The Smile that Wins:

by P.G. Wodehouse

The Smile that Wins is a short story by the British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse and is a part of the Mr. Mulliner series.

Adrian Mulliner, a private detective, falls in love with Lady Millicent Shipton-Bellinger, the daughter of the fifth Earl of Brangbolton who has a horror of detectives ever since Millecent's Uncle Joe's troubles in 1928. The father insists that Millicent must marry Sir Jasper Addleton, the financier.

Heartbroken, Adrian has a bad attack of dyspepsia and a doctor advises him that the best cure for dyspepsia is to smile. Adrian, who hasn't smiled since he was twelve, has a smile that seems to say 'I know all' and causes a great deal of nervousness amongst people with something to hide.

Genres: Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

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

[Spencer Fancutt]

The Smile that Wins (Mulliner)
Jeeves and the Song of Songs (Jeeves & Wooster)
The Great Sermon Handicap (Jeeves & Wooster)

Not a huge fan of J&W, more of a Blandings man meself, but the premise of The Great Sermon Handicap tickled me. Quality between-books volume from the Arrow series.

[Amena]

this mini collection of short stories provided a much needed reprieve from BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Tai-Nehisi Coates which I finished the other day. The first story is my favourite, about a private detective that has a smile which makes people who have something to hide quite nervous it had me chuckling to myself. The front cover promises that it will "lift your spirits" and it certainly did that.
Recommended light hearted reading!

[Kamil]

Three well-written short stories with a silly, decidedly British sense of humour. An entertaining collection that served as a good introduction to Wodehouse.

[Madhav Thapar]

Wodehouse is always a delight and truly ageless! A marvellous collection of stories guaranteed to cheer you up!

[Felicity]

Classic Wodehouse what! Enjoyed immensely by me. Three short stories, lots of chuckles - well worth a look I’d say!

[Niranjan]

I had quite a few "laugh out loud" moments. A delight to read.

[Stuart Haining]

8/10 2% FPPB. Two more great short stories from the master of comedy writing.

[Martha]

3.5 stars

[Luke Vanderwerff]

Amusing short stories. I enjoyed the Smile that Wins the most of the three.

[Malay]

Effortless chaos, precision timing, and characters who barely survive their own schemes. Wodehouse delivers again.

[Mari]

A chuckle-promising read when in between books or needing a light-hearted reprieve.

[Timothy]

3 stories:

The Smile that Wins (from Mulliner Nights, 1933)
Jeeves and the Song of Songs (from Very Good, Jeeves, 1930)
The Great Sermon Handicap (from The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923)