A Gentleman of Leisure

by P.G. Wodehouse

A full cast of Wodehouse creations—including tyrannical relatives, beastly acquaintances, demon children, and literary fatheads—return for further near catastrophes and sparkling comedy A Gentleman of Leisure is a comic novel dedicated to Douglas Fairbanks—who starred in the film version—and concerns a young man, his love life, and a burglary. Famiiliar Wodehouse characters from both sides of the ocean make appearances. Meanwhile, in Hot Water, J. Wellington Gedge is the man who has everything—but finds himself caught in a series of international events which will, if he doesn't put a stop to it, leave him wearing the sissy uniform of the American ambassador to Paris. Summer Moonshine involves Sir Buckstone Abbott trying to sell what is probably the ugliest home in England, as well as a complicated love quadrangle and Carry On, Jeeves is a collection of stories in which Jeeves take charge and a familiar bevy of individuals appeal to him to solve their problems—and are never disappointed.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Classics, British Literature, Audiobook, Comedy, Romance

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 11, 1910

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

[Nigeyb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Gentleman of Leisure (1910) is an early novel by P.G. Wodehouse and whilst it lacks the effortless sparkle of his best work it's nonetheless very enjoyable and agreeable.

3/5

The action begins with bachelor Jimmy Pitt in New York; having fallen in love on a transatlantic liner, he befriends a small-time burglar and breaks into a police captain's house as a result of a bet.

The cast of characters head to England, and from there on it is a typically Wodehousean romantic story, set at the stately Dreever Castle, overflowing with imposters, detectives, crooks, scheming lovers and conniving aunts.

[Illiterate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reject any literary theory that spurns the pleasures of reading Wodehouse.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another amusing Wodehouse. Jimmy Pitt love for Molly and her corrupt policeman father provide a hilarious story. A bet to burgle, a meeting with Spike a burglar easily fooled led to hijinks.

The move from NY to the English country side where Jimmy woos Molly in between to being mistaken for a thief. This farce is amusing especially the two detectives mistakenly believing they are each thieves. Lots of chortles and laughter await readers of this story.

[Yves S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of Wodehouse to which I do not give five stars. It was good, Wodehouse can't do bad, but the plot and the wit I found to be somewhat weaker than usual.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, I believe, the earliest Wodehouse I have read to date, having been originally published in 1910. My copy purports to reproduce the text of the 1921 edition, but in a quick search I did not find anything documenting possible changes between the 1910 and 1921 editions other than the dedication to Douglas Fairbanks who had played the main character in a stage adaptation.

A Gentleman of Leisure, also published as The Intrusion of Jimmy, features the typical Wodehouse romantic comedy plot, with many of his usual tropes: the unidentified love interest, couples engaged to the wrong partner, mistaken identity, etc. And my special favorite, a burglar. In this case the red-headed "Bowery Boy" Spike Mullins, who was adorable enough that I choose to overlook Wodehouse writing his dialog phonetically, a literary crime at the level of second person point of view.

To the best of my knowledge Wodehouse never commited the crime of second person. Here we have an omniscient third, and I must say I did find myself momentarily confused on occasion when the pov shifted into the mind of a different character.

The main couple here is the generous and all around good guy Jimmy Pitt, who may have led a number of people to believe to believe he is a cracksman after an over eager bet made in the wake of a Raffles like stage play but is actually now living off a sizeable inheritance, and Molly, daughter of a corrupt New York police captain. (The novel starts out in New York, but the bulk of it takes place in England.)

Of course if Jimmy was as generous as he's meant to be here, I can't but think that instead of scolding Spike and ordering him to return the various jewels he's scavaged around the inevitable country house they end up in, he'd have bought a bunch and hidden them about for poor Spike, but I guess you can't have everything.

About halfway through this one, while googling the name of some minor character, I discovered that this novel is an expansion of an earlier novella, The Gem Collector, in which Jimmy is an actual retired jewel thief instead of a pretend one, and now I want to read that. Though if I do, perhaps I'll do a bit of search and replace on Spike's dialog first.

Typically I get a great deal of pleasure out of the prose alone in Wodehouse, his distinctive cadences and turns of phrase making me laugh on their own, above and beyond any of the actual story content. I wasn't really feeling that though here, certainly not in the beginning, which didn't engage me as much as Wodehouse usually does. I couldn't really say if that's down to this being one of his earlier books, the expansion process, my mental state, or some combination there of.

Since I enjoyed it quite a bit once it got going, but I'm not sure I'd read this particular edition again, I'll give it a 4.

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 2 out of 5]

"There are doubtless men so constructed that they can find themselves accepted suitors without any particular whirl of emotion. King Solomon probably belonged to this class, and even Henry VIII must have become a trifle blasé in time. But to the average man the sensations are complex and overwhelming. A certain stunned feeling is perhaps predominant. Blended with this is relief—the relief of a general who has brought a difficult campaign to a successful end, or a member of a forlorn hope who finds that the danger is over and that he is still alive. To this must be added a newly-born sense of magnificence. Our suspicion that we were something rather out of the ordinary run of men is suddenly confirmed. Our bosom heaves with complacency, and the world has nothing more to offer." (187)

I snuck in a Wodehouse novel for some cheer, as one does; but, contrary to the expectation that A Gentleman of Leisure would provide a fair amount of jolly entertainment—based on the very solid ground of past experience—I found little to like as I made my way through this novel. The beginning is certainly bad; the story is a mess, the characters are poorly drawn, and the thing that usually saves it even when Wodehouse isn't on a winner of a story—i.e., the writing—was also nothing to speak of. Eventually, the story becomes a little better, and the ending even includes a bit of fun. But A Gentleman of Leisure still receives the dubious honor of being my least favorite book by Wodehouse to date.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soo good! Another Wodehouse masterpiece! This one involves burglars, detectives, crooked policemen , arranged marriages, and broken engagements. But I don't want to give to much away...

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have very fond memories of Wodehouse's particular blend of humour from my childhood as my parents had quite a few of his books.

His sardonic portrayals of English pre-war characters are fun, his prose very nice indeed and his plots always intricate. His books are flamboyant in an understated kind of way, I know, that description is weird but that is how his stories have always felt to me, reading them.

Now, while he is better known for his Jeeves characters, in this book we follow the fortunes of the independently wealthy Jimmy Pitts, who at the start of the novel is freshly back in America from England. He makes a bet that he is able to break into a house and that leads us to the intricate plot in which he adopts an American housebreaker, breaks into the house of a crooked cop and his beautiful daughter. It is a very fun story that takes us from America to England and into a castle house party. While inherently unlikely it is very enjoyable and the narrator is perfect for it.

Apparently audiobook narrator David Case, who used the alias Frederic Davidson, was very well known and the winner of a 'golden voice' award. He could not have been better for Jimmy, did well for all the English accents and pretty well for Molly. The character of Molly was the only part of this book that I did not thoroughly enjoy, she is a total wet dishcloth, and while the narrators voice brought her more to life than anything else could, I was underwhelmed by her. I suppose all Wodehouse really needed was a pretty, meek, female plot element and she is well enough for that.

Really, it was a lot of fun. It worked well as an audiobook and I would totally search out more by this narrator too!

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable but not one of Wodehouse's best. Mark Nelson did a very good narration in this LibriVox edition.

[Cookie M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A generic Wodehouse novel. The usual stuff happens. There are burglars in this one, gentlemen pretending to be burglars, burglars pretending to be detectives, bumbling aristocrats, girls who must have gotten their brains from their mothers' sides of the family. It probably would have amused me more if it had had a different narrator. Frederick Davidson is not my favorite.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best of Wodehouse's earliest works! Still doesn't hold a candle to his Jeeves & Wooster or Blandings Castle stuff, but this is a-ok.

[Albablume · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun madcap that I highly recommend if you need something to cheer you up and lighten up your day.

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed this several times usually when the newer authors get too gruesome or sexually explicit — PGW's novels add a smile, a deep breath and the distance for better perspective. Narration by Mark Nelson is clear and, often, as enjoyable as the novel itself. Recommended.

Available free as audiobook at Librivox.org

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Gentleman of Leisure is a charming flip of the "Jeeves and Wooster" paradigm-- with the soigné gentleman of leisure having more cunning & common sense than most of those around him, including servants (although gentlemen's gentlemen are rather scare as characters, likely by design).

This book starts a bit more slowly than most Jeeves & Wooster tales, but it crafts an engaging tone & subtly builds its characters, including the rakish yet decent protagonist, Jimmy Pitt.

P.G. Wodehouse does have a milieu and--except for its start in New York City--mines that London swells & spells in country house society for all the expected shiny agates-- and occasionally suspect diamonds-- for all their wry comic value.

A far lesser known Wodehouse, but one still deserving of reader's attention in 2023.

[Alaska Youngren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb. “It was too much happiness. What had he done to deserve this? He felt as a toil-worn lion might feel if some antelope, instead of making his customary B-line for the horizon, were to trod up and insert its head between his jaws.”

[Lizze Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

So nice to enjoy a Wodehouse where the hero is competent.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jimmy Pitt, wealthy English world traveller, bets he can burgle a house that night, and luckily red-headed ragged Spike Mullins (full of Cockney thief cant) sneaks into his flat, and offers the destination of grafting New York Police Captain McEachern. Still dreaming of the first-class dark-haired beauty aboard ship from England, separated by rail from his second class booking, Jimmy is shocked by the sudden appearance of the home-owner's daughter Molly, the very object of his undeclared affection. Jimmy goes free because McEachern does not want Molly to know his connection to known thief Spike, but also without remembering his beloved's name or address. McEachern is really John Forrest, now plump in pocket enough that he returns to his homeland to buy his progeny a peer, preferably her cousin "Spennie", Hildebrand Spencer Poyns de Burgh John Hannasyde Coombe-Crombie, twelfth Earl of Dreever", already enthralled by "Katie, the penniless ripper of the Savoy" p 147.

Like a mystery in reverse, Deever Castle has private investigators employed, one by McEachern as fellow guest, another by owner Sir Thomas as his valet, to guard costly diamond necklace. Whether I read before, or obvious point in context, jewels are imitation visible to Jimmy. Valet locks up other sleuth while Jimmy caught trying to return gems taken by Spike. Jimmy confesses bet, threatens to expose Sir Thomas' miserly deception to nagging greedy wife Lady Julia. So Jimmy and Molly get engaged and Happily Ever After.

Wodehouse style is unique, versatile to situation. "Thash quite shfactory" p 13. "For his ambition was as large as his fist and as aggressive as his jaw" p 21. "The policeman's stare had been of the sort which turns corners, goes upstairs, and pierces walls" p 81.

Question. Weren't Irish immigrants discriminated against in New York at first? TV 1860s New York Copper stars Irish cops and clearly segregates Irish into slum and certain jobs. TV Toronto 1899 Murdoch Mysteries shows prejudice against Catholics. Would Forrester limit his advancement by changing his name to Irish p 22?

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Downloaded from Memoware.com

Jimmy Pitt, a restless young man who has recently come into money, is in love. The problem is, he doesn't know who she is, as he saw her at a distance on the crossing from England to New York. While in attendance at a gentlemans' club, his his brash demeanor gets him involved in a bet - that he can break into a house overnight.

This is just the start of the story - he ends up crossing the ocean again, and a series of coincedences (some might say hijinks) ensue. Love may conquer all - but it needs all the help from Lady Luck it can get.

Originally published in 1910, Wodehouse describes a world and a society long gone; where Jimmy Pitt can, within a matter of hours, get himself invited to a Lord's castle for an indefinite stay with a Brooklyn hoodlum as his valet. The writing is lively, with the characters just this side of unbelievable. As usual, Wodehouse pokes fun at high society, but with a fond understanding of its vagaries. If Wodehouse were alive now, the quality of our situation comedies would be increased at least tenfold, IMHO.

Recommended to anyone interested in humorous literature from the Edwardian period.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun enough, but it might as well have been another Jeeves - who was the only thing missing. There was a fun quote: Inherited wealth, of course, does not make a young man nobler or more admirable, but the young man does not always know this. More 2.5 stars.

[david · Rating 5 out of 5]

this guy is my new bestest friend. and based upon his output it is likely that that this relationship will endure, if only for a while.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book where Wodehouse uses the interactions, similarities and differences between the English and Americans. The main character is Jimmy (see the title), a Englishman of independant means, lots of - freeloafing - friends and more than a bit restless.
It starts with a bet, a burglary where Jimmy catches and befriends the burglar, another burglary where Jimmy gets caught and meets the most corrupt policeman of New York. That turns out the father of the girl that Jimmy fell madly in love with but who he couldn't trace for not even knowing her name. Then the scene moves to a big castle in England where all parties meet again, misunderstanings galore and then on to a Wodehousian end where everybody that deserves it finds happiness.
A bit unexpected is that the author lets the corrupt policemen get away with this and the money he embezzled over the years. Did he have during his stay in the US an encounter with corrupt policemen?
Of course it is funny, well-written, plotlines all coming nicely together at the end, more than agreeable to read and contains a lot of swift dialogues, some play on words, some words and expressions that remind the reader of old times... nothing to be desired for. Still, i personally rank it not amongst the best books of this top-author.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plot to this novel was so familiar to me, but I couldn’t figure out why. I kept reading but there were times that I felt I had read this book before. After a little google search, I found out that this novel is the slightly expounded and fleshed out version of a previous Wodehouse novella “The Gem Collector” which I had already read.
An interesting plot, intriguing characters, and a lighthearted wit make this a pleasant read. One of my favorites from Wodehouse so far.

[Derelict Space Sheep · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early example of the comings-and-goings type novel that Wodehouse would bring to perfection in his Blandings Castle series. While the plot in this instance is a twist or two short, the prose is fresh and the characterisation typically Wodehouseian. Audiobook recommended.

[Martin Such · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the book but there was more talking and not enough action.

[Maya Panika · Rating 4 out of 5]

RTF

[Αγγελική · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure fun, reading Wodehouse always makes one happy as a lark.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standard early Wodehouse, though I do feel that he is starting to come into maturity here. The love story feature some of his usual and fun antics, but it felt a bit lengthy getting there, and a bit rushed at the end (even for a Deus ex Machina ending I felt frazzled).

I prefer Damsel in Distress or Love Among the Chickens if you want a good early Wodehouse romance.

[Xtian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am embarrassed to admit I was turned onto it when Rory Gilmore made a passing reference to Wodehouse on an episode of Gilmore Girls.

This book is hysterical, my first introduction to Wodehouse. Captures the sensibilities of a time really well. can't say enough good things

[Mehrukh Nasim · Rating 3 out of 5]

3·5

[Samyuktha Ell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light read to keep you entertained during coffee breaks