Plum's Peaches: Women in Wodehouse

by P.G. Wodehouse, Donald R. Bensen (Editor)

Classic Wodehouse stories with a peach in each.

Genres: Humor, Fiction

324 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1991

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

[Stasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious sampling of some of the rambunctious ladies of Wodehouse, and the men who try to save and woo them.

[Lynette · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories are lots of fun. Even though the women are all young in this anthology (with the single exception of Maudie, in "Indian Summer of an Uncle"), one does get a sense of Plum's general view of women overall, and find little about which to complain. I like the variety of the stories, and Plum's Peaches contains one of my favorites, the one about George Mackintosh on the golf course ("The Salvation of George Mackintosh"). Also included is the story where Bertie (mis)quotes the poet Shakespeare to Jeeves: "Exit hurriedly, pursued by a bear," as well as a story told from the point of view of Jeeves, in the first person. ("The Indian Summer of an Uncle" and "Bertie Changes his Mind," respectively.) We also get a glimpse of Bertie in love (with Roberta, that treacherous practical jokester.) A lovely selection of stories by a wonderful author.

[Flynt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Wodehouse short stories anthology by Bensen, with the theme this time being women. My only quibble is placing the Empress of Blandings on the cover when none of her stories are included in the book.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories from other Wodehouse books you've probably read, but entertaining enough to read again.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wodehouse always makes me crack a smile. And more often than not, I find myself at first snickering, and soon chuckling, gaffawing, and belly laughing until the tears pour down my eyes. Whether it's Bertie Wooster, Psmith, or Uncle Fred, these stories are a sure-fire way to make you smile.

I'm more interested in the Bertie and Jeeves stories, myself, dipping my paws into the worlds of Psmith and Uncle Fred when the time is right, but this collection encouraged me to expand my horizons, including stories from series that I have never read before, including the tales of the Oldest Member or Mr. Mulliner.

This is a fun, breezy, and engaging collection.