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School Stories
The Pothunters: 120th Anniversary edition
'What a mad thing to go and do. Jolly sporting, though.'
Suspicion abounds at St Austin's School when two silver trophies, or 'pots', are stolen from the cricket pavilion. Jim Thomson, a talented sportsman who due to an unfortunate series of coincidences could be thought to be the burglar, resolves to clear his name. Featuring a man from Scotland Yard, chases through the woods and an exasperated headmaster, Wodehouse's first novel is a paean to his beloved, idyllic late Victorian schooldays, punctuated by bouts of gentlemanly sport and comic escapades. All the hallmarks of what makes Wodehouse the greatest comic writer of all are in evidence here, in a spiffing read for Wodehouse aficionados and the uninitiated alike.
Suspicion abounds at St Austin's School when two silver trophies, or 'pots', are stolen from the cricket pavilion. Jim Thomson, a talented sportsman who due to an unfortunate series of coincidences could be thought to be the burglar, resolves to clear his name. Featuring a man from Scotland Yard, chases through the woods and an exasperated headmaster, Wodehouse's first novel is a paean to his beloved, idyllic late Victorian schooldays, punctuated by bouts of gentlemanly sport and comic escapades. All the hallmarks of what makes Wodehouse the greatest comic writer of all are in evidence here, in a spiffing read for Wodehouse aficionados and the uninitiated alike.
162 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1902
89 people are currently reading
585 people want to read
About the author
P.G. Wodehouse
1,700 books6,950 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 126 reviews
November 10, 2019
I love P. G. Wodehouse so, so much. I have never read a Wodehouse novel — and there are dozens upon dozens of those things — and not been enchanted. His use of language, his humour, his sense of place and time; he brings to life a wholly fictional, but wholly delightful, vision of upper class, moneyed life in the early half of the twentieth century, and it is uniformly delightful, and invariably hilarious.
But I had never read this first novel of his, a book written, apparently, for boys of a certain stamp, set in an English boarding school. In fact, though I vaguely knew that was how he had first begun his storied writing career, and I’d read Mike at Wrykyn and Mike and Psmith — both set in public schools, and the latter of which being one of my favourite Wodehouses — it had never occurred to me to search out these early works when I had so many other titles of his to find and devour.
But several years ago, I decided I wanted to read all of Wodehouse’s books in publication order, and so of course I immediately began to collect them, haunting vintage book shops and eBay and Etsy to collect the early titles I didn’t yet own. (Yes, I know about ebooks. But I wanted to own them. Sue me.) But I never read them, not — as is the usual story — because there was just so much else to read, but because I think I was scared. What if I disliked these early attempts by one of my literary idols? Could I cope with the disappointment?
I needn’t have worried.
True, there is a lot here that I had to figure out from context, the slang and assumed knowledge of the time being laid on pretty thick. But this tale of missing trophies from an unguarded school room, the descent of a detective to get to the bottom of the crime, and some stalwart fellows with motive and no alibi but too much honour to be guilty of such a crime, is very fun, occasionally very funny, and shows enough incipient genius that it is easy to see in this early Wodehouse the seeds of matchless wit that would come.
For Wodehouse completists, for sure, but also for those who enjoy school stories and tales of pre-War Britain in all its feudal glory–which, of course, we egalitarians are happy to see gone, but somehow still miss.
But I had never read this first novel of his, a book written, apparently, for boys of a certain stamp, set in an English boarding school. In fact, though I vaguely knew that was how he had first begun his storied writing career, and I’d read Mike at Wrykyn and Mike and Psmith — both set in public schools, and the latter of which being one of my favourite Wodehouses — it had never occurred to me to search out these early works when I had so many other titles of his to find and devour.
But several years ago, I decided I wanted to read all of Wodehouse’s books in publication order, and so of course I immediately began to collect them, haunting vintage book shops and eBay and Etsy to collect the early titles I didn’t yet own. (Yes, I know about ebooks. But I wanted to own them. Sue me.) But I never read them, not — as is the usual story — because there was just so much else to read, but because I think I was scared. What if I disliked these early attempts by one of my literary idols? Could I cope with the disappointment?
I needn’t have worried.
True, there is a lot here that I had to figure out from context, the slang and assumed knowledge of the time being laid on pretty thick. But this tale of missing trophies from an unguarded school room, the descent of a detective to get to the bottom of the crime, and some stalwart fellows with motive and no alibi but too much honour to be guilty of such a crime, is very fun, occasionally very funny, and shows enough incipient genius that it is easy to see in this early Wodehouse the seeds of matchless wit that would come.
For Wodehouse completists, for sure, but also for those who enjoy school stories and tales of pre-War Britain in all its feudal glory–which, of course, we egalitarians are happy to see gone, but somehow still miss.
October 10, 2013
When Douglas Adams calls you the greatest comic writer ever, that is pretty high praise in my book, and Adams’ high opinion of P.G. Wodehouse led me to take the plunge and try his first novel. Wodehouse was truly prolific, writing nearly 100 books over the course of his seven decade career, but I decided to start from the beginning with his debut, The Pothunters, first published all the way back in 1902.
This book is set at an English boarding school, and is categorized as one of Wodehouse’s “school stories,” but it doesn’t seem quite sure what it wants to be. It is part YA mystery in the Hardy Boys vein, with the main plot revolving around some missing trophies that the students are trying to recover. But at times it drifts into becoming more of a sports story – it reminded me a lot of those baseball novels that American kids devoured in the 1920’s, only featuring boxing and cricket instead. And at other times the story is more overtly comic. Wodehouse doesn’t center the narrative around a single character, but jumps from boy to boy and scene to scene instead.
It certainly feels like a debut novel. But it’s a quick, breezy read, and at times it’s truly funny. For instance, this discussion of an obnoxious teacher’s pet made me laugh out loud (emphasis added):
”'What sort of a chap is he? I hardly know him by sight, even.'
'Should describe him roughly,' said Dallas, 'as a hopeless, forsaken unspeakable worm.'
'Understates it considerably,' remarked Vaughan. 'His manners are patronizing, and his customs beastly.'
'He wears spectacles, and reads Herodotus in the original Greek for pleasure.'”
Other times Wodehouse will be going on about life at public school or a description of some sporting event pretty matter-of-factly, and suddenly drop some one-liner that made me smile:
”When one member of a public school falls out with another member, his politeness in dealing with him becomes so Chesterfieldian, that one cannot help being afraid that he will sustain a strain from which he will never recover.”
“What is life without a water-wagtail's egg? A mere mockery.”
“The most deadly error mortal man can make, with the exception of calling a school a college, is to call a college a school.”
“'It passes out of the realm of the merely impudent,' he said, with a happy recollection of a certain favourite author of his, 'and soars into the boundless empyrean of pure cheek.'”
Good stuff. I hear that his later novels are much better, but even Wodehouse’s earliest work makes for a pretty fun read. 3 stars, recommended.
This book is set at an English boarding school, and is categorized as one of Wodehouse’s “school stories,” but it doesn’t seem quite sure what it wants to be. It is part YA mystery in the Hardy Boys vein, with the main plot revolving around some missing trophies that the students are trying to recover. But at times it drifts into becoming more of a sports story – it reminded me a lot of those baseball novels that American kids devoured in the 1920’s, only featuring boxing and cricket instead. And at other times the story is more overtly comic. Wodehouse doesn’t center the narrative around a single character, but jumps from boy to boy and scene to scene instead.
It certainly feels like a debut novel. But it’s a quick, breezy read, and at times it’s truly funny. For instance, this discussion of an obnoxious teacher’s pet made me laugh out loud (emphasis added):
”'What sort of a chap is he? I hardly know him by sight, even.'
'Should describe him roughly,' said Dallas, 'as a hopeless, forsaken unspeakable worm.'
'Understates it considerably,' remarked Vaughan. 'His manners are patronizing, and his customs beastly.'
'He wears spectacles, and reads Herodotus in the original Greek for pleasure.'”
Other times Wodehouse will be going on about life at public school or a description of some sporting event pretty matter-of-factly, and suddenly drop some one-liner that made me smile:
”When one member of a public school falls out with another member, his politeness in dealing with him becomes so Chesterfieldian, that one cannot help being afraid that he will sustain a strain from which he will never recover.”
“What is life without a water-wagtail's egg? A mere mockery.”
“The most deadly error mortal man can make, with the exception of calling a school a college, is to call a college a school.”
“'It passes out of the realm of the merely impudent,' he said, with a happy recollection of a certain favourite author of his, 'and soars into the boundless empyrean of pure cheek.'”
Good stuff. I hear that his later novels are much better, but even Wodehouse’s earliest work makes for a pretty fun read. 3 stars, recommended.
Read
March 11, 2014Two longish novellas and a series of short stories make up this volume of Wodehouse's school stories, written before he became famous. One can see the master forming his distinctive voice, and working out the brilliant intricacy of his plotting, in delightfully clear prose. Really, one has to read school stories of that period, most written in either lugubrious late Victorian trainloads of subordinate clauses, or the awkwardly purplosity of the cheap magazine story, to realize how extraordinary was Wodehouse's clarity mixed with humor and graceful literary reference.
Most of all, it is evident from the narrative voice how very much he enjoyed writing these stories. He later said that the best time of his life was lived at school. Not for him the angst guilt of "beastliness" or the rah rah of imperial politics. His boys are very much like boys now, with a similar range of interests and pursuits overt and covert, only school sports takes the place of romance; the stories sometimes read so modern it can be startling to note details like lighting candles to get to the dormitory, and the reactions to the very rare motorcar.
Most of all, it is evident from the narrative voice how very much he enjoyed writing these stories. He later said that the best time of his life was lived at school. Not for him the angst guilt of "beastliness" or the rah rah of imperial politics. His boys are very much like boys now, with a similar range of interests and pursuits overt and covert, only school sports takes the place of romance; the stories sometimes read so modern it can be startling to note details like lighting candles to get to the dormitory, and the reactions to the very rare motorcar.
December 15, 2013
This is Wodehouse's first book, a pippin of an idyll of Edwardian public school life, and one that still glows with sunshine and inconsequence, lo these hundred years. More a set of sketches than a proper tale, The Pothunters ostensibly recounts the search for a sackful of school sporting trophies ('pots') that are burgled from the campus of St. Austin's, the first of Wodehouse's fictional boys' schools, each of which seems to exist on the banks of the river time in some changeless pastoral sward of England. While much fun is had lampooning the chase -- "the news continuing to circulate, by the end of morning school it was generally known that a gang of desperadoes, numbering at least a hundred, had taken the Pavilion down, brick by brick, till only the foundations were left standing, and had gone off with every jot and tittle of the unfortunately placed Sports prizes" -- the real business here is conjuring up the old school and idling about its parks and environs, following sundry dayboys and boarders as they gossip about their fellows, print up clandestine newspapers, roam the forbidden woods of a local MP in search of rooks and water-wagtails, fancy themselves detectives, nip out of their dorms after lockup for the rush of the illicit evening air, and generally drift, glide, and amble through 'the six years of unbroken bliss' that Wodehouse later christened his schooldays. A perk for the modern reader is that there is mercifully little of the cricket which will dominate A Prefect's Uncle, The Gold Bat, and ultimately Mike, Wodehouse's favorite among his own books; another is the absence of an Uncle Fred or Psmith to turn the book into a stagy cinematic mishmash of soliloquies and capers, and indeed the lack of any dominant character or fast-tracked plot at all that would distract from the aura of the place. (The resident pleonastic know-it-all is a student named Charteris, whom I actually prefer to Psmith: he doesn't bogart his scenes and is much less artificial.) So innocent is this departed world that I couldn't help delighting in the Rev. Herbert Perceval, headmaster of St. Austin's, who is sincerely scandalized when a visiting amateur photographer asks him if he spends his time off in the village neighboring the school. (Perish the thought!)
Like most of Wodehouse's youthful school stories, The Pothunters has been largely forgotten -- left to collectors, concordists, and the otherwise Plum-drunk, on whose shelves it musts and molders toward its estate sale consummation -- but much of the appeal of the book, at least to me, is in seeing how accomplished a stylist the 20 (!) year old Wodehouse already was. Too many people read this book impatiently, managing half a chapter while wondering when the hell that droll, omniscient butler** is going to show up, but why not take this for what it is, and in the meantime wonder how the narration is already this tight and the dialogue this crisp. The Pothunters obviously doesn't rival, say, the later works of Saki and Waugh for conceit and inspiration, but it shows Wodehouse already surpassing them for clarity and poise with his wonderfully modest and unprepossessing early style; Wodehouse's immediate acclamation, on the strength of just these few serialized school stories, was no caprice.
[** I know Jeeves isn't a butler, I'm just teasing the casual Wodehouse buffs.]
While no one who has read any of Wodehouse's books from the 20's on is going to be amazed by the banter or the turns of phrase found here, it is a treat to see glimpses of the familiar Wodehouse: already in bloom are the Biblical whimsies ("from east and west, and north and south, from Dan even unto Bersheeba, the representatives of the public schools had assembled"), the sullied Shakespeare ("how sweet the moonlight sleeps on yonder haystack"), the forgotten saws ("like somebody's something, it is both grateful and comforting"), and the sighs of put-upon benevolence ("the Head was a man who tried his very hardest to like each and all of his fellow-creatures, but he felt bound to admit that he liked most people a great, a very great, deal better than he liked the gentleman who had just sent in his card"). Another marvel is how few, how neat, and how accordingly welcome the perfunctory narrative jabs are ("Reade was deep in a book, though not so deep as he would have liked the casual observer to fancy him to be") - Wodehouse was a natural. Some of the scenes are similarly excellent: my favorite is the scene in which Roberts, the bored detective sent up from Scotland Yard to investigate the theft, casually amazes the blundersome Mr. Thompson, an unrequited sleuth, who, in the throes of "the detective fever", has taken it upon himself to crack the case ("Mr Thompson had once detected a piece of cribbing, when correcting some Latin proses for the master of the Lower Third, solely by the exercise of his powers of observation, and he had never forgotten it. He burned to add another scalp to his collection, and this Pavilion burglary seemed peculiarly suited to his talents.")
Having said all this, don't make this the first, or even the fifteenth, Wodehouse book that you read: start with the young masterpieces (Carry On Jeeves, Summer Lightning, the revised Love Among the Chickens), work your way through the glory years, and return to the early work when you're smitten with Plum. This isn't a good enough book to recommend to any reader, though it has to be one of the crowning English school stories (oddly enough, I prefer it and a few others to Mike): much of its charm now depends on an acquaintance with Wodehouse and a fondness for Bertie Wooster's schooldays. But if you like Wodehouse, or just the shimmers of a bygone world, this is one for your library list.
Rating (my Goodreads scale): *** - worth reading if you like the author or the period
Rating (my Wodehouse scale): 6/10
Time to read: 90-120 minutes
Like most of Wodehouse's youthful school stories, The Pothunters has been largely forgotten -- left to collectors, concordists, and the otherwise Plum-drunk, on whose shelves it musts and molders toward its estate sale consummation -- but much of the appeal of the book, at least to me, is in seeing how accomplished a stylist the 20 (!) year old Wodehouse already was. Too many people read this book impatiently, managing half a chapter while wondering when the hell that droll, omniscient butler** is going to show up, but why not take this for what it is, and in the meantime wonder how the narration is already this tight and the dialogue this crisp. The Pothunters obviously doesn't rival, say, the later works of Saki and Waugh for conceit and inspiration, but it shows Wodehouse already surpassing them for clarity and poise with his wonderfully modest and unprepossessing early style; Wodehouse's immediate acclamation, on the strength of just these few serialized school stories, was no caprice.
[** I know Jeeves isn't a butler, I'm just teasing the casual Wodehouse buffs.]
While no one who has read any of Wodehouse's books from the 20's on is going to be amazed by the banter or the turns of phrase found here, it is a treat to see glimpses of the familiar Wodehouse: already in bloom are the Biblical whimsies ("from east and west, and north and south, from Dan even unto Bersheeba, the representatives of the public schools had assembled"), the sullied Shakespeare ("how sweet the moonlight sleeps on yonder haystack"), the forgotten saws ("like somebody's something, it is both grateful and comforting"), and the sighs of put-upon benevolence ("the Head was a man who tried his very hardest to like each and all of his fellow-creatures, but he felt bound to admit that he liked most people a great, a very great, deal better than he liked the gentleman who had just sent in his card"). Another marvel is how few, how neat, and how accordingly welcome the perfunctory narrative jabs are ("Reade was deep in a book, though not so deep as he would have liked the casual observer to fancy him to be") - Wodehouse was a natural. Some of the scenes are similarly excellent: my favorite is the scene in which Roberts, the bored detective sent up from Scotland Yard to investigate the theft, casually amazes the blundersome Mr. Thompson, an unrequited sleuth, who, in the throes of "the detective fever", has taken it upon himself to crack the case ("Mr Thompson had once detected a piece of cribbing, when correcting some Latin proses for the master of the Lower Third, solely by the exercise of his powers of observation, and he had never forgotten it. He burned to add another scalp to his collection, and this Pavilion burglary seemed peculiarly suited to his talents.")
Having said all this, don't make this the first, or even the fifteenth, Wodehouse book that you read: start with the young masterpieces (Carry On Jeeves, Summer Lightning, the revised Love Among the Chickens), work your way through the glory years, and return to the early work when you're smitten with Plum. This isn't a good enough book to recommend to any reader, though it has to be one of the crowning English school stories (oddly enough, I prefer it and a few others to Mike): much of its charm now depends on an acquaintance with Wodehouse and a fondness for Bertie Wooster's schooldays. But if you like Wodehouse, or just the shimmers of a bygone world, this is one for your library list.
Rating (my Goodreads scale): *** - worth reading if you like the author or the period
Rating (my Wodehouse scale): 6/10
Time to read: 90-120 minutes
April 6, 2023
Wodehouse's first published book, this one is definitely NOT the place to start if you are wanting to get into Plum's writing; in fact, I would say this is more geared for Wodehouse completists (such as myself). It's a lighthearted short novel about the goings-on at an English public school (the fictional St. Austin's), particularly regarding the theft of two silver sports prizes (aka the "pots"). There are a number of smiles but no real solid laughs in this one (in sharp contrast to Plum's hilarious later works) but it's well written and you can see the development of a comic genius in the works here.
June 30, 2018
Plum’s first. He’d improve. Really improve. Like, a lot.
September 28, 2016
PG Wodehouse was only twenty when his first book, The Pothunters (1902), appeared in the bookshops. Though he seemed destined for a ’Varsity education, upon graduation from Dulwich he reluctantly accepted a minor position at a bank, where he opened mail and filled ledgers. His hopes of higher education had been dashed by his father’s reluctance to support both Plum and his older brother at Oxford at the same time.
His hands may have been in the City, but his heart was still at school. At the end of each day’s work he bolted across the city to his tiny apartment in Chelsea and spent the rest of the night writing about the pranks he reveled in as a student. The Pothunters is just one of many nostalgic tales written by Wodehouse at this time. It tells how the theft of two trophies altered the lives of the young scholar-athletes at St Austin’s, and shows that even a parboiled education can ease some of the disappointment life deals out.
Life at a public school could be savage. Sprains, falls, “tremendous hot shots to the chin,” and “hard half-arm smashes” are the fare of the day at St Austin’s, not only in the boxing ring but in the study rooms and grounds as well. All of Wodehouse's early books have a scene set in the infirmary where one of the main characters has been sent to recoup after having been knocked out of the action. When not bashing one other, the boys revel in blunt psychic trauma, cutting and backbiting, ragging and taunting, and “picking a fellow to pieces” till all that’s left is “a slight discolouration on the study carpet ... coupled with an aroma of fresh gore.” This all leaves the lads lurching under loads of emotional baggage: their feelings typically range from tired, hurt, and worried, to nervous, uneasy, and “a bit bashed.” How does Wodehouse air out all this froustiness?
He gives us Charteris, the banjo plucking, cheeky young editor of The Glow Worm, a clandestine campus newspaper. Charteris is the Ur-Bertie Wooster. Neither athletic nor scholastically engaged, he has nevertheless picked up a confused smattering of witticisms that he scatters across the story’s tense backdrop. “Away with melancholy!” he proclaims as he opens the cakes and cocoa. Milton, Shakespeare, and Ambrose Bierce rest uneasily on the tip of his tongue; his baffling “quotation” of Thucydides (a hopelessly confused mishmash of snips from Ovid, Horace and Vergil) serves as a sly indication of the sorry state of the boy’s grip on the classics. Awkward scholarship aside, it’s Charteris with his nimble wit and his generous efforts to produce a special issue of The Glow Worm that save the day.
And it’s Wodehouse’s ear for spoken language that saves the book.
Not exactly Waugh’s Anthony Blanche, but the beginnings of a real voice nevertheless. Wodehouse is remembered for his comic genius: some of his Jeeves stories have almost sent me into apoplectic fits, I laughed so hard. You won’t run that risk reading his earliest books. These lightly moralized school stories, written for ephemeral publications like The Captain or Public School Magazine, just barely hint at the mayhem that’s to come. In fact, The Pothunters may take more than a little patience to plug through. The story is overloaded with characters, the chronology gets tangled in some clumsy plotting, and general tone is surprisingly rough and tumble. But still, it shows us Wodehouse's technique of vaulting over life’s hurdles with humor. And though parts of the book are so you green you can smell the sap, its schoolboy patois is a presage of very good things to come.
Robert McCrum's Wodehouse: A Life is a very readable biography, and The Pothunters is available free online, through Project Gutenberg, iBooks, Google Books, etc.
His hands may have been in the City, but his heart was still at school. At the end of each day’s work he bolted across the city to his tiny apartment in Chelsea and spent the rest of the night writing about the pranks he reveled in as a student. The Pothunters is just one of many nostalgic tales written by Wodehouse at this time. It tells how the theft of two trophies altered the lives of the young scholar-athletes at St Austin’s, and shows that even a parboiled education can ease some of the disappointment life deals out.
Life at a public school could be savage. Sprains, falls, “tremendous hot shots to the chin,” and “hard half-arm smashes” are the fare of the day at St Austin’s, not only in the boxing ring but in the study rooms and grounds as well. All of Wodehouse's early books have a scene set in the infirmary where one of the main characters has been sent to recoup after having been knocked out of the action. When not bashing one other, the boys revel in blunt psychic trauma, cutting and backbiting, ragging and taunting, and “picking a fellow to pieces” till all that’s left is “a slight discolouration on the study carpet ... coupled with an aroma of fresh gore.” This all leaves the lads lurching under loads of emotional baggage: their feelings typically range from tired, hurt, and worried, to nervous, uneasy, and “a bit bashed.” How does Wodehouse air out all this froustiness?
He gives us Charteris, the banjo plucking, cheeky young editor of The Glow Worm, a clandestine campus newspaper. Charteris is the Ur-Bertie Wooster. Neither athletic nor scholastically engaged, he has nevertheless picked up a confused smattering of witticisms that he scatters across the story’s tense backdrop. “Away with melancholy!” he proclaims as he opens the cakes and cocoa. Milton, Shakespeare, and Ambrose Bierce rest uneasily on the tip of his tongue; his baffling “quotation” of Thucydides (a hopelessly confused mishmash of snips from Ovid, Horace and Vergil) serves as a sly indication of the sorry state of the boy’s grip on the classics. Awkward scholarship aside, it’s Charteris with his nimble wit and his generous efforts to produce a special issue of The Glow Worm that save the day.
And it’s Wodehouse’s ear for spoken language that saves the book.
“And there,” observed Charteris, “there, my young friend, you have touched upon a sore subject. Before you came in I was administering a few wholesome words of censure to the that miserable object on your right. What is a fifth of a second more or less that it should make a man insult his digestion as Welch does? You’ll hardly credit it, but for the last three weeks or more I have been forced to look on a fellow-being refusing pastry and drinking beastly extracts of meat, all for the sake of winning a couple of races. It quite put me off my feed. Cake please. Good robust slice. Thanks.”
Not exactly Waugh’s Anthony Blanche, but the beginnings of a real voice nevertheless. Wodehouse is remembered for his comic genius: some of his Jeeves stories have almost sent me into apoplectic fits, I laughed so hard. You won’t run that risk reading his earliest books. These lightly moralized school stories, written for ephemeral publications like The Captain or Public School Magazine, just barely hint at the mayhem that’s to come. In fact, The Pothunters may take more than a little patience to plug through. The story is overloaded with characters, the chronology gets tangled in some clumsy plotting, and general tone is surprisingly rough and tumble. But still, it shows us Wodehouse's technique of vaulting over life’s hurdles with humor. And though parts of the book are so you green you can smell the sap, its schoolboy patois is a presage of very good things to come.
Robert McCrum's Wodehouse: A Life is a very readable biography, and The Pothunters is available free online, through Project Gutenberg, iBooks, Google Books, etc.
June 24, 2013
I own a different edition, an Indian one from Jaico Publishing with truly preposterous cover art.
When I first encountered Wodehouse's school stories, I was a fan of his Jeeves & Wooster and Blandings novels (as well as of the Mulliner tales), but these books didn't draw me in, largely because of how they all seemed to revolve so much around sports. I still don't care for sports, but now I'm able to enjoy Wodehouse's prose in its nascent stage, already most smooth and well paced and showing some signs of the hilarious descriptions and mangled quotations that would become trademarks of his style.
Less memorable are the characters, all fairly interchangeable schoolboys, all given to a reasonably witty line in patter. By and large Wodehouse's juvenile characters seem more intelligent than his later grown up characters, and it's clear that his real forte was to lie in depicting absurd types rather than intrepid exemplars.
The plot is fully as convoluted as any of his classic novels', although the resolution involves less hilarity. All in all, a fairly conventional sort of school story but shot through with traces of the brilliance to come.
When I first encountered Wodehouse's school stories, I was a fan of his Jeeves & Wooster and Blandings novels (as well as of the Mulliner tales), but these books didn't draw me in, largely because of how they all seemed to revolve so much around sports. I still don't care for sports, but now I'm able to enjoy Wodehouse's prose in its nascent stage, already most smooth and well paced and showing some signs of the hilarious descriptions and mangled quotations that would become trademarks of his style.
Less memorable are the characters, all fairly interchangeable schoolboys, all given to a reasonably witty line in patter. By and large Wodehouse's juvenile characters seem more intelligent than his later grown up characters, and it's clear that his real forte was to lie in depicting absurd types rather than intrepid exemplars.
The plot is fully as convoluted as any of his classic novels', although the resolution involves less hilarity. All in all, a fairly conventional sort of school story but shot through with traces of the brilliance to come.
January 13, 2012
Vintage Wodehouse. But then again, I am very partial to Wodehouse. This is, perhaps, not the first book of Wodehouse you should read, but well worth it if you've tried his other works and liked it.
April 7, 2023
While reading some of the Wodehouse books this year and also based on discussion with friends, I realised that even though I love reading Wodehouse, I haven't read much. I keep reading those few books again and again (latest favourite is Love among the Chickens)
I am going to read more (or all of Wodehouse) this year to remedy that. Starting with his first published novel, The Pothunters.
The Pothunters is classified as school stories (though it is more of a college) where there are students in desperate need of money, Silver trophies (or pots) go missing, student is blamed and there is a plot twist reveal all in the typical style of Wodehouse.
Though there is no Jeeves or blubbering Bertie and is not that humorous and it does get boring and tedious at times, overall the plot is interesting and keeps you engaged.
Since the novel is dated, there are certain terms that you will need to lookup, like "Jellygraph"
I am going to read more (or all of Wodehouse) this year to remedy that. Starting with his first published novel, The Pothunters.
The Pothunters is classified as school stories (though it is more of a college) where there are students in desperate need of money, Silver trophies (or pots) go missing, student is blamed and there is a plot twist reveal all in the typical style of Wodehouse.
Though there is no Jeeves or blubbering Bertie and is not that humorous and it does get boring and tedious at times, overall the plot is interesting and keeps you engaged.
Since the novel is dated, there are certain terms that you will need to lookup, like "Jellygraph"
February 5, 2020
3.5 overall. Some delightful and purely Wodehousian moments, but an awful lot of play-by-play cricket for the average American to work through. Worth a read overall, but not a book I'll likely pick up again until and unless I acquire an understanding of the finer points of what was evidently the author's sport of choice.
January 4, 2025
Certainly not the best Wodehouse and it was a bit slow to start, but I think this is really overshadowed by his later (and better) stuff. By itself, it's a fun little book. Not much more than that, but nothing less either.
Want to read
November 8, 2020
New #LibriVox #audiobook The Pothunters by P. G. Wodehouse https://librivox.org/the-pothunters-b... Still © in Europe, Australia, Canada (d.1975)
December 1, 2021
Three and a half stars.
January 8, 2009
"The Pothunters" was the first book that P. G. Wodehouse had published. It was first published in the U.K. on September 18, 1902, and featured the students and staff of St. Austin's, a school in England. Prior to that, it had appeared as a serial in "Public School Magazine" starting in January of 1902. Wodehouse had published stories about St. Austin's prior to this one, starting with "The Prize Poem" in July of 1901, but this is his first published in book form. Though this book clearly has some of the Wodehouse style, it is lacking in other areas making it primarily of interest as his first book rather than for the story itself.
The story opens with a competition at Aldershot where the best from the nearby schools come to compete. The chapter focuses on Tony Graham, who is representing St. Austin's, and his cousin Allen Thomson who is representing Rugby in the middleweight boxing category. Allen is known to be the superior boxer having won the contest in each of the previous three years, though Allen has an injury and Tony is a good fighter as well. In the finals, Allen is winning easily when Tony hits Allen with a knock-out blow and is the surprise winner. This is one of two key events, the second being covered in chapter two, which drives this story. The second event is a burglary at St. Austin's where a few of the sporting trophies, i.e. pots, from the school Pavilion, which the characters and the reader learn about after the fact. It is these two events, rather than the characters introduced at this point, which are key to the story. The main character ends up being Allen's brother Jim Thomson, who is caught between these events. The boxing match, because Allen had made a hedge bet against himself with his brother, and Jim doesn't have the money to pay it, and the first, because Jim broke into the Pavilion to recover some of his notes to study for a test.
The story passes from character to character throughout the book, but usually returning to Jim or impacting Jim and his problems in some way. Jim has an out to gain the money he needs, as his father has promised him money for each race he wins in the competition at St. Austin's. Jim has already won the half-mile, and if he can just win the mile his money problems will be over, but he has a serious competitor in Drake. Jim's problems grow as well, when he learns that in addition to the pots, some money was taken as well, and it coincidentally turns out to be the same amount that he needed to pay his debt.
Despite its title, there is very little pot-hunting taking place in this book. The students and staff discuss the theft, and Detective Roberts comes from Scotland Yard to investigate, but his investigations are not told within the pages of the book, only the results are presented near the end of the story. Through the majority of the book, it reads like a Wodehouse book, though not a great one. The reader enjoys the characters, though there are too many of them, and the general telling of the story. The last quarter of the book things change, starting with the revelation about who stole the pots. Wodehouse brings in a previously unmentioned person (difficult to believe given the number of characters referred to in the telling of this tale), and following this Wodehouse throws in the disappearance of Jim, which is a mystery created by omission of telling the whole story. These two cheap tricks make a decent but not great book much worse. Wodehouse also fails to really bring everything together the way he learned to do in his later and better works.
This is not the worst Wodehouse I have read, though it is close to it. I would not tell people to avoid it, especially if they are fans of Wodehouse and want to experience his earlier works, but at the same time there are clear reasons why people think of Jeeves and Wooster, Blandings, or Mr. Mulliner when they think of Wodehouse instead of these early school stories.
The story opens with a competition at Aldershot where the best from the nearby schools come to compete. The chapter focuses on Tony Graham, who is representing St. Austin's, and his cousin Allen Thomson who is representing Rugby in the middleweight boxing category. Allen is known to be the superior boxer having won the contest in each of the previous three years, though Allen has an injury and Tony is a good fighter as well. In the finals, Allen is winning easily when Tony hits Allen with a knock-out blow and is the surprise winner. This is one of two key events, the second being covered in chapter two, which drives this story. The second event is a burglary at St. Austin's where a few of the sporting trophies, i.e. pots, from the school Pavilion, which the characters and the reader learn about after the fact. It is these two events, rather than the characters introduced at this point, which are key to the story. The main character ends up being Allen's brother Jim Thomson, who is caught between these events. The boxing match, because Allen had made a hedge bet against himself with his brother, and Jim doesn't have the money to pay it, and the first, because Jim broke into the Pavilion to recover some of his notes to study for a test.
The story passes from character to character throughout the book, but usually returning to Jim or impacting Jim and his problems in some way. Jim has an out to gain the money he needs, as his father has promised him money for each race he wins in the competition at St. Austin's. Jim has already won the half-mile, and if he can just win the mile his money problems will be over, but he has a serious competitor in Drake. Jim's problems grow as well, when he learns that in addition to the pots, some money was taken as well, and it coincidentally turns out to be the same amount that he needed to pay his debt.
Despite its title, there is very little pot-hunting taking place in this book. The students and staff discuss the theft, and Detective Roberts comes from Scotland Yard to investigate, but his investigations are not told within the pages of the book, only the results are presented near the end of the story. Through the majority of the book, it reads like a Wodehouse book, though not a great one. The reader enjoys the characters, though there are too many of them, and the general telling of the story. The last quarter of the book things change, starting with the revelation about who stole the pots. Wodehouse brings in a previously unmentioned person (difficult to believe given the number of characters referred to in the telling of this tale), and following this Wodehouse throws in the disappearance of Jim, which is a mystery created by omission of telling the whole story. These two cheap tricks make a decent but not great book much worse. Wodehouse also fails to really bring everything together the way he learned to do in his later and better works.
This is not the worst Wodehouse I have read, though it is close to it. I would not tell people to avoid it, especially if they are fans of Wodehouse and want to experience his earlier works, but at the same time there are clear reasons why people think of Jeeves and Wooster, Blandings, or Mr. Mulliner when they think of Wodehouse instead of these early school stories.
October 25, 2010
After several books of assigned reading (self-assigned, sure, but assigned none-the-less), I was hardly in the mood for any more academic or serious reads. The endless antidote? Wodehouse. Always Wodehouse.
The Pothunters is, as far as Wikipedia tells me (and really, should I go through all the effort of checking to see if Wikipedia tells the truth? No. If my students don't, why should I?), the first book published by Wodehouse. It shows. Here, his writing style is restrained. Not the confidant narrator that he will excel at later in his career--though that's not to say that his future self doesn't pop out on a occasion. Wodehouse, even at the beginning of his career, knew a humorous turn of the phrase and situation when he stumbled across them. He also shows the glimmers of character eccentricities that he will triumph in later on, but they are, again, only glimmers and grounded in much more of--gasp--reality than his later novels.
The Pothunters is much more focused on the story than other Wodehouse novels. And, as far as stories go, it is still pretty engaging. Right up until the end, I was still highly impressed with the story and interested in its events, wondering how things were going to turn out. Unfortunately, the ending is where it falters. Instead of tying everything together, Wodehouse brings all of the loose ends to their own conclusion, and in a convenient way that is not clever, just a means to bring a story to a quick end.
The writing is still interesting, the characters, Wodehousian, but the end result, marginally, though not completely, disappointing.
The Pothunters is, as far as Wikipedia tells me (and really, should I go through all the effort of checking to see if Wikipedia tells the truth? No. If my students don't, why should I?), the first book published by Wodehouse. It shows. Here, his writing style is restrained. Not the confidant narrator that he will excel at later in his career--though that's not to say that his future self doesn't pop out on a occasion. Wodehouse, even at the beginning of his career, knew a humorous turn of the phrase and situation when he stumbled across them. He also shows the glimmers of character eccentricities that he will triumph in later on, but they are, again, only glimmers and grounded in much more of--gasp--reality than his later novels.
The Pothunters is much more focused on the story than other Wodehouse novels. And, as far as stories go, it is still pretty engaging. Right up until the end, I was still highly impressed with the story and interested in its events, wondering how things were going to turn out. Unfortunately, the ending is where it falters. Instead of tying everything together, Wodehouse brings all of the loose ends to their own conclusion, and in a convenient way that is not clever, just a means to bring a story to a quick end.
The writing is still interesting, the characters, Wodehousian, but the end result, marginally, though not completely, disappointing.
August 21, 2015
Reading this just takes me back to Palin/Jones and "Tomkinson's Schooldays." Oh, and "If" - of course. What with all the sports (boxing, track) and the vocab, it's hard to picture these characters as kids. They sound more like college (oh, sorry, it is "college") - I mean, university students. I don't think it was adequately explained why Plunkett felt obliged to enjoy his crafty pipe-smoke not only out-of-bounds, but on the property of the crankiest anti-trespasser in town. Lovely period piece!
The sports reminded me of my dad, who ran track in high school and wrestled in college. Although his experiences came 20 years later, it was probably pretty similar (making weight, winning favor from the parental units by competing, etc.).
I upgraded the stars from 2 to 3 when I realized that I was so absorbed in the story, I didn't want to stop reading even to drive home for lunch. It occurred to me after I reluctantly mounted my trusty Corolla that I could turn the speech function on and listen to the Kindle mangle the prose. Ha ha! You should hear the program try to render a drawled "We-e-e-e-ell." And where a section was separated by a string of asterixes, it read each one separately! And the Writers' Guild is worried this will supplant a performed audiobook?!
The sports reminded me of my dad, who ran track in high school and wrestled in college. Although his experiences came 20 years later, it was probably pretty similar (making weight, winning favor from the parental units by competing, etc.).
I upgraded the stars from 2 to 3 when I realized that I was so absorbed in the story, I didn't want to stop reading even to drive home for lunch. It occurred to me after I reluctantly mounted my trusty Corolla that I could turn the speech function on and listen to the Kindle mangle the prose. Ha ha! You should hear the program try to render a drawled "We-e-e-e-ell." And where a section was separated by a string of asterixes, it read each one separately! And the Writers' Guild is worried this will supplant a performed audiobook?!
May 17, 2015
Let's get things straight: I love P.G. Wodehouse.
Love him.
But this book, one of his earliest efforts, I think, suffers from being VERY much of its time and place.
In some way all his books are of a time and place - the earlier parts of the century, amongst non-working, moneyed aristocratic twits. But that's a mythical world, anyway, and one that non-brits can wrap their heads around.
The stories in this book are very much dependent on interest in and/or knowledge of british public schools around 1900. Specifically, interest in their sports, 'footer,' which I gather is something more like rugby, and cricket.
Some of the non-sports bits are great, and I have no doubt that a real cricket enthusiast would find the play-by-plays funny, but for me, it got tiresome at certain points (I know, I never thought I'd say that about P.G., either).
Good place to see the starts of his style, not the best place to start a love for Mr. Wodehouse.
Love him.
But this book, one of his earliest efforts, I think, suffers from being VERY much of its time and place.
In some way all his books are of a time and place - the earlier parts of the century, amongst non-working, moneyed aristocratic twits. But that's a mythical world, anyway, and one that non-brits can wrap their heads around.
The stories in this book are very much dependent on interest in and/or knowledge of british public schools around 1900. Specifically, interest in their sports, 'footer,' which I gather is something more like rugby, and cricket.
Some of the non-sports bits are great, and I have no doubt that a real cricket enthusiast would find the play-by-plays funny, but for me, it got tiresome at certain points (I know, I never thought I'd say that about P.G., either).
Good place to see the starts of his style, not the best place to start a love for Mr. Wodehouse.
February 3, 2021
I’m not sure why I decided to read P. G. Wodehouse in his chronological order but here I am. I am not familiar with British boarding schools of any era so some of the slang and conversation/narrative was difficult for me to understand but contextual clues are invaluable at these times and I could figure it out as I went. That and some Wikipedia to make sure I was on the right track! The wide array of characters was hard to follow at first, especially as I was reading this on my phone and unable to flip back and forth to remind myself of who was whom, but they settled into place quite nicely soon enough. All in all a fun read with some ridiculous circumstances and events, but mostly all just a “day in the life” sort of deal. Simple but entertaining.
September 2, 2010
One of Wodehouse's earlier novels that conveys life at an early 20th century British public school (what Americans would know as a boarding school). This one lacks a specific hero, moving around among a range of boys, and includes glimpses into aspects of this cultural experience I have not seem emphasized in some of his other contributions in this genre--the sport of emphasis here is track, the plot device is an unsolved mystery of some trophy cups stolen from the pavilion and how various boys become unintentionally involved in the investigation as suspects or witnesses. Other themes include the hobby of wild egg collecting on outdoor rambles,the process of publishing an anonymous school paper, and collective school federation sports competitions, where school champions vie in track or, most detailed and exciting in this opening section of the book, boxing.
May 6, 2016
Welcome to I am exceptional at sarcastic clapping or I have no respect for a musical group that has to resort to good old rock and roll to get an audience interested
I'm about to upgrade my Blue Alpha superhero costume. After the upgrade, should I call myself Blue Beta or Blue Alpha 2.0?
As Blue Alpha, I've noticed that I can only be stopped with cheap domestic beer and a good divorce lawyer.
When I remove my Blue Alpha costume at the end of the night, I typically say to myself "Another day of being frayed by love and tossed about by contradictory impulses, not knowing what I want yet wanting it all the same" or "Another day, another battle between lawful evil and chaotic neutral."
Both statements are valid.
Blue Up! (My catchphrase.)
I'm about to upgrade my Blue Alpha superhero costume. After the upgrade, should I call myself Blue Beta or Blue Alpha 2.0?
As Blue Alpha, I've noticed that I can only be stopped with cheap domestic beer and a good divorce lawyer.
When I remove my Blue Alpha costume at the end of the night, I typically say to myself "Another day of being frayed by love and tossed about by contradictory impulses, not knowing what I want yet wanting it all the same" or "Another day, another battle between lawful evil and chaotic neutral."
Both statements are valid.
Blue Up! (My catchphrase.)
February 5, 2018
A mildly entertaining story, about the antics of students residing in a British public school. The Sports Day action, the Prefects hanging out in their studies and getting up to all sorts of mischief, the well meaning teachers - I've read all of them before, in countless books that revolve around life in a British public school.
But unlike Tom Brown's School Days, this was too short and had too many actors to make me care about any of the boys. The mystery wasn't very satisfactory either, neither was the resolution of 'The Mutual'-s daily afternoon trips. Overall, just left me unsatisfied.
Not the most terrible of books I've read, but from the creator of Jeeves I anticipated a lot more. Unless you're a die-hard Woodhouse fan, do him a favor and give this book a miss.
But unlike Tom Brown's School Days, this was too short and had too many actors to make me care about any of the boys. The mystery wasn't very satisfactory either, neither was the resolution of 'The Mutual'-s daily afternoon trips. Overall, just left me unsatisfied.
Not the most terrible of books I've read, but from the creator of Jeeves I anticipated a lot more. Unless you're a die-hard Woodhouse fan, do him a favor and give this book a miss.
October 12, 2013
3.5 stars.
I've been intending to read P.G. Wodehouse for yonks; I'd only heard of the Jeeves series, but my store didn't have any, so I decided to start with his earliest novel, "The Pothunters." I was pleased to find it totally entertaining and readable. It took a little bit to get used to the British schoolboy jargon, and I'll admit keeping track of the characters was a bit of a feat, but ultimately it all comes together quite nicely. (I did have to turn to Wikipedia for some of the more dated terms.) If it's true, as I've heard, that his writing only gets better and funnier from here, I'm looking forward to the rest of his work very much.
I've been intending to read P.G. Wodehouse for yonks; I'd only heard of the Jeeves series, but my store didn't have any, so I decided to start with his earliest novel, "The Pothunters." I was pleased to find it totally entertaining and readable. It took a little bit to get used to the British schoolboy jargon, and I'll admit keeping track of the characters was a bit of a feat, but ultimately it all comes together quite nicely. (I did have to turn to Wikipedia for some of the more dated terms.) If it's true, as I've heard, that his writing only gets better and funnier from here, I'm looking forward to the rest of his work very much.
January 30, 2014
'The Pothunters' was Wodehouse's first publication, dating back to 1902.
At times it felt like I was reading a book by the great author that P. G. eventually became, but mostly I felt bored by this tale of college life, featuring various sporting activities, with too many characters.
The absence of female characters, other than the odd cameo, naturally removed any potential love interest that Wodehouse became so good at.
So worth reading to see how this great author got his first footing on the literary ladder, but otherwise I found this novel mildly interesting at times, tedious on the whole.
At times it felt like I was reading a book by the great author that P. G. eventually became, but mostly I felt bored by this tale of college life, featuring various sporting activities, with too many characters.
The absence of female characters, other than the odd cameo, naturally removed any potential love interest that Wodehouse became so good at.
So worth reading to see how this great author got his first footing on the literary ladder, but otherwise I found this novel mildly interesting at times, tedious on the whole.
August 19, 2014
Wodehouse's very first book and like all of his first five or six, of which it is actually one of the better ones, a public school story. A likeable story of stolen sports trophies (the "Pots" of the title) it's only really let down by a remarkably dull ending, in which things are sorted out without any input from the major characters at all! You can see glimpses of the Wodehouse to come in the writing, in fact his later style owes much to the style of the turn of the century public school story.
July 20, 2014
If you went to a British public school, this book may cause you to remember your schooldays with amusement. It´s a different world of course but the beginning chapter is about the funniest piece of school writing the master has written.
The story leaps and jumps, throwing in characters who, in my day, wouldn´t have lasted too long at school due to lack of due diligence. The subjects seem to consist solely of Greek and Latin so perhaps we shouldn´t judge them too harshly.
Morals abound here and in the end, all plays out well to everyone´s advantage. Worth a read!
The story leaps and jumps, throwing in characters who, in my day, wouldn´t have lasted too long at school due to lack of due diligence. The subjects seem to consist solely of Greek and Latin so perhaps we shouldn´t judge them too harshly.
Morals abound here and in the end, all plays out well to everyone´s advantage. Worth a read!
January 6, 2015
I was a little worried, going into this book, that I would be disappointed: authors' oeuvres often fall flat when one reads them after having read their later masterpieces. I needn't have worried, though: while The Pothunters isn't as seamless or polished as Wodehouse's later works, there is still plenty to enjoy (even for those of is who don't understand sports, which take up a good amount of space in the story). The humor and description is stunningly fresh, given that this was written in 1902.
November 5, 2011
Didn't enjoy this one as much as some of the other P. G. Wodehouse school stories. Perhaps because it was his first published book and he wasn't really into his stride as a writer. It didn't hang together as well as his later works, and I never really felt that I cared very much about the characters, perhaps because the point of view chops and changes a fair bit.
Interesting to read about 'jellygraphing' as an early form of duplication though...
Interesting to read about 'jellygraphing' as an early form of duplication though...
May 28, 2015
The first P. G. Wodehouse novel, and very enjoyable. Shorter, around 150 pages, and not quite as sharp as some of his later novels, but good nonetheless. A boy's school story with a minor mystery as the centre piece to the plot. Wodehouse's witty is always clear and witty, and he is very good at portraying mannerisms and class distinctions. It is only within the last two years that I have begun to read Wodehouse, and I look forward to working my through his entire oeuvre.
April 10, 2016
Wodehouse's first published book (really just a compilation of school stories that were previously printed as serialized magazine entries). It's enjoyable enough, with the usual witticisms and Wodehosian characters, but I have to say that the plot runs in fits and starts, the eponymous title plays very little in the story, and the ending is definitely what one would call anticlimactic. But it's Wodehouse. So all is forgiven.
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