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The Small Bachelor
It's America during Prohibition and shy young George Finch is setting out as an artist - without the encumbrance of a shred of talent. George falls in love with Molly, whose imperious stepmother Mrs Waddington insists he's not the man to marry the stepdaughter of one of New York's most fashionable hostesses. Poor George - he doesn't seem to stand a chance.
How George eventually triumphs over the bossy Mrs Waddington makes for a dizzying plot featuring some of Wodehouse's most appealing minor characters - Mullett the butler and his light-fingered girlfriend Fanny, J. Hamilton Beamish, author of the dynamic Beamish Booklets, Officer Garroway the poetic policeman, and Sigsbee H. Waddington, the hen-pecked husband who longs for the wide open spaces of the West.
Oh, and does Prohibition mean there's no booze? In a Wodehouse novel? You'll have to wait and see...
How George eventually triumphs over the bossy Mrs Waddington makes for a dizzying plot featuring some of Wodehouse's most appealing minor characters - Mullett the butler and his light-fingered girlfriend Fanny, J. Hamilton Beamish, author of the dynamic Beamish Booklets, Officer Garroway the poetic policeman, and Sigsbee H. Waddington, the hen-pecked husband who longs for the wide open spaces of the West.
Oh, and does Prohibition mean there's no booze? In a Wodehouse novel? You'll have to wait and see...
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1927
65 people are currently reading
723 people want to read
About the author
P.G. Wodehouse
1,680 books6,928 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 - 30 of 201 reviews
July 7, 2025
Wodehouse tries his hand at writing his style of humor in a New York City setting. You get what you expect, interesting characters interacting in unlikely scenarios that result in chaotic events that don't hurt anyone too badly in the end. I enjoyed this, but it didn't quite reach the heights of his stories featuring Jeeves. With the Jeeves stories, there is always a sense that things work out according to plans (Jeeve's plans), but in this story things work out due to luck and coincidence, so the ending is a little less satisfying than the usual Wodehouse story.
July 1, 2025
Being a huge Wodehouse... addict, I suppose (this marks my 29th book, mainly novels as opposed to short stories)... I've been inclined to explore more of the non-series titles (since I've more or less read all of the series books; or largely the easily available ones). The experience continues to be rather wonderful.
'The Small Bachelor' is a particular case in point. This isn't just a good and satisfying read; a Wodehouse work, almost always, is at least a good and satisfying read. But 'TSB' stands apart (esp. for an earlier work). It's actually splendid!... which is to say, one of P.G.'s above-and-beyond books.
I'm tempted to put it in my Top 10 of Wodehouse faves.
In an unusual turn this time out (I don't recall him doing this before), the author gives us a 2-page preface - to let us know the few reasons why he is particularly fond of 'TSB'. One of those reasons is that he found this novel refreshingly easy to write - which, having now read the book, sort of shocks me.
~ mainly because, to me, the novel seems to be one of Wodehouse's most *involved* constructions (if not obviously so; though, of course, that's where the art of it all enters). And it's hard for me to imagine how something so devilishly intricate could be whipped up with (as the author put it) a sense of ease.
I've never compared Wodehouse's work to mathematics but 'TSB' does seem to reflect a sort of mathematical equation: the absolutely right amount of the right kind of symbiotic characters combined with perfectly selected situations... all of which results in a flawless, farcical concoction. Nothing seems out-of-place or extraneous, nothing seems jarring for lack of equal weight; everything feels in full comic harmony with everything else.
All told, a simply inspired chunk of writing. ~ which could explain why this one came out with relative ease... if we accept that, this time, Wodehouse was thunderstruck in toto.
As is so often the case with Wodehouse, we get characters who deliciously expound:
The plot? Who cares?! It's a big-bunch of blissfully zany types, being directly but quite often indirectly witty, finding themselves in a progressively expanding labyrinth of madcap mishaps. It's one hell of a howl and a hoot!
'The Small Bachelor' is a particular case in point. This isn't just a good and satisfying read; a Wodehouse work, almost always, is at least a good and satisfying read. But 'TSB' stands apart (esp. for an earlier work). It's actually splendid!... which is to say, one of P.G.'s above-and-beyond books.
I'm tempted to put it in my Top 10 of Wodehouse faves.
In an unusual turn this time out (I don't recall him doing this before), the author gives us a 2-page preface - to let us know the few reasons why he is particularly fond of 'TSB'. One of those reasons is that he found this novel refreshingly easy to write - which, having now read the book, sort of shocks me.
~ mainly because, to me, the novel seems to be one of Wodehouse's most *involved* constructions (if not obviously so; though, of course, that's where the art of it all enters). And it's hard for me to imagine how something so devilishly intricate could be whipped up with (as the author put it) a sense of ease.
I've never compared Wodehouse's work to mathematics but 'TSB' does seem to reflect a sort of mathematical equation: the absolutely right amount of the right kind of symbiotic characters combined with perfectly selected situations... all of which results in a flawless, farcical concoction. Nothing seems out-of-place or extraneous, nothing seems jarring for lack of equal weight; everything feels in full comic harmony with everything else.
All told, a simply inspired chunk of writing. ~ which could explain why this one came out with relative ease... if we accept that, this time, Wodehouse was thunderstruck in toto.
As is so often the case with Wodehouse, we get characters who deliciously expound:
"I dislike immensely this modern tendency on the part of young writers to concentrate on corpses and sewers and despair. They should be writing about Love. I tell thee Love is nature's second sun, Garroway, causing a spring of virtues where he shines. All love is sweet, given or returned. Common as light is love, and its familiar voice wearies not ever. True love's the gift which God has given to man alone beneath the heaven. It is not - mark this, Garroway! - it is not fantasy's hot fire, whose wishes soon as granted die. It liveth not in fierce desire, with fierce desire it does not die. It is the secret sympathy, the silver link, the silken tie, which heart to heart and mind to mind in body and in soul can bind."All of that becomes esp. hilarious when you know the know-it-all character who says it. And, of course, for variety's sake, philosophy here can be wildly asymmetrical:
"Marriage is not a process for prolonging the life of love, sir. It merely mummifies its corpse."But, as well, Wodehouse can again garnish with bubbly repartee:
"Can you keep a secret?"A more personal point of satisfaction here is that, while most Wodehouse stories take place in England, 'TSB' is entirely set in New York City - largely Greenwich Village, where I lived for a fair amount of time. (At one point, P.G. even mentions delightful ol' Bleecker Street; it's here among the many spots I could actually visualize.)
"I don't know. I've never tried."
The plot? Who cares?! It's a big-bunch of blissfully zany types, being directly but quite often indirectly witty, finding themselves in a progressively expanding labyrinth of madcap mishaps. It's one hell of a howl and a hoot!
August 11, 2022
After a slowish start The Small Bachelor (1927) just gets better and better. The final section is a P.G. Wodehouse tour de force. The usual formula produces another confection of charm, bon mots, witty word play, and love finally triumphing amidst numerous misunderstandings.
Sprinkled into the narrative are some classic Wodehousian characters: Hamilton Beamish, a proto-self help author and stickler for grammar and linguistic precision, Mr and Mrs Sigsbee H. Waddington, mild mannered George Finch, English aristo Lord Hunstanton, and many more.
In short, another gem.
4/5
What must a man do in order to put an end to his bachelorhood? For George Finch, one of nature's white mice and probably the worst artist ever to put brush to canvas, there are many obstacles. Undoubtedly the greatest is his beloved Molly's fearsome stepmother, Mrs. Waddington, who has her eye on an eligible English lord for a son-in-law. Luckily, George has an ally in sharp-witted Hamilton Beamish, an old family friend of the Waddingtons, not to mention George's butler, Mullett, and his light-fingered girlfriend, Fanny, whose valuable skills are of particular interest to the would-be father-in-law.
Wodehouse is the greatest comic writer ever (Douglas Adams)
Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in (Evelyn Waugh)
Sprinkled into the narrative are some classic Wodehousian characters: Hamilton Beamish, a proto-self help author and stickler for grammar and linguistic precision, Mr and Mrs Sigsbee H. Waddington, mild mannered George Finch, English aristo Lord Hunstanton, and many more.
In short, another gem.
4/5
What must a man do in order to put an end to his bachelorhood? For George Finch, one of nature's white mice and probably the worst artist ever to put brush to canvas, there are many obstacles. Undoubtedly the greatest is his beloved Molly's fearsome stepmother, Mrs. Waddington, who has her eye on an eligible English lord for a son-in-law. Luckily, George has an ally in sharp-witted Hamilton Beamish, an old family friend of the Waddingtons, not to mention George's butler, Mullett, and his light-fingered girlfriend, Fanny, whose valuable skills are of particular interest to the would-be father-in-law.
Wodehouse is the greatest comic writer ever (Douglas Adams)
Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in (Evelyn Waugh)
February 28, 2021
Very funny! One of Wodehouse's better stand-alone books.
July 2018 reread: no change to my opinion
July 2018 reread: no change to my opinion
December 14, 2016
Here is a warning followed by a note,
Don’t you read this tale on a train or a boat;
There will be no one around with whom you can share,
Each bloke will fix you with their perplexed stare.
That’s what happens on a Wodehouse ride,
You will guffaw at each turn and chuckle at each stride!
Characters:
J. Hamilton Beamish is a debonair scholar who is a stickler for proper words used in communication and is a living image of style and grandeur. He has booklets giving advice for everything ranging from poultry farming to poetry! This character was so well defined that I felt he would point out a serious mistake in this sentence, were he to read it! He strongly believes that love is an emotion to be felt only after careful calculation and reasoning.
George Finch is a great friend of Mr. Beamish but is strikingly contrasting in personality. He is mild, docile and has recently fallen in love at first sight with Miss Molly who is a neighbor.
“I class him among Nature’s white mice,” as described by Beamish.
Mullet – A butler / valet for both these gentlemen and a burglar in his past!
“A man with an abhorrent vocabulary,” as described by Beamish.
Sigsbee H Waddington – He is the richest and meekest personality among all the characters. But he literally stands out since he has this eccentric habit of forgetting names.
“He seems to have been kicked by a mule on his head during childhood,” as described by Beamish.
Mrs. Waddington – The second wife of Mr. Waddington, she is a woman of strong personality and dominates everyone in her home and outside as well!
“She has a soul like the underside of a flat stone”, as described by Beamish.
Story: Any work of P.G.Wodehouse has a wafer thin story line made complex by little side plots bound by hilarious dialogs and odd character descriptions. This one is no different. How George Finch manages to gain entry into the family, pursues his lady-love in his own blundering ways and marries her forms the crux of the story.
After reading this book in hard copy, I also listened to the audio version narrated by renowned actor Jonathan Cecil. Exclaiming at the twists, stammering for the weak characters’ dialogs, speaking with eloquence for the stronger ones and providing voice-overs to the vast number of individuals, the narrator has made the listening experience thoroughly enjoyable!
The entire book is filled with quotable quotes, listing a few of them:
Marriage is not a process for prolonging the life of love, sir. It merely mummifies its corpse.
He had that extra four or five inches of neck which disqualifies a man for high honors in the beauty competition
I could make a poet out of far less promising material. I could make a poet out of two sticks and a piece of orange peel.
My Opinion: It has always been a tremendously difficult task to review the works of P.G. Wodehouse. His books pose a big challenge for reviewing due to their complex plots and hilarious misunderstandings among characters. The rich vocabulary usage laced with meticulous similies and laughable yet plausible character descriptions make this dish extremely enjoyable.
Don’t you read this tale on a train or a boat;
There will be no one around with whom you can share,
Each bloke will fix you with their perplexed stare.
That’s what happens on a Wodehouse ride,
You will guffaw at each turn and chuckle at each stride!
Characters:
J. Hamilton Beamish is a debonair scholar who is a stickler for proper words used in communication and is a living image of style and grandeur. He has booklets giving advice for everything ranging from poultry farming to poetry! This character was so well defined that I felt he would point out a serious mistake in this sentence, were he to read it! He strongly believes that love is an emotion to be felt only after careful calculation and reasoning.
George Finch is a great friend of Mr. Beamish but is strikingly contrasting in personality. He is mild, docile and has recently fallen in love at first sight with Miss Molly who is a neighbor.
“I class him among Nature’s white mice,” as described by Beamish.
Mullet – A butler / valet for both these gentlemen and a burglar in his past!
“A man with an abhorrent vocabulary,” as described by Beamish.
Sigsbee H Waddington – He is the richest and meekest personality among all the characters. But he literally stands out since he has this eccentric habit of forgetting names.
“He seems to have been kicked by a mule on his head during childhood,” as described by Beamish.
Mrs. Waddington – The second wife of Mr. Waddington, she is a woman of strong personality and dominates everyone in her home and outside as well!
“She has a soul like the underside of a flat stone”, as described by Beamish.
Story: Any work of P.G.Wodehouse has a wafer thin story line made complex by little side plots bound by hilarious dialogs and odd character descriptions. This one is no different. How George Finch manages to gain entry into the family, pursues his lady-love in his own blundering ways and marries her forms the crux of the story.
After reading this book in hard copy, I also listened to the audio version narrated by renowned actor Jonathan Cecil. Exclaiming at the twists, stammering for the weak characters’ dialogs, speaking with eloquence for the stronger ones and providing voice-overs to the vast number of individuals, the narrator has made the listening experience thoroughly enjoyable!
The entire book is filled with quotable quotes, listing a few of them:
Marriage is not a process for prolonging the life of love, sir. It merely mummifies its corpse.
He had that extra four or five inches of neck which disqualifies a man for high honors in the beauty competition
I could make a poet out of far less promising material. I could make a poet out of two sticks and a piece of orange peel.
My Opinion: It has always been a tremendously difficult task to review the works of P.G. Wodehouse. His books pose a big challenge for reviewing due to their complex plots and hilarious misunderstandings among characters. The rich vocabulary usage laced with meticulous similies and laughable yet plausible character descriptions make this dish extremely enjoyable.
April 14, 2023
These pre-1930s Wodehouses are often hit-or-miss. This one had its good points and the bones of a classic Wodehouse comedy are there, it's just a little weak in the plot and narrative compared with later books. Still a good read, especially if you're already a fan.
November 25, 2013
I didn't enjoy The Small Bachelor as much as the Jeeves book I read, though it did help with the Jeeves book that I could see parallels with Bunter and Lord Peter in Dorothy L. Sayers' books. The humour isn't so great for me when a lot of it revolves around embarrassment and ridiculous situations -- that came off better for me in the Jeeves book than in this one, I think.
Still, it's well-written and entertaining, definitely: I had a pretty high standard set for Wodehouse from the first book of his I read.
Still, it's well-written and entertaining, definitely: I had a pretty high standard set for Wodehouse from the first book of his I read.
May 24, 2018
Turns out I don't really enjoy the Wodehouse stories set in the US that much. There English setting adds a charm that is missing in the NY based stories. It was funny but not the hysterical "how can this all come together" funny that we come to expect from Wodehouse.
July 3, 2022
i mean, it's wodehouse
fun!
fun!
April 12, 2025
"'Hello there, Waddington,' said United Beef.'I turned to Wodehouse—as one does, in a time of need—and was not disappointed. True, the plot is a little shaky at times; but there was enough in it to lift the old spirits.
'Ur,' said Sigsbee Horatio. He did not like the other, who had once refused to lend him money and—what was more—had gone to the mean length of quoting Shakespeare to support his refusal." (178)
June 19, 2019
For some reason, I have never read anything by P G Wodehouse before, and so started with this one on the recommendation of a friend. (Thank you Nancy!)
It was utterly delightful. I love the way that Wodehouse piles one absurdity on top of another, until the reader is almost helpless with laughter. All this, interspersed with sly digs at various individuals and groups. For example:
"It was the sort of day when Tin Pan Alley lyric-writers suddenly realise that 'love' rhymes with 'skies above', and rush off, snorting, to turn out the song hit of a lifetime."
And this:
"He seemed to be deploring the get-rich-quick spirit of the modern girl, who is not content to sit down and wait for her alimony."
By the time we reach the grand climax on the roof of our hero's apartment block, I was putty in Wodehouse's hands. At this point, George was hiding under the bed in his sleeping porch, which had become the hub of quite a lot of action:
"A wave of self-pity flooded over George Finch. Why should he be so ill-used? He asked so little of Life, - merely to be allowed to lie quietly under a bed and inhale fluff: and what happened? Nothing but interruptions. Nothing but boots, boots, boots, boots, marching up and down again, as Kipling has so well put it. Ever since he had found his present hiding-place, the world had seemed to become one grey inferno of footsteps."
Fortunately, it all comes right in the end, and the appropriate people head off to live happily ever after.
Highly recommended.
It was utterly delightful. I love the way that Wodehouse piles one absurdity on top of another, until the reader is almost helpless with laughter. All this, interspersed with sly digs at various individuals and groups. For example:
"It was the sort of day when Tin Pan Alley lyric-writers suddenly realise that 'love' rhymes with 'skies above', and rush off, snorting, to turn out the song hit of a lifetime."
And this:
"He seemed to be deploring the get-rich-quick spirit of the modern girl, who is not content to sit down and wait for her alimony."
By the time we reach the grand climax on the roof of our hero's apartment block, I was putty in Wodehouse's hands. At this point, George was hiding under the bed in his sleeping porch, which had become the hub of quite a lot of action:
"A wave of self-pity flooded over George Finch. Why should he be so ill-used? He asked so little of Life, - merely to be allowed to lie quietly under a bed and inhale fluff: and what happened? Nothing but interruptions. Nothing but boots, boots, boots, boots, marching up and down again, as Kipling has so well put it. Ever since he had found his present hiding-place, the world had seemed to become one grey inferno of footsteps."
Fortunately, it all comes right in the end, and the appropriate people head off to live happily ever after.
Highly recommended.
March 6, 2014
George Finch from Idaho moves to New York and becomes the worst artist the world has ever known.
In Bugsy Malone it was cream buns, here the prohibition is strafed by rapid fire witticisms. Lovely rom-com.
In Bugsy Malone it was cream buns, here the prohibition is strafed by rapid fire witticisms. Lovely rom-com.
May 2, 2021
I have read about 20 books by Wodehouse now, and I think in any one of these tripping, "lite" comedies there is more truth and generosity than most authors ever achieve - even in more "weighty" texts.
September 5, 2023
I believe it was the feminist critic, Jermaine Beer, who argued Plum’s plots move toward marriage in a way that reflects a patriarchal need to restrain female sexuality.
September 26, 2022
Sweet artichokes of Jerusalem! So many funny characters had me in stitches. The best were Mrs Sigsby H Waddington stuck in the apartment building after stealing the soup, first in the dark with a parrot and then with Lord Hunston, "the man with the toothbrush mustache." Oh and how can I forget Hamilton J Beamish with his rubber soles and dumbbells, giving conflicting advice to Constable Garrity on writing poems. I alternately snorted and cackled my way through the audiobook read by Jonathan Cecil.
July 29, 2023
Wodehouse is a genius with words and this book was no exception.
‘If men were dominoes, Sigbee H Waddington would be a double blank.’
Another outrageous scene describes the hero’s vision of himself with the girl he’s trying to woo vs. the reality. Not too many books make me laugh aloud, this one did several times.
The story line not as good as many of the Jeeves/Wooster stories, but we’ll worth the read.
‘If men were dominoes, Sigbee H Waddington would be a double blank.’
Another outrageous scene describes the hero’s vision of himself with the girl he’s trying to woo vs. the reality. Not too many books make me laugh aloud, this one did several times.
The story line not as good as many of the Jeeves/Wooster stories, but we’ll worth the read.
May 23, 2024
An excellent example of Wodehouse at his most hilarious! And that's even though it doesn't have any of his more famous characters. There were many moments when I laughed very much "out loud" and it had a really enjoyable story. Highly recommended!
September 5, 2020
Another ridiculous and hilarious story. Best read by Jonathan Cecil on audio
June 22, 2017
Definitely not the finest work of Wodehouse. The same old formula of situational comedy but lacking the endearing quality that often accompanies his scenes and characters. Even the usual wordplay wasn't that good.
October 1, 2023
First published in 1928, PG Wodehouse’s The Small Bachelor carries all of his silliness but has an off something. Either it is too early for some of his best characters, or it is a rehash of the same. We have versions of Lord Emsworth, Jeeves, Wooster, Psmith almost all of his battle grade aunts and a few characters like Officer Garroway, and Butler Ferris who seem to reappear in other novels. The action takes place in New York, but much of the text struck me as the same Country House England of most of Plummy’s that side of the pond stories. If it matters this is a retelling of his very successful Broadway play Oh Lady, Lady
This is not to say I did not like The Small Bachelor. It is all you want from any PG Wodehouse book. Longer than most but all designed for down time, with the reader’s little grey cells set to low light mode.
The Small Batchlor is a wealthy young man, determined to live as an artist. He picks a sunny roof top apartment in the Bohemian part of New York conveniently located above a bar /restaurant .. sorry Bar ? This is New York in the prohibition. Of course, Plummy adds in a not esp smart police officer, would be poet and the presence of commercial booze will be part of the mayhem we can expect. Our Batchlor, George Finch falls in insta love with Molly Waddington daughter of the very wealth, and not very bright Sigsbee H. Waddington; who is married to and under the thumb of the Mrs, Moly’s step-mother, who is very much a social climber and altogether more like a warship with battle flags flying than a retiring matron.
The Psmith like character is J. Hamilton Beamish, should be solving the many and varied entanglements, that is until he also falls in love. Ther are dueling Butlers and a female criminal and for some reason a ‘titled Englishman’.
An experienced Wodehouse read can pretty much plot out the rest, there will be more physical humor ( someone gets pepper sprayed) and being a longer book, more reversals, but fans are here for the brilliantly unexpected language and the lack of depth. Have fun.
This is not to say I did not like The Small Bachelor. It is all you want from any PG Wodehouse book. Longer than most but all designed for down time, with the reader’s little grey cells set to low light mode.
The Small Batchlor is a wealthy young man, determined to live as an artist. He picks a sunny roof top apartment in the Bohemian part of New York conveniently located above a bar /restaurant .. sorry Bar ? This is New York in the prohibition. Of course, Plummy adds in a not esp smart police officer, would be poet and the presence of commercial booze will be part of the mayhem we can expect. Our Batchlor, George Finch falls in insta love with Molly Waddington daughter of the very wealth, and not very bright Sigsbee H. Waddington; who is married to and under the thumb of the Mrs, Moly’s step-mother, who is very much a social climber and altogether more like a warship with battle flags flying than a retiring matron.
The Psmith like character is J. Hamilton Beamish, should be solving the many and varied entanglements, that is until he also falls in love. Ther are dueling Butlers and a female criminal and for some reason a ‘titled Englishman’.
An experienced Wodehouse read can pretty much plot out the rest, there will be more physical humor ( someone gets pepper sprayed) and being a longer book, more reversals, but fans are here for the brilliantly unexpected language and the lack of depth. Have fun.
October 14, 2018
Good old Wodehouse. This was a fun one, with lots of great wordplay, and hilarious characters. I lost track of how many times I stopped to read sections out loud to my husband. Wodehouse's talent for elaborate exaggeration is one of the things I love most about his writing. Instead of simply stating that George Finch's future mother-in-law was giving him dirty looks at the dinner table, Wodehouse put it this way:
The book is loaded with gems. I think it was originally a musical, and it was fun to imagine the characters bursting into song at different parts.
Not quite as funny as Jeeves and Wooster or Lord Emsworth, but Wodehouse fans won't be sorry they picked it up.
It was the kind of look which Sisera might have surprised in the eye of Jael the wife of Heber, had he chanced to catch it immediately before she began operations with the spike.
The book is loaded with gems. I think it was originally a musical, and it was fun to imagine the characters bursting into song at different parts.
Not quite as funny as Jeeves and Wooster or Lord Emsworth, but Wodehouse fans won't be sorry they picked it up.
February 23, 2020
A witty, silly look at the ridiculous life of New York's elite.
December 26, 2023
…there was always in Mrs. Waddington’s gaze one constant factor—a sort of sick loathing which nothing that he could ever do, George felt, would have the power to allay. It was the kind of look which Sisera might have surprised in the eye of Jael the wife of Heber, had he chanced to catch it immediately before she began operations with the spike.
May 2, 2021
Brimming with The Word Beautiful, but - joyously - not as Beamish would have it.
February 26, 2024
Enjoyed this book! I thought it was going to come to an end a lot sooner than it did but the author kept throwing in more plot twists. 😁
December 21, 2024
Certainly not one of my favorites, but still a very enjoyable read. The plot is layered and interconnected in the usual delightful Wodehouse manner.
July 29, 2021
I didn't expect much from this book when I took it from the shelf, but it was so so much fun reading it! This is the first book that made me laugh out loud in a long while.
April 30, 2020
This was my first P G Wodehouse and now you just can't keep me away. This was a good one to start with.
The misunderstandings and situations that the characters were getting themselves into were (in a nutshell) hilarious! The characters were perfectly drawn. Even if ONE particular character has been changed IDK how it'd have worked out.
Spoiler( oh dash it. It's made canon at the very beginning )--
PS- I found Hamilton Beamish a little refreshing in the midst of the crowd of characters introduced. He valued an ideal since the start and even scolded George for falling in love so easily. Love is supposed to be calculated and planned. Then what do YOU think happens? He falls for the first girl with dreamy eyes and starts having romantic notions. Oh my! Talk about a hypocrite, will ya?
PPS- Let's talk about the character development ( or shall I say a deprivation. Depends on how you wanna do it) of Molly's stepmother. That was just nerves but what the heck. It was funny.
The misunderstandings and situations that the characters were getting themselves into were (in a nutshell) hilarious! The characters were perfectly drawn. Even if ONE particular character has been changed IDK how it'd have worked out.
Spoiler( oh dash it. It's made canon at the very beginning )--
PS- I found Hamilton Beamish a little refreshing in the midst of the crowd of characters introduced. He valued an ideal since the start and even scolded George for falling in love so easily. Love is supposed to be calculated and planned. Then what do YOU think happens? He falls for the first girl with dreamy eyes and starts having romantic notions. Oh my! Talk about a hypocrite, will ya?
PPS- Let's talk about the character development ( or shall I say a deprivation. Depends on how you wanna do it) of Molly's stepmother. That was just nerves but what the heck. It was funny.
September 23, 2025
Wodehouse is a master of the comedy of errors. this was a delightful quick laugh out loud read.
January 8, 2015
Brilliant and classic prime PG Wodehouse. As others have noted, it has no Jeeves or Wooster; but Finch and Ferris, along with Mr and Mrs Sigsbee H. Warrington, lack nothing but the privilege of serial recurrence to equal Bertie and his butler in the power of bringing joy.
Apparently based on a Wodehouse/Bolton musical - that would have been good to see - it certainly has the action and the stage business that origin would suggest, but translated excellently to running prose, as one would expect.
The publishers of the Everyman edition always quote Evelyn Waugh's accurate praise of Wodehouse: "he has made a world for us to live in and delight in". But also like Waugh he has made this world through his distinctive language. Some phrases he loves to use, and it's funny just to see them crop up again: so, the short Mr Waddington, needing to gain altitude by standing on a tub "bumped the tub down and, like a man who rises on stepping-stones of his dead self to higher things, elevated himself upon it." I wonder if there is a Wodehouse concordance somewhere?
Other times he smoothly incorporates 'specialist' language into his narrative for fun: doing his exercises, "Hamilton Beamish... placing his hands on his hips, thumbs back, bent slightly forward from the shoulders - not from the hips." Leading into a stagy gag-dialogue with a policeman, turning on mistaking "loins" for "lions". In Wodehouse's hands you don't groan.
All I can say is: do yourself a favour and read it, or any of Wodehouse's other books (except maybe the very earliest pre-WW1 stuff, for which it helps if you already love him).
Apparently based on a Wodehouse/Bolton musical - that would have been good to see - it certainly has the action and the stage business that origin would suggest, but translated excellently to running prose, as one would expect.
The publishers of the Everyman edition always quote Evelyn Waugh's accurate praise of Wodehouse: "he has made a world for us to live in and delight in". But also like Waugh he has made this world through his distinctive language. Some phrases he loves to use, and it's funny just to see them crop up again: so, the short Mr Waddington, needing to gain altitude by standing on a tub "bumped the tub down and, like a man who rises on stepping-stones of his dead self to higher things, elevated himself upon it." I wonder if there is a Wodehouse concordance somewhere?
Other times he smoothly incorporates 'specialist' language into his narrative for fun: doing his exercises, "Hamilton Beamish... placing his hands on his hips, thumbs back, bent slightly forward from the shoulders - not from the hips." Leading into a stagy gag-dialogue with a policeman, turning on mistaking "loins" for "lions". In Wodehouse's hands you don't groan.
All I can say is: do yourself a favour and read it, or any of Wodehouse's other books (except maybe the very earliest pre-WW1 stuff, for which it helps if you already love him).
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