love only next door, which is what he planned for all along if only it could come true.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3* for this edition, 4* for the book itself (see below for details)

I was surprised and pleased to find that this early novel of Wodehouse's introduces not only Soapy & Dolly Molloy and their sometime colleague Chimp Twist (whose antics enlivened the later book "Money for Nothing" that I read last month) but also Lord Tilbury of the Mammoth Publishing Co.! The eponymous Sam is an American who went to Wrykyn (familiar to those who have read Wodehouse's 'School' books) and is back in England now as a young man.

I might have given this a better rating if this Internet Archive ebook edition hadn't contained so many errors (I hesitate to call them typos when they are clearly the result of a poor combination of scanning and importing into both ePub and Kindle formats). If you want to read this book, you are better off using the link given to stream it directly from Internet Archives (which is what I ended up doing).

[Charles van Buren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it a little slow at the start but moves on in typical Wodehouse fashion. Perhaps not the best Wodehouse but still very good. Any Wodehouse is better than no Wodehouse at all.

[Gopal · Rating 5 out of 5]

When considering the Wodehouse oeuvre, most fans either prefer the Jeeves novels or lean toward his Blandings stories. I for one am partial to Mr Mulliner and his gaggle of eccentric relatives. But amongst all of the master’s vast body of work, my favorite remains his 1925 offering, “Sam the Sudden”.

What’s so special here, begins with its cast of characters; There is no representative of the peerage or landed gentry lurking about, It’s just good ol Sam Shotter accompanied by his ne’er-do-well cook, Hash Todhunter, who end up in the beautiful London suburb of Valley fields, in a house aptly named Mon repos. Sam spots his beautiful neighbor Kay Derrick ( whose food stained modeling picture he had chanced upon, pasted on the wall of a fishing hut, while sojourning in Canada ), and so this comical masterpiece unfolds. Aided by bumbling crooks Soapy Molloy, Chimp Twist and the usual sprinkling of aunts, uncles and house keepers, the plot thickens.

It’s a boy meets girl story at its heart, generously seasoned by a hunt for buried treasure, and a lot else seemingly going on, but then nothing much really happens in Wodehouse novels, yet they are stupendously entertaining, such was his genius. Wodehouse’s talent, pardon me for expounding, lies not in the plot but rather in the interaction among his characters:

When Sam shows Hash a stained photo of Kay that he'd found pinned to the wall of a fishing hut in Canada: Sam clearly expects some comment about Kay's beauty, but no — "That's mutton gravy" says Hash (formerly a cook on an ocean-going tramp steamer), focussing on the stain and managing to ignore the subject of the photo altogether; "Beef wouldn't be so dark." And when, a short while after, Sam comments that "Love is a wonderful thing, Hash", the only reaction from the lugubrious Hash is "When you've seen as much of life as I have, you'd rather have a cup of tea." ( A special thanks to Terry Mordue for these poignant observations)

I urge you to give this early Wodehouse gem a once-over. I guarantee, you shall not leave disappointed.

[Mauro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read somewhere (where I cannot find anymore) that Wodehouse thought this to be his worst book, the one he was ashamed of. That is what put me into reading it.

For no one's surprise, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the book: au contrarie, it is a regular Wodehouse - that is, Wodehouse at his best.

It was written in 1925 and it is really a sad thing to think that no one (except Wodehouse) has written anything as funny.

[Madhulika Liddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam Shotter falls in love with a girl's photograph out in the Canadian woods, completely unaware of who she is or what her name is. But, in classic Wodehouse style, Sam meets his dream girl, Kay Derrick, in the London suburb of Valley Fields. Eager to press his suit, Sam immediately rents the house, Mon Repos, next to Kay's home. Only, things are complicated by the fact that a bunch of thieves is trying to get into Mon Repos too; Kay seems to have taken a dislike to Sam; and Sam's boss, Lord Tilbury, who had taken on Sam as a favour to Sam's uncle, is bent on breaking up Sam's romance because Sam's uncle will disapprove of it.

This was a good, satisfying mix of classic Wodehouse elements and characters: the funny crooks (Soapy Molloy and Chimp Twist here); their female accomplice, more deadly than the male; the publication for which Sam works, masquerading as Aunt Ysobel; the tense, overwrought and ambitious man of business (Lord Tilbury). Throw in a pair of trousers being confiscated to keep someone indoors; a romance between two cooks; a policeman intent on selling tickets to a charity concert - and yes, it's vintage Wodehouse. Very entertaining, light and funny.

[Vinaya Wagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious! I really don't know why I even bother reading other books :D It is such a joy reading Wodehouse. And this book does not disappoint at all.

Kindle: Unavailable

Online:
- Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/samsudden...
- Project Gutenberg (Sam in the Suburbs) - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67368

[Illiterate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plum explores deep moral questions: To kiss or not to kiss? To flirt or not to flirt?

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the Wodehouse books I’ve read, Sam the Sudden is one of the best neither starring Jeeves and Wooster nor taking place at Blandings Castle. Pretty much a one-off, it does feature Soapy and Dolly Malloy, Chimp Twist, and Lord Tilbury, recurring actors in the author’s stable of characters, in a plot more of a webwork than what I usually expect from Wodehouse.

Oh. And the synopsis provided by Goodreads, the one about Spike Murphy, is terrible. Ignore it.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful!

[Bianca Klein Haneveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoewel dit een humoristisch, leuk boek is dat zich zeker goed leent voor een dagje vermaak, heb ik het toch maar drie sterren gegeven. Dit komt omdat veel van de humor op toeval berustte, waardoor ik het plot niet sterk vond. Bovendien was veel humor slapstick-achtig en hoewel het goed beeldend beschreven was, ben ik daar nooit zo'n fan van.

[Peter Tillman]

Wonder if I missed this one? Showed up in a GR friend's Best-of-year list. Have to look for a copy!

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming and amusing romantic comedy fairly typical of early Wodehouse (and mostly none the worse for that).

As with most of his early books, the plot is firmly based on a foundation of blatant coincidence, which enables him to have a cast of about a dozen people who keep bumping into each other in three or four locations. For example, the eponymous Sam, before the story starts, has spent some time in a fishing shack in Canada, where a previous inhabitant had pinned up a picture, torn from a magazine in a way that removed the caption, of an attractive young woman with a horse. Sam falls in love with this woman purely through gazing at her picture, with no idea who she is. Having read a number of early Wodehouse books recently, I was barely surprised at all when, sacked from his uncle's firm in New York and sent to London, Sam almost immediately connects up, by complete chance, with an old school friend of his who is, on that particular day, staying in the house where the same young woman lives, having known her all his life (they were neighbours growing up). Why the school friend is staying there, and not at his house in Mayfair (which is much closer to where he is giving a speech that same night), is never clarified, though perhaps his fear of his housekeeper and the fact that he is likely to drink too much at the event and come home drunk (which he does) may be relevant. The important thing is that Sam is almost immediately connected with his beloved in two different ways (her uncle, who she lives with, works for the same firm that he's been sent to London to join, and Sam asks to work under him - so protagonist agency does at least play some role), and then moves in next door to her.

This is where the second plot comes in, because the house he takes was once the residence of a bank robber, who stashed his take there and never got back to pick it up. Dying, he has given the address to one of his old colleagues, Soapy Molloy, who has shared it with his new wife Dolly, and has given the location within the house to another old colleague, Chimp Twist, forcing them to work together. Twist, by another coincidence, has set himself up (for obscure reasons) as a fake private investigator and taken offices directly opposite where Sam works. This gets the plot moving into a series of tangles, along with the coincidence of Sam happening to mention in a pub that he's taken the house, and Soapy Molloy (out of all the people in London) being in the same pub (out of all the pubs in London) at the time.

Cue multiple romantic misunderstandings, comic blundering by the criminals, various disapproving elders who threaten the happiness of the young people, an amusing dog, and in general a fun time for the reader, though rarely for the characters.

Wodehouse has a knack of creating a memorable character in just a few words, a knack he shared with Charles Dickens. Unlike Dickens, though, his characters tend not to get much deeper on longer acquaintanceship. They remain a quick caricature sketch, rather than a portrait in oils. If you don't mind that, and his tendency to rely far too much on ridiculous coincidence, his early works can be a lot of fun. This is one of the better ones, for me, up there with Uneasy Money , Something Fresh or A Damsel in Distress . The romance plot is a little more developed than was often the case with Wodehouse, the couple is appealing, the B plot of the criminals is hilarious, and the minor characters (like the vicar and the charity-promoting policeman) shine.

[Doug Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This romantic comedy from 1925 features Sam Shotter, an impetuous young man who travels to London to take a job with Lord Tilbury's Mammoth Publishing Company. Sam carries with him a photograph of an unknown young woman that had graced the wall of a fishing cabin in Canada where he had spent a few months. He hopes to identify, and eventually marry, that young woman.

This being a small world, it turns out that Kay Derrick, the woman in the photgraph, is well known to Willoughby Braddock, an old school friend of Sam's whom he runs into upon his arrival in London. Kay lives in the suburb of Valley Fields in a semi-detached house, and Sam promptly rents the other half of that house. He gets off on the wrong foot with Kay by suddenly kissing her the first time they meet.

Sam isn't the only one interested in the house. Some criminals have learned that a bank robber once stashed $2 million in bearer bonds there. While Sam tries to make a better impression on Kay, the criminals seek some way to gain access to Sam's dwelling.

The various subplots collide in hilarious ways as the book proceeds, and the writing is vintage Woodhouse. This book is now in public domain, and the Project Gutenberg ebook is well-formatted.

[Ritika · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is funny, oh yes, it is. It is a quintessential Wodehouse product. But some activities still continue to be molestation, whatever the trigger is considered to be. And there is always the subtle class difference. Ah well, times change, and it is still a funny Wodehouse, and thankfully, not a timeless one.

[Jeff Crompton · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Wodehouse's own favorites, according to his forward, this book is good middle-of-the-road Wodehouse - or maybe a little better than that. In part, it is a celebration of the London suburbs ("Valley Fields" here) Wodehouse loved. Plenty of typical Wodehousian strained coincidences, and the hero gets the girl and the money in the end, of course.

[Deborah Makarios · Rating 5 out of 5]

P.G. Wodehouse wrote in his Preface to this novel (a delightful piece in its own right and not to be missed), "I give it as my considered opinion that Sam the Sudden is darned good."
And I must say I quite agree.

[Amrith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This inning from the master is one of those that in spite of a few quiet overs with some assured well- lefts to begin with, always has that inevitably of a spectacular century. Glorious.

[William Leight · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5 stars really]

"Sam the Sudden" sees Wodehouse starting to settle in to the template of many of his later non-Blandings and non-Jeeves and Wooster novels. For one thing, it marks the first appearance of the Molloys and Chimp Twist, comic gangsters who regularly serve as foils for the hero while being undermined by their tendency to double-cross each other; it is also one of the first appearances of the fictional press baron Lord Tilbury, under whose boot several Wodehouse heroes would be forced to labor; and it may also mark the first appearance of Valley Fields, the imaginary London suburb that Wodehouse commonly used as a setting. If all of these things are more memorable than the protagonists, that's also not uncommon to these kinds of novels. Sam is, like many Wodehouse heroes, an ebullient young man who doesn't adjust well to office work. There's an element of Psmith in him, if toned down: this removes Psmith's latent public-school nastiness but also, alas, much of what made him original. Kay is even less memorable: like many Wodehouse heroines who dwell in Valley Fields, she has shown pluck and spirit in soldiering on after her family money unexpectedly vanished, but otherwise has few distinguishing features. However, Wodehouse protagonists don't need to be all that memorable: that job is instead usually handled by the secondary characters, the language, and the jokes. While the latter two are in good form here, the record on the first is more mixed. The Molloys, Chimp Twist, and Lord Tilbury work well, but the same can't be said for the rest of the secondary characters. Wodehouse never quite figures out what he wants to do with Sam and Kay's mutual friend Willoughby Braddock, and the below-stairs romance between Kay's maid and Sam's friend/cook is depicted so patronizingly it hurts. Still, in this novel Wodehouse is, if not quite at peak form as a novel-writer -- that wouldn't come for a few more years -- definitely getting there, and that can cover a lot of sins. "Sam the Sudden" is by no means my favorite Wodehouse novel, or even my favorite non-Blandings or Jeeves Wodehouse novel, but it's quite enjoyable and I would recommend it to any Wodehouse fan.

[Harrison Wein · Rating 4 out of 5]

P.G. Wodehouse is best known for his Jeeves and Blandings series, but once you get past some of his very early novels, almost anything you might pick up by him is a fun read. Sam in the Suburbs, also published as Sam the Sudden, is a solid, silly romp that stands apart from these more famous series.

The story involves the young Sam Shotter. His uncle, who is disappointed with Sam's careless work, sends him to England to work for his potential business associate, the publisher Lord Tilbury. Not wanting to cross the ocean with Lord Tilbury, who he considers a bore, Sam joins his old pal Hash Todhunter, who is a cook on a tramp steamer. Sam carries around a photo of a woman that he took from the wall of a remote fishing shack in Canada. He has fallen in love with her, he tells Hash, although the photo had been torn out of a magazine without her name attached. When they arrive in England, Hash "borrows" Sam's money to bet on a dog race, leaving Sam destitute but determined to find the love of his life. The ensuing plot, which entails many absurd coincidences and a run-in with some ridiculous criminals, is typically wonderful Wodehouse nonsense.

Sam is a hilarious character, and I wish he'd appeared in other books. He's somewhat similar to Bertie Wooster of the Jeeves stories, although Sam is more arrogant and self-confident.

When I'm feeling down or stressed out, I find no better cure than reading Wodehouse's absurd exploits of the rich and ridiculous in England in the early twentieth century. While it's true that I and my family wouldn't have been welcomed in this society, I still somehow find these comic farces, which come across as gentle satires, a comfort. I wouldn't rank this among Wodehouse's best works, but it's a solid entertainment with some hilarious scenes.

[Andrew Fish · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Sam Shotter is sent by his uncle to London to work for Lord Tilbury, coincidence ensures that it results in his meeting the girl of his dreams, Kay, whose photograph he has been fixated with since he discovered it on the wall of a log cabin. Kay, by another coincidence, is niece to Mr Wrenn, who also works for Lord Tilbury, and Sam conspires to work on a publication which puts him on Wrenn’s staff, whilst also simultaneously taking up residence in the (coincidentally) vacant house adjoining that in which Wrenn and Kay live. However, by another coincidence, a group of criminals are interested in the same house – allegedly hiding the proceeds of a robbery.

The title of Sam the Sudden makes one initially think that this 1925 novel is a throwback – as with the earlier Jill the Reckless or The Indiscretions of Archie - revolving around the manner in which a flawed character gets themselves into trouble through their flaws. Fortunately, however, Wodehouse has moved on and whilst Sam’s suddenness does have some impact on the plot, there are enough other ingredients in the mix to make this a much less linear and altogether more satisfying story than either of those earlier adventures.

Again, we see Wodehouse working in his shared universe – the Mammoth Publishing Company connecting Blandings with Psmith and a number of otherwise unconnected novels – and also introducing the characters of Dolly and Soapy Molloy and their confederate Chimp Twist, who would recur in Wodehouse’s novels throughout his career.

Assessing Wodehouse’s freestanding novels is often a difficult task – Wodehouse novels vary in the degree to which their realities are either grounded or heightened, the richness of their narratives and their levels of literary allusion. In Sam, we are at a low simmer in all of these regards, which should in theory make it feel like an earlier and less indispensable volume. A combination of the plot density and the richness of certain key characters – notably the crooks - serves, however, to elevate the piece. Whilst this isn’t of a top rank like a Jeeves or a Blandings, however, it is a must read for any fan of the man.

[Marty Reeder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am in the process of reading a Wodehouse biography (Life in Letters, it’s the only way to learn about the master), and it’s so fun to see him write to friends and family about new ideas and stories he is writing. It is comforting to know that even though he published over ninety novels, he was passionate about each thing that he wrote—nothing he wrote was meant to be thoughtless drivel for a check.

That means that when I see him writing a friend to tell him about how excited he is about his new story, Sam in the Suburbs, I am equally excited to read it. It also means that if this isn’t one of his more stand-out novels, I still feel satisfaction knowing that it was not because Wodehouse was being lazy or negligent.

Charming vagabond, Sam has burned through relatives and connections that offer him easy money through his fun-loving, albeit, frivolous nature. So when he gets a last chance to work at a publishing company, he tries his best to stick to the job. Once there, he happens to run into the girl whose photo he fell in love with (whose photo, he would in fact declare, saved him!) while on an arctic expedition.

Sam has to navigate not getting fired by a boss who does not like him. He also has to woo a woman who he loves but has never met him. Oh, and by the way, the house in the suburbs that he is staying in? Some seedy characters are trying to discreetly extract some money left there by a former associate.

As you can see, there is plenty of opportunity for silliness, fun, and shenanigans, and Wodehouse gets them in. Without the well-meaning, dominating side character, a lá Galahad, Emsworth, or Jeeves to bring a pizazz and raise the level of absurdity, however, it is somewhat forgettable. So much so that I am writing this almost three months after finishing it. A rarity for me!

There are worse ways to pass your time than on an amusing, even if forgettable, Wodehouse novel. And, Plum, I appreciate your enthusiasm for it even if mine does not quite match it!

[S. Suresh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wodehouse wrote Sam the Sudden in 1925. Nearly 50 years later, Barry & Jenkins republished the book in 1972 with a preface by the author himself in which he states, “I am writing now as a literary critic – as the work of a stranger – I mean to say without false modesty or any of that rot. And evaluating it in this manner I give it my considered opinion that Sam the Sudden is darned good.” Perhaps, I ought to rest my case with that final word from the author whose writing I simply adore.

Sam the Sudden in set in Valley Fields, that charming suburb of London that I first encountered recently in Big Money. Sam Shotter, shipped to England from New York by his rich uncle Pynsent meets the girl of his dream, Kay Derrick in flesh soon after crossing the Atlantic. Employed by Lord Tilbury of Mammoth Publishing House, Sam sets himself up right next-door to Kay, at Mon Repos, in which is hidden a stolen treasure. Enter Soapy & Dolly Molloy along with Chimp Twist, eager to lay their hands on it. And the plot is set for a perfect sequence of comedic events, which, if I may emphasize, is darned good, in Wodehouse’s own words.

[Gregory Moses · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relatively early Wodehouse (1925) holds up a lot better than a lot of his work from that decade. After Wodehouse finished with Psmith in 1923 (because he married him off; aside from Uncle Fred, whose wife rarely appears, I can't think of a Wodehouse novel with a married protagonist), he cheated and used him again, more or less, in this novel, under the name Sam Shooter. I'm not complaining, mind--Psmith only appeared in one mature novel, so it's not like he was growing stale.

I think that if I were to summarize why I liked this book a lot more than others of this vintage (so far, at least), it's that it really never stops being silly. A lot of early Wodehouse romantic comedies seemed to have the idea that of course they're comedies, but the romance is Serious Business, and must be treated as such; for for example in 1928 we'll get Money for Nothing, which has an incredibly po-faced chapter where the romantic leads are in a boat together, which feels like it's written by a different author. Here, Wodehouse writes a comedy from start to finish.

[Tim Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Or "Sam in the Suburbs" as it was, for some reason, called in America, not that either title is particularly inspired. This was published in 1925, when Wodehouse was 44, and well into his stride, if not absolutely on top of his game. It also marks the first appearance of Soapy and Dolly Molloy and their perennial rival in crime Chimp Twist, as well as that titan of publishing Lord Tilbury.
The plot involves the eponymous Sam Shotter moving to London in the employ of Mammoth Publishing. By a gigantic coincidence, he meets the lovely Kay, whose photo he fell in love with while on a fishing trip in Canada, and he immediately rents the house next door to hers in Valley Fields, a house, by another coincidence, that Chimp, Dolly and Soapy have reason to believe hides the illgotten gains of a now deceased acquaintance of theirs. It's hardly a spoiler to say that after various ups and downs, Sam gets his girl and all ends happily for all.

[Larry Shackley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading through PGW's post-WW1 novels lately, focusing on the non-series books. Quite a few were disappointing, but the further into the 1920s you read, the better they get. I gave this one five stars simply because it gave me lots of laughs, and mixed up PGW's usual bag of plot tricks in an interesting way. Regular readers will enjoy meeting Chimp Twist, Soapy and Dolly, and Lord Tilbury again. There's a spunky lead girl, and a hero who doesn't give up on capturing his long-adored lady. There are crooks, Drone-types, working class stereotypes, jabs at the publishing world, and all the other bits beloved by PGW fans. See how many of his quotes from the Bible and English poetry you can identify. By all means, read Sam...and the suddener the better.

[Mh430 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kay laid a hand upon his arm. “We can’t disappoint the poor old man,” she whispered. “He would take it to heart so.”
“Yes, but I mean——”
“No.”
“Just as you say,” said Sam.
He was going to make a good husband.

Far from Plum's finest work, this novel starts slowly and has a rather bland set of romantic leads. It's the first in a series of books Wodehouse wrote featuring Soapy and Dolly Molloy and Chimp Twist but the actual "screen time" for that larcenous trio is quite limited here and not particularly engaging. Still, this is a PGW product so there are (just) enough smiles along the way to keep the reader plodding through until things really start to blossom beginning with a truly memorable Chapter 26.

3.5 stars