The Ultimate Wodehouse Collection

by P.G. Wodehouse

"The Ultimate Wodehouse Collection" immerses you in the outrageous world of P.G. Wodehouse. This carefully selected anthology showcases his timeless wit and unforgettable characters, from Bertie Wooster to Jeeves. Experience the charm, humor, and linguistic finesse that define Wodehouse's legendary storytelling. Whether you're a devoted fan or a newcomer, this collection guarantees endless laughter and a delightful escape into a world of comedic genius.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Classics, Literature, Collections

1614 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 28, 2023

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

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much brilliance in Wodehouse, especially if you love the English language. You could read him simply for the vocabulary and slang, if the characterization, humor and satire weren’t so great...which they are.

Here’s a few gems:

“In this hall the youth of Market Snodsbury had been eating its daily lunch for a matter of five hundred years, and the flavour lingered. The air was sort of heavy and languorous, if you know what I mean, with the scent of Young England and boiled beef and carrots.”

“From the fact that he spoke as if he had a hot potato in his mouth without getting the raspberry from the lads in the ringside seats, I deduced that he must be the head master.”

“She looked like a tomato struggling for self-expression.”

“I had no doubt that Gussie must have reached for the Bassett and clasped her to him like a stevedore handling a sack of coals. And one could readily envisage the effect of that sort of thing on a girl of romantic mind.”

I read the first collection of Jeeves and Wooster of this 5,000+ page collection. Doubtlessly, I will delve in for more whenever I need a lift and palette cleanse from all the socially responsible “earnest-isa” I tend to read.

[Homer · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? Jeeves and Wooster have just got me through one of the worst periods of my life. Total escapism. For me, the joy of these books is not just the preposterous plots, the wonderful array of characters (or caricatures, if you like) or the social satire but the extraordinarily inventive use of language. Wodehouse's neologisms, extended metaphors, transferred epithets and incongruous coupling of adjective and noun are sheer genius. Yes, of course it is repetitive; you could say it is the one joke told in a thousand different ways, but it gives me a laugh every time.

[D J Rout · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writer that could do something as good as The Jeeves Collection: Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves / The Inimitable Jeeves / Carry On, Jeeves couldn't keep up that quality for the entire of a very prolific writing life, and this book, which is far from complete, is the proof of that statement.

Apart from Mike, Psmith in the City and Psmith, Journalist the works here are pretty mediocre.

Strictly for the Wodehouse completist ultimatist.

[Emma Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

First time I had read Wodehouse but definitely not the last! How is it that so many years on this author remains side splittingly funny and the characters so vivid? Wodehouse is a genius and should be recommended reading for everyone.

[Laura Koerber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to rate a classic. Wodehouse is either your cup of tea or he isn't. He's state of the art for the subgenre (Humor, British, satirical, upperclass, unreliable narrator). I read his books for the escapism.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

Very funny. Love it! Last story is repeat of earlier. Otherwise Wodehouse collection was intensely enjoyable. He has a gift for settings which border on the hysterically funny. I compare Wodehouse to an early version of Lucille Ball.

[David Lappin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read

Good light reading, for those that enjoy farse and situation comedy
Some hidden gems to be found good deal of humour in these books.

[Lester Muirhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

More a sampler than an "Ultimate" Collection but the selection is good.

[Subaddra Sankruti]

Hilarious! Love it!!!

[Mohan G · Rating 5 out of 5]

I dont have to say much about Wodehouse and I am madly crazily in love with all his books. Have read them several times over in the last 40 years. I got this on the kindle.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeeves & Wooster a lifesaver! So funny!
So English!

[Valerie Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the Jeeves and Wooster stories :), especially when I pictured them as Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.

[Shriyukta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wodehouse remains my go to when the world becomes too hectic. Worth a million laughs!