What do you think?
Rate this book
Honeysuckle Cottage
Hardboiled crime writer James Rodman assumes his luck is in when he inherits Honeysuckle Cottage. But there’s a catch. He also inherits his dearly departed Aunt Leila – who is determined to soften her nephew’s cynical ways, even from beyond the grave…
60 pages, Paperback
First published January 24, 1925
11 people are currently reading
285 people want to read
About the author
P.G. Wodehouse
1,700 books6,951 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).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
October 9, 2015
“Do you believe in ghosts?" asked Mr. Mulliner abruptly.
I weighed the question thought-fully. I was a little surprised, for nothing in our previous conversation had suggested the topic.
"Well," I replied, "I don't like them, if that's what you mean. I was once butted by one as a child."
"Ghosts. Not goats."
"Oh, ghosts? Do I believe in ghosts?"
"Exactly."
Would you believe me if I say that, if we browse through the myriad selection of tales written by P.G. Wodehouse, there is one particular story fit for the Halloween season? Well there is one and it is called the “Honeysuckle Cottage”; a ghost story that is sweet like honey and which will choke you with laughter. Only Wodehouse can exorcise the spookiness factor from a haunted house tale like he has done in this short and fast paced piece of delight.
The protagonist of the story is Mr. James Rodman, an author of breathtaking mystery stories, which are rife with cold-blooded characters and action packed plots. When his aunt Leila J.Pickney – herself a famous author of romantic novels – passes away, she leaves her home, the “Honeysuckle Cottage” to James, with the condition that he should spent at least six months of his time at this beautiful rural cottage.
It was at this cottage, that his aunt, a prolific writer, used to write all her romantic novels – which James, who always believed in writing macho stuff alone, had no regard for and used to contempt – and when James moves in to this cottage, strange things start to happen with his literary perception, his life and his writing. James, who till then never had a heroine figure in his mystery novels, is influenced by the atmosphere of the cottage to include beautiful lady characters into his new novel. Things are further complicated when a beautiful young lady and a dog make their appearance at the cottage one day, leading to some highly romantic ambiance, and everyone who visit the cottage seems to be under a romantic spell, which start to worry James. Since this is a very short story, I will not elaborate on the plot further, but the narrations of the time spent by James at the cottage is really drenched in Wodehousian humor and is charming to read.
Published in 1925, “Honeysuckle Cottage” was originally written as a stand-alone story, but later Wodehouse added it as part of the Mulliner series by presenting the story as narrated by Mr. Mulliner. If a stand-alone copy of this story is not available, then readers can find “Honeysuckle Cottage” in the “Meet Mr. Mulliner” anthology.
Highly recommended for Wodehouse fans and readers who love a quick short refreshing story.
I weighed the question thought-fully. I was a little surprised, for nothing in our previous conversation had suggested the topic.
"Well," I replied, "I don't like them, if that's what you mean. I was once butted by one as a child."
"Ghosts. Not goats."
"Oh, ghosts? Do I believe in ghosts?"
"Exactly."
Would you believe me if I say that, if we browse through the myriad selection of tales written by P.G. Wodehouse, there is one particular story fit for the Halloween season? Well there is one and it is called the “Honeysuckle Cottage”; a ghost story that is sweet like honey and which will choke you with laughter. Only Wodehouse can exorcise the spookiness factor from a haunted house tale like he has done in this short and fast paced piece of delight.
The protagonist of the story is Mr. James Rodman, an author of breathtaking mystery stories, which are rife with cold-blooded characters and action packed plots. When his aunt Leila J.Pickney – herself a famous author of romantic novels – passes away, she leaves her home, the “Honeysuckle Cottage” to James, with the condition that he should spent at least six months of his time at this beautiful rural cottage.
It was at this cottage, that his aunt, a prolific writer, used to write all her romantic novels – which James, who always believed in writing macho stuff alone, had no regard for and used to contempt – and when James moves in to this cottage, strange things start to happen with his literary perception, his life and his writing. James, who till then never had a heroine figure in his mystery novels, is influenced by the atmosphere of the cottage to include beautiful lady characters into his new novel. Things are further complicated when a beautiful young lady and a dog make their appearance at the cottage one day, leading to some highly romantic ambiance, and everyone who visit the cottage seems to be under a romantic spell, which start to worry James. Since this is a very short story, I will not elaborate on the plot further, but the narrations of the time spent by James at the cottage is really drenched in Wodehousian humor and is charming to read.
Published in 1925, “Honeysuckle Cottage” was originally written as a stand-alone story, but later Wodehouse added it as part of the Mulliner series by presenting the story as narrated by Mr. Mulliner. If a stand-alone copy of this story is not available, then readers can find “Honeysuckle Cottage” in the “Meet Mr. Mulliner” anthology.
Highly recommended for Wodehouse fans and readers who love a quick short refreshing story.
September 16, 2023
Honeysuckle Cottage is a short ghost story by P.G. Wodehouse, written in 1925.
Yes, by all means go back and read that sentence again. Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE., creator of the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; ditto of the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; the feeble-minded Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set, and many more familiar and comic characters much beloved by the British public in the early part of the 20th century, has here written a rather effective ghost story. In fact Ludwig Wittgenstein apparently thought Honeysuckle Cottage was the funniest thing he had ever read. (However, as far as philosophers as a breed are concerned, I’m not sure whether or not we should deduce anything concrete about their sense of humour from this.)
Our hero is one James Rodman, a writer of sensational crime fiction, who has inherited a pretty cottage from his aunt Leila. Leila J. Pinckney had also been a writer of some renown, but of a very different type from her nephew: the “Squashily Sentimental” sort James gloomily informs us. It would have been the last thing in his mind to live permanently in the revoltingly named “Honeysuckle Cottage”, but for one catch. His aunt had left him the cottage, plus 5 thousand pounds, but only on condition that he live in the cottage for 6 months out of every year. Should he fail to do this, then he would forfeit the £5000.
What transpires is a ridiculous romp of a story with some of P.G. Wodehouse’s most endearing types: the bluff sergeant major, the doe-eyed girl, the confirmed bachelor, the stiff young fogey … and not forgetting the essential dogs: roguish, disreputable and fierce, or petite, yappy and ridiculous. All are enclosed in a brief frame story so that Honeysuckle Cottage is nominally a story in the “Mr. Mulliner” series. It is also in “Ghostly”, a collection edited by Audrey Niffenegger in 2015, with one of her line drawings to accompany it.
Here is one of my favourite parts of this story, giving just a flavour of the exasperated hero’s continuing complaints:
“She spent her time sitting in a chair of the sun-sprinkled porch, and James had to read to her - and poetry, at that; and not the jolly, wholesome sort of poetry the boys are turning out nowadays either - good honest sort of stuff about sin and gas works and decaying corpses - but the old-fashioned kind with rhymes in it, dealing almost exclusively with love. The weather moreover continued superb. The honeysuckle cast its sweet scent on the gentle breeze; the roses over the path stirred and nodded; the flowers in the garden were lovelier than ever; the birds sang their little throats sore.”
Immensely silly; inimitably P.G. Wodehouse. Read it fast, or read it out loud, and enjoy the fun.
Yes, by all means go back and read that sentence again. Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE., creator of the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; ditto of the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; the feeble-minded Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set, and many more familiar and comic characters much beloved by the British public in the early part of the 20th century, has here written a rather effective ghost story. In fact Ludwig Wittgenstein apparently thought Honeysuckle Cottage was the funniest thing he had ever read. (However, as far as philosophers as a breed are concerned, I’m not sure whether or not we should deduce anything concrete about their sense of humour from this.)
Our hero is one James Rodman, a writer of sensational crime fiction, who has inherited a pretty cottage from his aunt Leila. Leila J. Pinckney had also been a writer of some renown, but of a very different type from her nephew: the “Squashily Sentimental” sort James gloomily informs us. It would have been the last thing in his mind to live permanently in the revoltingly named “Honeysuckle Cottage”, but for one catch. His aunt had left him the cottage, plus 5 thousand pounds, but only on condition that he live in the cottage for 6 months out of every year. Should he fail to do this, then he would forfeit the £5000.
What transpires is a ridiculous romp of a story with some of P.G. Wodehouse’s most endearing types: the bluff sergeant major, the doe-eyed girl, the confirmed bachelor, the stiff young fogey … and not forgetting the essential dogs: roguish, disreputable and fierce, or petite, yappy and ridiculous. All are enclosed in a brief frame story so that Honeysuckle Cottage is nominally a story in the “Mr. Mulliner” series. It is also in “Ghostly”, a collection edited by Audrey Niffenegger in 2015, with one of her line drawings to accompany it.
Here is one of my favourite parts of this story, giving just a flavour of the exasperated hero’s continuing complaints:
“She spent her time sitting in a chair of the sun-sprinkled porch, and James had to read to her - and poetry, at that; and not the jolly, wholesome sort of poetry the boys are turning out nowadays either - good honest sort of stuff about sin and gas works and decaying corpses - but the old-fashioned kind with rhymes in it, dealing almost exclusively with love. The weather moreover continued superb. The honeysuckle cast its sweet scent on the gentle breeze; the roses over the path stirred and nodded; the flowers in the garden were lovelier than ever; the birds sang their little throats sore.”
Immensely silly; inimitably P.G. Wodehouse. Read it fast, or read it out loud, and enjoy the fun.
October 4, 2015
3.5 one can tell by the author's name that this will not be your typical ghost story and it was not. When James inherits Honeysuckle Cottage fro his aunt, a revered author of romances, he is surprised. A confirmed bachelor, writing hard boiled crime fiction he considered his aunt's work, pure drivel. Yet, all who enter this cottage find themselves changed in very humorous ways. Even James who can often see ahead to the change finds himself powerless to resist.
Humorous, just love Woodhouse. Wonderful for those who do not like horror, but want to read a ghost story.
Humorous, just love Woodhouse. Wonderful for those who do not like horror, but want to read a ghost story.
October 24, 2022
Easily one of the most delightful short stories I've ever read.
November 8, 2015
OK, the whole love-and-marriage as the dreaded ball'n'chain for bachelors is a bit passe, as a joke. However, this is still wonderfully written, and yeah, quite funny.
A successful romance novelist passes away - and her will requires that her nephew move into her charming cottage. The nephew is also a writer - but one who churns out ultra-masculine mystery-thrillers, and has nothing but disdain for his aunt's body of work. However, her house may have an insidious effect on his perspective - and his writing.
A successful romance novelist passes away - and her will requires that her nephew move into her charming cottage. The nephew is also a writer - but one who churns out ultra-masculine mystery-thrillers, and has nothing but disdain for his aunt's body of work. However, her house may have an insidious effect on his perspective - and his writing.
December 5, 2015
You can guarantee that, if Wodehouse gets an idea he will turn it on its head and with the ghost story he does just that. William the dog is an absolute gem.
Now without spoiling the plot which is very hard to do this time around, Rodman is a writer who inherits a cottage. Go read it and enjoy a scare.... ;D
Now without spoiling the plot which is very hard to do this time around, Rodman is a writer who inherits a cottage. Go read it and enjoy a scare.... ;D
February 6, 2017
Hahaha... What a story!
This is my second time of reading it but if it's possible, I enjoyed it even more this time. :D
This is my second time of reading it but if it's possible, I enjoyed it even more this time. :D
September 27, 2020
Ghost stories are always about real estate.
November 1, 2020
All Hallows’ Eve. Perfect time to read a ghost story. I was going to go for one of my favourites - M.R. James’s Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad and Wilkie Collins’s A Terribly Strange Bed - when I was reminded of this one. Wodehouse’s story is somewhat different to what you would expect, the author going for humour instead of horror. I giggled a lot, I must admit, imagining this story as a mini play. So funny :0)
October 12, 2015
I liked it immensely not only because i am an unabashed fan of Wodehouse but also coz i dont like romance much. The hero is james who inherit his aunt cottege. His aunt was a very popular romantic writer whereas James is a thriller writer who hates romance and dont include any female character in his novels. So james in a way echoed my thoughts though he is an exterme. Very likeable. And its not a book. Its a short story in Mr mulliner series. So u wil find it there only
August 7, 2020
One of those rare stories that can be enjoyed on both Valentine's Day and Halloween.
October 27, 2021
This was hilarious. P. G. Wodehouse is a gem!
I can recommend this to everyone who wants a short and funny read for Halloween.
I can recommend this to everyone who wants a short and funny read for Halloween.
November 16, 2024
the most wholesome ghost story ever!
March 19, 2015
Honeysuckle Cottage is haunted! By the essence of romance author, Leila Pinckney. When her hard-boiled no-nonsense detective novelist nephew inherits the cottage, she gives him sappy romance cliché fits! They never saw eye to eye genre-wise, you know.
Such a delightful little tale. All y'all bookworms need to read this short story. If you're a genre reader, you'll get a kick out of it. Especially if you've ever read Dame Barbara Cartland (or similar) romances and/or detective/mystery novels. (I've read both because I'm eclectic that way... yay, me!) But if you are firmly entrenched in one genre camp, it's still good for a giggle. And if you are genre shunning book snob? Well, then... you may titter pretentiously.
Such a delightful little tale. All y'all bookworms need to read this short story. If you're a genre reader, you'll get a kick out of it. Especially if you've ever read Dame Barbara Cartland (or similar) romances and/or detective/mystery novels. (I've read both because I'm eclectic that way... yay, me!) But if you are firmly entrenched in one genre camp, it's still good for a giggle. And if you are genre shunning book snob? Well, then... you may titter pretentiously.
January 19, 2015
Previously read this in one of the Mr Mulliner collections. Wodehouse's humorously subversive take on goopy love stories and hard-headed crime novelists is just the right size for a treatment of this sort.
October 31, 2024
So writerly and delightful. 🤓
August 18, 2024
My first P.G. Wodehouse and certainly won't be my last. I laughed out loud several times.
James Rodman, a crime writer with no romantic bone in his body, inherits his aunt's cottage. She was a renowned romance writer, books that James think are tripe. His aunts influence seems to be all over the house even after her death, and James finds himself, in real life, drawn into a typical plot of his aunts books. Will he succumb?? Lol, it was hilarious.
James Rodman, a crime writer with no romantic bone in his body, inherits his aunt's cottage. She was a renowned romance writer, books that James think are tripe. His aunts influence seems to be all over the house even after her death, and James finds himself, in real life, drawn into a typical plot of his aunts books. Will he succumb?? Lol, it was hilarious.
November 14, 2023
I will never again smell the sweet odour of honeysuckle without shuddering.
December 4, 2025
This is my kind of ghost story ✨
I like how Wodehouse pokes fun at two different genres of novelists who take themselves too seriously in a truly riotous way.
I like how Wodehouse pokes fun at two different genres of novelists who take themselves too seriously in a truly riotous way.
September 29, 2025
“'A beautiful girl, that, Rodman,' he said.
'I suppose so,' said James.
'A sweet, beautiful girl. An elfin child.'
'A what?' cried James, starting…
And slowly, like some cloud athwart a summer sky, there crept over James's heart the chill shadow of a nameless fear.”
(1925) Wodehouse does a haunted house story, which turns into a metafictional spoof of that ultimate horror—romance novels. What more can you ask for?
According to Wikipedia, the story was one of Wodehouse’s personal favorites. I can see why. It is really funny, and creative.
___________________
More quotes:
“James had to read to her—and poetry, at that; and not the jolly, wholesome sort of poetry the boys are turning out nowadays, either—good, honest stuff about sin and gas-works and decaying corpses.”
“…but if, as happens to the best of us, he ever were compelled to perform the wedding glide, he had always hoped it would be with some lady golf champion who would help him with his putting, and thus, by bringing his handicap down a notch or two, enable him to save something from the wreck…”
“‘Then go to her, my boy. Later on you may have something to tell me. You will find me in the strawberry beds.'” [I just thought it was funny how this character keeps hiding himself in different parts of the garden].
'I suppose so,' said James.
'A sweet, beautiful girl. An elfin child.'
'A what?' cried James, starting…
And slowly, like some cloud athwart a summer sky, there crept over James's heart the chill shadow of a nameless fear.”
(1925) Wodehouse does a haunted house story, which turns into a metafictional spoof of that ultimate horror—romance novels. What more can you ask for?
According to Wikipedia, the story was one of Wodehouse’s personal favorites. I can see why. It is really funny, and creative.
___________________
More quotes:
“James had to read to her—and poetry, at that; and not the jolly, wholesome sort of poetry the boys are turning out nowadays, either—good, honest stuff about sin and gas-works and decaying corpses.”
“…but if, as happens to the best of us, he ever were compelled to perform the wedding glide, he had always hoped it would be with some lady golf champion who would help him with his putting, and thus, by bringing his handicap down a notch or two, enable him to save something from the wreck…”
“‘Then go to her, my boy. Later on you may have something to tell me. You will find me in the strawberry beds.'” [I just thought it was funny how this character keeps hiding himself in different parts of the garden].
November 6, 2023
a cute little ghost story
February 8, 2015
This was my first introduction to Wodehouse and I absolutely loved it! A short story, it manages to encapsulate the mood of the piece spectacularly, and the whole story was incredibly easy to visualize when reading.
The concept of a house being haunted by an author's influence was both intriguing and hilarious. One can't help feeling that Wodehouse's purpose for this story is to mock popular society and the popular trashy love stories which the main character so detests - which makes it even funnier when he unwillingly gets drawn into a love story of such tripe, and fights exhaustively to relieve himself of this fiction-turned-reality.
Absolutely fantastic! I look forward to reading more Wodehouse..
The concept of a house being haunted by an author's influence was both intriguing and hilarious. One can't help feeling that Wodehouse's purpose for this story is to mock popular society and the popular trashy love stories which the main character so detests - which makes it even funnier when he unwillingly gets drawn into a love story of such tripe, and fights exhaustively to relieve himself of this fiction-turned-reality.
Absolutely fantastic! I look forward to reading more Wodehouse..
December 31, 2021
This showed up in a collection of ghost stories that I am reading, and I absolutely adored it.
May 18, 2025
This is a ghost story but not a scary one. There aren't even any ghosts, just a house with a magic ability to make thriller writers write sappy love stories and fall in love in romantic settings—all while kicking and screaming.
It started out great, but I'm not sure Wodehouse knew where to go with it. He seemed to have written himself into a conundrum and instead of figuring it out, well, he doesn't figure it out. So the ending is a bit of a puzzle. I didn't feel that the main character, whose name I've already forgotten, learned anything or was changed at all, which I thought was the point. So I don't know. Before I read this I wondered why this one isn't more popular, but now I get it.
It started out great, but I'm not sure Wodehouse knew where to go with it. He seemed to have written himself into a conundrum and instead of figuring it out, well, he doesn't figure it out. So the ending is a bit of a puzzle. I didn't feel that the main character, whose name I've already forgotten, learned anything or was changed at all, which I thought was the point. So I don't know. Before I read this I wondered why this one isn't more popular, but now I get it.
September 14, 2023
Ha ha !
Another awesome one from the great P.G. Wodehouse. What a treasure this man was… misogynistic, perhaps, but honestly with writing this witty, who cares? Wodehouse is the well-heeled bachelor’s advocate. He absolutely excels in crafting the plight of the single guy loving the solitary life til a pretty young thing walks into the room. Ha !
In this lifetime or the next, these men will be wrapped around the finger of every woman.
Gentlemen, you have been warned.
All ye Woosters out there, beware !!!
:)
Another awesome one from the great P.G. Wodehouse. What a treasure this man was… misogynistic, perhaps, but honestly with writing this witty, who cares? Wodehouse is the well-heeled bachelor’s advocate. He absolutely excels in crafting the plight of the single guy loving the solitary life til a pretty young thing walks into the room. Ha !
In this lifetime or the next, these men will be wrapped around the finger of every woman.
Gentlemen, you have been warned.
All ye Woosters out there, beware !!!
:)
December 28, 2023
I listened to this book in audio format, and the narrator's voice was just perfect. It's a story about a horror writer who inherits his aunt's cottage. His aunt was a romance author and even beyond the grave has plans for her nephew to soften up a bit more and not just focus on the ultra-masculine horror stories that he writes.
April 13, 2023
Very sharp and funny, but the misogyny and classism of the characters annoys me more than they did in the Jeeves and Wooster stories - presumably because there isn’t a living example of quite how wrong they are regarding the classism at least driving the story.
May 21, 2023
Reminder; this is the man who created Jeeves.
What an experience this book was. Apparently he found the book hilarious. An odd comment on a suspense literature to be sure.
"Goats not ghosts!"
Definitely not a scary story but a short and very interesting story by this author. I didn't really dislike it but I didn't really feel any intense feelings for it either. I took was an eggshell in a maelstrom like other people who read and experienced Wodehouse's writing.
3.5 stars.
What an experience this book was. Apparently he found the book hilarious. An odd comment on a suspense literature to be sure.
"Goats not ghosts!"
Definitely not a scary story but a short and very interesting story by this author. I didn't really dislike it but I didn't really feel any intense feelings for it either. I took was an eggshell in a maelstrom like other people who read and experienced Wodehouse's writing.
3.5 stars.
November 1, 2023
I listened to this story on YouTube (Classic Ghost Stories Podcast - Tony Walker) about a week ago and found it so funny that I listened to it again. I haven't read any Wodehouse in five years, which is far too long. I thoroughly enjoy his sense of humor and loved how he applied it to the ghost / haunted house story to create a unique house of horrors.
January 7, 2024
Was refreshing, peaceful and kind.
However I was not a big fan myself, which surprised me as I love the English humour, the countryside and cozy stories. Maybe just was not in the mood for this kind of book at the moment...
However I was not a big fan myself, which surprised me as I love the English humour, the countryside and cozy stories. Maybe just was not in the mood for this kind of book at the moment...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews