Doctor Sally

by P.G. Wodehouse

When Bill Bannister meets Dr Sally Smith, love blossoms immediately. Unfortunately there is just the small problem of Lottie Higginbotham, former actress, serial bride and human fireball, with whom Bill is already involved.The well-meaning interference of Bill's old friend, Squiffy Tidmouth, once married to Lottie, only complicates matters further, until everything is straightened out in a series of comic encounters at Bill's ancestral home and everyone lives happily ever after.

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

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 1932

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

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely amusing novella. Short but sweet. Bill, Lottie, Dr Sally, Lord Emworth and the aged uncle Hugh. Misunderstandings, farce and a few chuckles along the way. I liked the introduction where Sally lands the golf ball a few feet from the hole to Hugh’s amazement.

Wodehouse always makes me smile. Of course a happy ending thanks to Bill’s knowledge of milking apparatus was needed to convince Sally he was not a wastrel and idler.

[Srivalli (Semi-Hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s love at first sight for Bill Bannister when he sees Doctor Sally Smith on the links. Of course, there’s a tiny complication of Bill being sort of engaged to Lottie Higginbotham. It shouldn’t be hard to break a sort-of engagement, except that Lottie is a firebrand with a flair for drama.

Thankfully, Squiffy Tidmouth, Bill’s old buddy and Lottie’s former husband, decides to help Bill. After all, the man is on a break after his fourth wife divorced him, and maybe he still has a thing or two for Lottie.

But Sir Hugo, Bill’s uncle, is determined to keep Bill away from the ‘flashy woman’ and thinks of a brilliant psychological approach to show Bill that his choice of bride is wrong. What follows is mayhem and threats of murder until things get resolved, and everyone has their happy ever after (until things go wrong again).

I love Wodehouse’s books and his effortless humor. There isn’t a book without a bundle of confusions and men falling in and out of love (windows, cars… you get the drift). This is a short book (just 128 pages) and doesn’t have an elaborate plot. It’s fairly simple, though enjoyable.

However, I wouldn’t recommend this book as your first Wodehouse read. Nope. This is pretty average with a few chuckles and a rather annoying scene where our Bill threatens the heroine with physical violence. Fans of Wodehouse, pick this up only if you haven’t got any better of his (which I’m sure you do).

Doctor Sally is a one-time read that gives a teeny glimpse of the author’s writing style but doesn’t do justice to it.

[Nigeyb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes one P.G. Wodehouse is just not enough. Having finished, and thoroughly enjoyed, A Pelican at Blandings (1969) I moved straight on to Doctor Sally (1932).

Doctor Sally is a mere 130 pages and is a slight tale. It's not up to the dizzy heights of much of P.G. Wodehouse's work but it is still a charming and diverting read.

The book opens with the arrival of a golf ball on the green at the 18th hole at Bingley-on-Sea after a mere two strokes. The expert golf player is the eponymous Dr Sally Smith, a beautiful physician. Bill Bannister is soon in love, despite already being embroiled with Lottie Higginbotham. Needless to say after some customary Wodehousian shenanigans, all delivered with wit and humour, the situation is resolved to universal satisfaction.

3/5

[Emmy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick and fun, and Sally is certainly my favourite Wodehouse heroine.

[Julian Worker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superb PG Wodehouse story where aged golfer Sir Hugo Drake falls for the shot-making abilities of a beautiful woman doctor called, you've guessed it, Dr Sally Smith.

The thing is his good-for-nothing nephew Bill Bannister falls for her too, but not for golfing reasons, whilst intending to ask Mrs Higginbotham to marry him.

Mrs Higginbotham was the first of four wives of Lord Tidmouth.

Lord Tidmouth and Bill Bannister are good friends.

To this background, PG Wodehouse writes a near farce of excellent proportions which moves along at a cracking pace.

Dr Sally is none too impressed with Bill Bannister as she regards him a lazy layabout until she finds he knows how to run a dairy farm as well as having an encyclopaedic knowledge of the bacteria found in milk.

Sir Hugo enthuses about Dr Sally's insights into how to grip a golf club and where to place one's weight when putting.

Lord Tidmouth and Mrs Higginbotham also find happiness.

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolute delight to pick up a book, get straight into the storyline with amusing characters and not be able to put the book down until it is finished; it does not happen very often but 'Doctor Sally' is definitely one of those books!

In true PG tradition there are romantic interludes with the usual misunderstandings as the lovesick William Bannister and his pal Lord 'Squiffy' Tidmouth vie for different girls' affections after the former calls in Dr Sally Smith to soothe his aching brow. Meanwhile Squiffy's ex-wife, Lottie, arrives on the scene and the plot thickens as the confusions begins.

After much cross talk and plenty of laugh-out-loud amusing incidents William and Squiffy visit the country home of the former's rich uncle Sir Hugo Drake for a supposed relaxing stay. But the stay turns out to be far from relaxing as, by various unexpected means, Dr Sally and Lottie also arrive at the house. Sir Hugo is (understandably) sucked into the confusion, which just complicates matters, and although each of the protagonists knows what his or her agenda is, jointly nobody is sure of anything.

Ultimately everything gets sorted out, much to Sir Hugo's immense surprise, and relief, and love reigns supreme all round! It is great fun throughout and a book that can easily be read and enjoyed over and over again … still retaining those laugh-out-loud moments.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too short for Wodehouse to work his usual plot shenanigans. The love triangle felt like it was missing a side. Everything resolved itself too easily. However, the narration was still pretty darn good. Maybe not Wodehouse's best, but he still gets in a clever bit of wit here and there.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wonderfully witty Wodehouse!

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A master of comedy whom has no equal.

Need I say more?

[Elsabet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I didn’t think it possible, but I’ve finally met with a book by P G Wodehouse that I do not like. Ah well.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

A fun, quick read.

[☯Emily Ginder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novella about Bill Bannister falling head over heels for an American golfer who also is a doctor. However, Doctor Smith resists Bill because she wants to fall in love with a hard worker and she thinks Bill is a lazy bumbler.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which Wodehouse struggles to marry romance with the American cult of work.

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the synopsis, I almost didn't buy this slim volume, as I thought it could be awful, but my love of Wodehouse won over. The plot, what there is of it, is your usual Wodehousian shenanigans, with Bill Bannister falling in love with a beautiful lady doctor, Dr Sally Smith, with the complication that he's already involved with another woman.

My worry about the tone of the book wasn't eased when it opened with Sir Hugo Drake, a nerve specialist and archetypical "gammon" if ever I saw one, observing a beautiful golf hit (can you tell I don't do sports?). I worried when he found out that this perfect shot wasn't played by an "old chap" but by a woman. But Wodehouse played with my expectations, and Sir Hugo is much more interested in the golf than the person, and compliments her on her abilities and is happy to even take instruction from her.

The nominal "hero" of the book, Bill Bannister, made a much less favourable impression on me, especially towards the end, when he physically threatens Sally, in a scene that really felt out of place for a Wodehouse comedy. The moment quickly passes and isn't really remarked upon again, but it felt unpleasant.

The book isn't really long enough to get into the usual labyrinthine plots and counter-plots of a Wodehouse story, giving it a kind of perfunctory feel - it's only 120 pages, and even taking into account the smaller font size of older books like this edition, it feels particularly slight.

My favourite character was probably Lord "Squiffy" Tidmouth, who feels much more like a traditional Wodehouse character. Rich, swanning around, currently between wives, not burdened with too much in the way of brains, but amiable and loyal. A chap I'd like to have in my corner.

So while most of the book concerns Bill's attempts to get Sally to love him, the cringe I'd feared about the "lady doctor" and the expected sexism never really materialised, thankfully. This was enjoyable enough - it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared (damned by faint praise there), but it's certainly not classic Wodehouse.

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

I snuck in another Wodehouse (as one does). It wasn't his best work, but it was cute. I laughed out loud several times, which is worth something.

"'Well, 'he said, I'm not saying he wasn't right. Bill is a stout fellow—one of the best—but you can't get away from the fact that he insists on spending most of his life in this rather mouldy spot.'
'Is it mouldy?'
'Pretty mouldy, from what I have seen of it. All right if you care for being buried in the country—'
'It's a pretty place. As far as I have seen—from my window.'
'It is pretty,' agreed Lord Tidmouth. 'Very pretty. You might call it picturesque. Have you seen the river?'
'No.'
'It lies at the bottom of the garden. Except during the winter months, when—they tell me—the garden lies at the bottom of the river.'" (107)

[John Frankham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perennial favourite, one of Wodehouse lightest stories, but beautifully written and plotted.

The GR blurb:

‘ When Bill Bannister meets Dr Sally Smith, love blossoms immediately. Unfortunately there is just the small problem of Lottie Higginbotham, former actress, serial bride and human fireball, with whom Bill is already involved.The well-meaning interference of Bill's old friend, Squiffy Tidmouth, once married to Lottie, only complicates matters further, until everything is straightened out in a series of comic encounters at Bill's ancestral home and everyone lives happily ever after.’

[Michael Rumney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Wodehouse outside Jeeves and Wooster I have read. I was pleased to see goodreads included as different covers the one with 2/6 on the cover (showing its age)the one I purchased from an second hand online bookstore.
Like the Jeeves and Wooster books there is a lot of comic dialogue between the characters which results into misunderstandings and farce.
Sally an American doctor who is good at golf is a great character and the question remains throughout this short novel, will Bill Banister mange to get this particular girl?
The book has the usual collection of upper class toffs which populate Wodehouse's mind, but here in Doctor Sally he shows they can be hardworking also, as in the last chapter Sally and Bill discuss the milking of cows. A masterpiece of sharp witty dialogue.

[Derelict Space Sheep · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, frivolous bit of fun. As is his wont, Wodehouse construes love as arising from the drop of a hat, but in this instance the cast of dithering males play out their tangled misunderstandings for a woman of independence and discernment.

[Suzannah Rowntree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incredibly light and fluffy, even for Wodehouse, and rather underdone, but irresistibly adorable. The final pages in particular were great.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Identifiably Wodehouse, with fun and whimsical characters from a different era, and heightened sense of reality which is charming, yet rather dated too. This was probably pretty progressive for it's time.

[Adarsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great. Not funny enough, and the theme is problematic.

[Shrewbie Spitzmaus · Rating 4 out of 5]

7 out of 10... One of Wodehouse's very shortest novels. Liked it quite a bit but definitely not one of Plum's greatest. Some definitely funny moments throughout, though!

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny and entertaining. Hard to believe this was written in 1932

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich uncles, golf, and love at first sight. What's not to love?

[Meena · Rating 5 out of 5]

A standalone Wodehouse, this is the story about Doctor Sally, an excellent golfer, extremely pretty. Sir Hugo, a golfer himself, is very impressed with her and wishes his nephew, Bill Bannister would fall for her instead of the woman currently catching his fancy, a Mrs Lottie Higginbotham. Lottie's ex-husband is a friend of Bill's and is a fun character, averse to good honest work like any respectable man should be.

It's an extremely quick read and like all Wodehouse, brilliantly hilarious.

[Anam Tahir · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book of PG Woodehouse which i've ever read and it took me just a few hours to finish. It was really amazing to read. I found Bill the banister very confused throughout the book! And then his conversation with Dr. Sally! It was so funny! That I fell of my bed many times laughing.Now that I have started liking PG Woodehouse, I would go for more! =D

[Ritika · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure what to make of a Wodehouse book with a rape threat. Other than that a short, fun, insubstantial book, but definitely something most readers can skip.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wodehouse is a new discovery for me and his novels are fun, light, larks with excellent humor and a romping use of the English language.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Generally in life, and specifically in Wodehouse, golfing and cricket-based books act upon me like a Mashie Niblick to the back of the head - I get the distinct urge to lie down and dream improving dreams whenever they are deployed in my vicinity.

That said, Doctor Sally was an enormously positive surprise. It's a standard, but an above-average Wodehouse tale of thwarted romance and the disapproval of older folk at the romantic choices of their younger relatives, with a what-ho, a toodle-pip and even here, somewhat delightfully, a tinkerty-tonk. No, really, it's in there. But what drives the whole thing along in its interest is, somewhat perversely for Wodehouse (who tends to draw women as either hounds of hell, driven bossyboots or simpering bunnikins), the above-average quality of the female characters in this story.

The eponymous Doctor Sally is a no-nonsense General Practitioner from America, with a forthright nature, a London practice, an apparently impressive golf handicap, and no earthly interest in the soppy bean who keeps declaring his undying love for her. Meanwhile Lottie Higginbotham, another centre of romantic interest for a couple of chaps, is relatively self-determining too, though she's rather more in the traditional Wodehouse bossyboots-cum-hellhound mould. There are of course three men in the mainstay of the thing - one who has been going out with Lottie but has now fallen in at least lust with Sally, one who used to be married to Lottie, is bosom pals with the one who has been going out with her, and rediscovers a flame for his ex while breaking the couple up on request, and the uncle of the first chap, who's mortified at the idea of his going out with Lottie, but who beams on the idea of introducing a female GP with a heroic drive off the fairway into the family. Anyhow, Wodehouse gives the characters a stir and enjoyable, brisk romantic mayhem ensues over the course of what is, it's probably important to note, quite a short book, devoid of sudden complications from stage left. The result is a book that bounds along and makes you giggle here and there, but certainly leaves you feeling well-disposed towards it.

It's absolutely true that the conversion of Doctor Sally from hard-headed, reasonable unromantic to heart-pounding would-be wife is fairly rapidly delivered at the end, though there's a certain logic to it even then, as the wannabe-red hot lover is seen increasingly in ways that she can respect, allowing for more primitive passions to make their way to the surface of her mind once that initial barrier is overcome. It's also true that probably nowhere else in literature will you find a woman who gets so entirely 'When Harry met Sally' as Doctor Sally does when she meets a patented milk separating apparatus (I'm not kidding, you can practically hear the gasps and squeaks), but overall, this feels like an enjoyable Wodehouse romp, rather than an overly drawn-out affair, and its tinkerty-tonking characters are pleasingly harmless, rather than gruffly irritable, as they had a tendency to be in some later Wodehouse one-shots. So absolutely, for a quick bit of fun with one of Wodehouse's better female leads, play a round with Doctor Sally.

[Alex Sarll]

I love Wodehouse, but one of the problems with that is a tendency to acquire duplicates because often his titles aren't very helpful (Psmith excepted), and the blurbs are more or less identical. In fact, if I can reliably tell you which book a given title goes with, it's normally a sign that something went wrong, and the mighty machine of English implacability came off the rails. Something Fresh, the first Blandings, with cold weather, gunplay, a monkey; Aunts Aren't Gentlemen, the last Jeeves, with the protest march. Neither a classic. And the same goes for the stand-alones, as here, where I knew straight off that I didn't have the one about a doctor who is – gasp! – female, and – double gasp! – pretty with it. That bit isn't the problem; yes, other characters tend to be surprised or sceptical at first, but in the 1930s, I imagine you would be. There's no suggestion of it being a silly little foible, or that she'll give it up upon marriage; rather, the male lead, Bill, who has fallen for her, is the one who has to convince her that he's not just a useless moneyed flippertigibbet (and given she's in a Wodehouse novel, you can see why she'd be keenly aware of that risk). But with only five main characters, there's not the scope for the capers and misunderstandings to spiral properly; it's noticeably higher on dialogue and lower on description than usual, and when even the leads start complaining about the vaudeville cross-talk, you can sense Wodehouse's own realisation that he's strayed from the path. Worse still, there are scenes which almost seem predicated on understanding how lust works, and hell, one where Bill comes on a bit strong; he apologises quickly, and even nowadays it would barely suffice to get him cancelled, but in Wodehouse it's so unexpected as to feel like Hubert Selby has suddenly seized the typewriter. Oh, and on top of all that, it sits within the worst slice of the Plum pie: the books with golf in. There is joy here too, of course there is, improbable similes and inspired turns of phrase, but unless you're coming near the end of the list, there are dozens of better Wodehouse books to read first.