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World of Psmith Omnibus
This omnibus contains four full-length novels: "Psmith in the City", "Psmith Journalist" and "Leave it to Psmith".
624 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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About the author
P.G. Wodehouse
1,691 books6,937 followersSir 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).
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).
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 23, 2012
Mike and Psmith has become my second favorite character after Wooster and Jeeves. The garrulous Psmith faces every difficult situation with immense optimism. His lighthearted approach towards the complexities which life throws at him and his acquaintances amuses the reader. Be it tackling the gangs of New York, or working in a bank or taking the job of burgling a diamond necklace, I guess there was never a drop of perspiration on Psmith's forehead. Equally loved and admirable is Mike's character who accompanies his friend , Psmith in all his eccentricities.
March 16, 2015
The book revolves around a character called Psmith, with a silent P, which is perhaps the most unique character in the literary world. he will make you laugh even while performing the most solemn acts and describes everything with an air of unbelievable benevolence which his actions always contradict. the best part of the book is you cannot pin him down cuz just when you think he is smart , he would go on and sound incredibly stupid and funny. there are three distinct stories of Psmith in the book. there are no grand plots, and in spite of its predictability the narration keeps you going. not all jokes were ha-ha funny but the sarcasm was brilliant. though the weak storyline and quite a few undelivered jokes made me lose interest more times then i can remember.
January 19, 2010
Psmith in the City -- This book starts with cricket and ends with cricket. Which would be fine except that cricket is one of the few sports I know nothing about. I enjoyed the middle. Psmith is someone who is capable of graciously manipulating everyone around him.
Psmith Journalist -- THis book is not as funny as the first. BUt there is too much humor to really take it seriously. Not really sure how I felt about it.
Leave it to Psmith -- a madcap romance. Loved it.
Psmith Journalist -- THis book is not as funny as the first. BUt there is too much humor to really take it seriously. Not really sure how I felt about it.
Leave it to Psmith -- a madcap romance. Loved it.
September 12, 2017
This is four full novels. I am, however, so far along in my Reading Challenge that I can dismiss three of them with no sense of loss. The last book I had actually read previously, in June, but as each story was better than the last I reread it again.
In the preface Mr. Wodehouse reveals that he was given the character of Psmith by one of his cousins who was a school-mate of the original. It was a wonderful gift and very well used.
Mike and Psmith introduces us to Psmith - "the P is silent" - and more importantly Mike, who is the hero of this and the next book. Mike is a terrific cricketer and due to economic troubles is forced to change school. On his first day at the new school he meets Psmith and they have school adventures. For all of us who have not gone to an English public school this is somewhat interesting. And for those who enjoy cricket, even more so. This is a very early Wodehouse but already his language equilibristics are developing:
Psmith in the City again follows Mike, now out of school, as he takes a job in a bank in London. This is mostly interesting as it was also one of Mr. Wodehouse's first employments. In the preface he explains: "...based on my recollection of the two years when I was a clerk in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank with the reputation - well earned - of being the most inefficient clerk in London." Psmith is Mike's affluent friend who joins him in the bank and provides a residence and entertainment more suited to their desires than their salaries.
Psmith, Journalist departs from the previous books, Mike accompanies Psmith to America but early on heads off on a cricket tour leaving Psmith to harry freely in New York. Comrade Maloney, from Wyoming, has been left in charge of the weekly magazine Cosy Moments and with Psmith's help turns it from a tiresome family paper into an savage journal promoting a favorite boxer and, especially, hunting down a slum lord. This is a plot driven story full of social outrage; not Mr. Wodehouse's forte, maybe, but interesting about N.Y. in the early 20th Century. And he manages to slip in a few zingers:
Leave it to Psmith is the cream of the lot. Mike is married and hard-up and tucked away in the suburbs. He doesn't enter into the story at all. Unusually, Psmith is also hard-up, his family having lost their money. He seeks employment and finds it, if temporarily, impersonating a poet at Blandings Castle.
Psmith also finds love:
In the preface Mr. Wodehouse reveals that he was given the character of Psmith by one of his cousins who was a school-mate of the original. It was a wonderful gift and very well used.
Mike and Psmith introduces us to Psmith - "the P is silent" - and more importantly Mike, who is the hero of this and the next book. Mike is a terrific cricketer and due to economic troubles is forced to change school. On his first day at the new school he meets Psmith and they have school adventures. For all of us who have not gone to an English public school this is somewhat interesting. And for those who enjoy cricket, even more so. This is a very early Wodehouse but already his language equilibristics are developing:
It was a master. A short, wiry little man with a sharp nose and a general resemblance, both in manner and appearance, to an excitable bullfinch." And "
Mr Downing - for it was no less a celebrity - started, as one who perceives a loathly caterpillar in his salad.
Psmith in the City again follows Mike, now out of school, as he takes a job in a bank in London. This is mostly interesting as it was also one of Mr. Wodehouse's first employments. In the preface he explains: "...based on my recollection of the two years when I was a clerk in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank with the reputation - well earned - of being the most inefficient clerk in London." Psmith is Mike's affluent friend who joins him in the bank and provides a residence and entertainment more suited to their desires than their salaries.
The fact that the snub-nosed Edward was, without exception, the most repulsive small boy he had ever met in this world, where repulsive small boys crowd and jostle one another, did not interfere with is appreciation of the cashier's state of mind.
Psmith, Journalist departs from the previous books, Mike accompanies Psmith to America but early on heads off on a cricket tour leaving Psmith to harry freely in New York. Comrade Maloney, from Wyoming, has been left in charge of the weekly magazine Cosy Moments and with Psmith's help turns it from a tiresome family paper into an savage journal promoting a favorite boxer and, especially, hunting down a slum lord. This is a plot driven story full of social outrage; not Mr. Wodehouse's forte, maybe, but interesting about N.Y. in the early 20th Century. And he manages to slip in a few zingers:
And now to work. Work, the what's-it's-name of the thingummy and the thing-um-a-bob of the what-d'you-call-it.
Leave it to Psmith is the cream of the lot. Mike is married and hard-up and tucked away in the suburbs. He doesn't enter into the story at all. Unusually, Psmith is also hard-up, his family having lost their money. He seeks employment and finds it, if temporarily, impersonating a poet at Blandings Castle.
It might, he felt, cause Lord Emsworth a momentary pang when he returned to the smoking-room and found that he was a poet short, but what is that in these modern days when poets are so plentiful that it is almost impossible to fling a brick in any public place without damaging some stern young singer. Psmith's view of the matter was that, if Lord Emsworth was bent on associating with poets, there was bound to be another one along in a minute...
Psmith also finds love:
Eve bit her lip. She was feeling... that exasperating sense of man's inadequacy which comes to high-spirited girls at moments such as these. To achieve the end for which she had started out that night she would have waded waist-high through a sea of beetles..
I have quoted none of Psmith's conversation which is always entertaining and not a little aggravating. "If only," one broods enviously, "I could talk like that".
'My umbrella, dash it! Where's my umbrella?'
'Ah, there,' said Psmith, and there was a touch of manly regret in his voice, 'you have me. I gave it to a young lady in the street. Where she is at the present moment I could not say.'
The pink youth tottered slightly. 'You gave my umbrella to a girl?'
'A very loose way of describing her. You would not speak of her in that light fashion if you had seen her. Comrade Walderwick, she was wonderful! I am a plain, blunt, rugged man, above the softer emotions as a general thing, but I frankly confess that she stirred a chord in me which is not often stirred. She thrilled my battered old heart, Comrade Walderwick. There is no other word. Thrilled it!'
November 11, 2025
eternal favourite. wodehouse is the man who made me a reader.
this is however the first time i really paid attention to when these books are written and set, and the kind of value system they embody, even as satire. it's crazy to think they're all written between 1915 and 1923, so they don't have seatbelts in cars, commercial flights, talking movies, TV, Queen Elizabeth II (!), or travel visas. insane to think that the world has changed so much since then.
this is however the first time i really paid attention to when these books are written and set, and the kind of value system they embody, even as satire. it's crazy to think they're all written between 1915 and 1923, so they don't have seatbelts in cars, commercial flights, talking movies, TV, Queen Elizabeth II (!), or travel visas. insane to think that the world has changed so much since then.
January 4, 2022
3 novels in this volume on Psmith with a silent P by Wodehouse! What else can get better.
Awesome read!
Awesome read!
October 27, 2008
There are three novellas in this collection. The plots are borderline ridiculous, but who cares? I frequently found myself laughing outright on the bus. This is PG Wodehouse at his eloquent, witty best. For example:
"...Rupert Baxter, his secretary, so pronouncedly spectacled. It was his spectacles that struck you first as you saw the man. They gleamed efficiently at you. If you had a guilty conscience, they pierced you through and through; and even if your conscience was one hundred per cent pure you could not ignore them. 'Here,' you said to yourself, 'is an efficient young man in spectacles.'"
"...Rupert Baxter, his secretary, so pronouncedly spectacled. It was his spectacles that struck you first as you saw the man. They gleamed efficiently at you. If you had a guilty conscience, they pierced you through and through; and even if your conscience was one hundred per cent pure you could not ignore them. 'Here,' you said to yourself, 'is an efficient young man in spectacles.'"
September 1, 2016
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone else who loves reading.
The book does contain some long winded descriptions a few times throughout but this is a minor flaw in an otherwise fantastic book
You know a book is good when the characters make u want to become a better person and that is a perfect way to describe Psmith!
AMAZING BOOK
The book does contain some long winded descriptions a few times throughout but this is a minor flaw in an otherwise fantastic book
You know a book is good when the characters make u want to become a better person and that is a perfect way to describe Psmith!
AMAZING BOOK
June 29, 2012
Would have got a 5 but I wasn't massively keen on 'Psmith in the city'. The other two were brilliant and Psmith is my favourite Wodehouse character now along with Ukridge. If only I had Psmiths vocabulary!
June 13, 2015
It was boring to read and to be honest I was not able to finish the book.
Even though I read 250 pages , I was not enjoying the book. It seemed merely a task to finish the book which I didn't.
May be not my kind of book.
Even though I read 250 pages , I was not enjoying the book. It seemed merely a task to finish the book which I didn't.
May be not my kind of book.
August 9, 2007
Great early Wodehouse.
May 25, 2009
Genius ...
October 26, 2011
Occasional flashes of Woodhouse brilliance but generally struggled with it.....
April 14, 2015
Three novels in one, all featuring the inimitable Mr Psmith. Not Jeeves, but hilarious nonetheless. I enjoyed this much.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews