P.G. Wodehouse Books

I loved the Jeeves & Wooster books so I was sad when I read the last one. Then I decided to move on to other Wodehouse books and have read a few since. I have to say this is one of my favorites! It definitely compares to the hilarity of the Jeeves/Wooster books. Uncle Fred or the Fifth Earl of Ickenham is one of my favorite Wodehouse characters. He always seems to be dragging his nephew Pongo Twistleton (occasionally mentioned as a fellow Drones club member in the Wooster books) into trouble but always seems to get through it as is typical in the Wodehouse books. Anyway, it is a great read, a good laugh, and a lot of fun. On a side note, if you like Wodehouse, the dvd series of Jeeves and Wooster (starring Hugh Laurie from the tv show House) is also very funny. You will see many of your favorite Jeeves story lines in them and they are very true to Wodehouse.

Professors of literature are fond of writing that the three greatest novelists of the twentieth century are Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, and James Joyce. In this, they could hardly be more in error. The only contender for the title of the greatest novelist of the twentieth or any other century is P.G. Wodehouse, farceur supreme, or, in plain English, an extraordinarily funny writer.

Wodehouse wrote novels and stories that can be easily classified into several series: there are the Bertie and Jeeves novels and stories, the Blandings Castle novels and stories, the Mr. Mulliner stories, the Uncle Fred novels, etc. The characters from one series rarely appear in another. This novel is an exception. Uncle Fred appears at Blandings Castle, where he poses as Sir Roderick Glossop, normally seen in the Bertie and Jeeves novels (and one story); indeed, he encounters Sir Roderick while traveling to Blandings Castle. Uncle Fred, properly, Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, is a man who "together with a juvenile waistline, . . . still retained the bright enthusiasms and the fresh, unspoiled outlook of a slightly inebriated undergraduate" at the age of sixty or so. It is he who sets in motion the events that enable young lovers to marry and his nephew Pongo to settle his gambling debts. In general, his role is that normally played by Lord Emsworth's younger brother Galahad.

Of course, any reader of Wodehouse novels knows at the start that things will turn out all right for any sundered hearts or frustrated lovers, as he knows that, any time the efficient Baxter appears, he will be discredited despite being thoroughly correct. The fun is in discovering just how it happens.

And what fun it is. Wodehouse's mastery of the English language is unrivaled. He succeeds in producing prose that not only is enjoyable in its own right but also moves events ahead at a pace that is nigh exhausting. In the Bertie and Jeeves novels and stories, it is Bertie's narration that does this. In this novel, it is the dialogue as much as the narration that moves events ahead, establishes the characters, and gives the reader immense pleasure.

If you have ever read "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White (and if you haven't, then you should be legally prohibited from writing even so much as a thank-you note), then this book, like all Wodehouse books, is a perfect example of how to violate almost every rule in the book.

Consider the following: "The ninth Earl of Emsworth was a man who in times of stress always tended to resemble the Aged Parent in an old-fashioned melodrama when informed that the villain intended to foreclose the mortgage. He wore now a disintegrated air, as if somebody had removed most of his interior organs. You see the same sort of thing in stuffed parrots when the sawdust has leaked out of them."

How's that for failing to "omit needless words"? And how's that for vividly portraying the feeble-minded Lord Emsworth, one of Wodehouse's most memorable of his many memorable and hilarious characters?

The plot here is typical Wodehouse: a few love-stricken young people see their dreams of eternal wedded bliss threatened by either misunderstandings or lack of cash or both, and a young ne'er-do-well has run up some gambling debts, a circumstance which puts him in danger of some painful bone-crushing. Enter Uncle Fred, an aging playboy with a manipulative mind and a sense of adventure. He orchestrates a plan involving a visit to Blandings Castle (the Emsworth estate) which results in everyone living happily ever after.

But, of course, that plot outline is pretty much the plot outline of every Wodehouse novel. What makes it (and every Wodehouse production) a 5-star novel is the delicious phraseology, the preposterous and yet believable characterizations, and the continuous twinkle in the author's eye. You either "get" Wodehouse or you don't. If you don't, then go to a doctor and get it fixed immediately!

This is my very favorite book, and I have been reading it about once a year for the past 15 years or so. I still laugh out loud at every reading. The very complex plot deals with Pongo Twistleton and his Uncle Fred, who visit Blandings Castle as imposters (Sir Roderick Glossip and his secretary, to be exact) in an effort to prevent the Duke of Dunstable from stealing the Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth's prize pig, and to keep him from smashing the drawing room furniture with the fireplace poker. Polly Pott (daughter of private investigator Mustard Pott) is also in attendance, pretending to be Sir Roderick's daughter. The story also involves the Duke's two nephews and their romantic problems: It seems Horace Davenport has hired a private investigator (none other than Mustard Pott) to tail his fiancee Valerie (Pongo's sister) and she has called off the engagement as a result, and Ricky's jealousy of his fiancee's attention to cousin Horace has landed him in the onion soup. Money won and lost at Persian Monarchs, the slipping of mickey's into people's drinks, and a Duke who throws eggs at people who whistle The Bonny Bonny Banks of Lock Lomand outside his window add to the hilarity. Of course, Mr. Wodehouse's unique turn-of-phrase doesn't disappoint in this delightful novel. I recommend this book to anyone who seeks diversion from reality. A must-read.

A complete Wodehouse fanatic, I would have trouble giving less that five stars to anything I have read so far. Uncle Fred is a particularly good one to add to the guest room bookshelf----incredibly funny and nice light reading for a few days away from home.

I love the writing style of P.G. Wodehouse, this is one of my favorites - so funny. It sort of reminds me of a well written Three's Company episode where everyone gets the wrong idea about everyone else. Attention Hollywood: this book would make a great screenplay! You can pay me a finders fee, of course!

Great books unsually start with great 1st sentences, and Luck of the Bodkins doesn't disappoint with this classic Wodehouse gem: "Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French." How can you possibly put a book down that starts like that! And it only gets better.

The eponomous hero Monty Bonkin is also a minor character in the Blandings novel "Heavy Weather. " This book picks up right where we left him at the end of that book making it a sequel of sorts though you defininately do not have to have read "Heavy Weather" first. Set in London, New York and Hollywood this is a great farce, which will keep you laughing to the end. Another great thing about this is that it the longest Wodehouse novel I've come across at 358pgs. so there's more to love.

Most importantly, make sure you pick this novel up (as well as the other Wodehouse books available) in the exquisite Overlook edition -- the beautifully designed, well crafted uniform editions that will last for generations and only cost a couple of bucks more than the mass marke paperback.

I very highly recommend this book. It's very funny and entertaining. I really enjoy all of P.G. Wodehouse's books, and this is one of my favorites. He is truly a genius at writing and entertaining his readers. I'd give it more stars if I could.

There may be no Jeeves or Wooster, but the Luck of the Bodkins shows that P.G. Wodehouse is still able to produce a nigh flawless novel without his two most well-known characters. Wodehouse is at his creative peak with this comic soap opera about several folks on a transatlantic cruise.

The title character is Monty Bodkin who has pursued his erstwhile fiancée Gertrude onto a ship going to New York. A misunderstanding has made her break the engagement, and though it will soon be resolved, more misunderstandings will follow. Also on board is movie studio owner Ivor Llewellyn who is being coerced by his absent wife to smuggle a pearl necklace to the states; he incorrectly thinks Monty is a customs inspector and thus targets him for some bribery. There is also the actress Lotus Blossom, who is engaged to Ambrose Tennyson (cousin of Gertrude); Ambrose is contracted to work for Ivor, and is also jealous of his younger brother Reggie, who is also aboard and once had a fling with Lotus.

In addition to all these characters. there is the ship's steward, Albert Peasemarch, who in certain ways is the anti-Jeeves: he has a seemingly magic way of making any situation worse. If this is beginning to sound complicated, it is, which is why this is one of Wodehouse's longest stories. There's a lot going on, but it all comes together seamlessly.

As always, you don't read Wodehouse for deep looks at the human condition; instead you get light entertainment, which is a nice escape from the weighty issues of real life. Simply put, reading Wodehouse is fun, and the Luck of the Bodkins is Wodehouse at his best.

Great books unsually start with great 1st sentences, and Luck of the Bodkins doesn't disappoint with this classic Wodehouse gem: "Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French." How can you possibly put a book down that starts like that! And it only gets better.

The eponomous hero Monty Bonkin is also a minor character in the Blandings novel "Heavy Weather. " This book picks up right where we left him at the end of that book making it a sequel of sorts though you defininately do not have to have read "Heavy Weather" first. Set in London, New York and Hollywood this is a great farce, which will keep you laughing to the end. Another great thing about this is that it the longest Wodehouse novel I've come across at 358pgs. so there's more to love.

Most importantly, make sure you pick this novel up (as well as the other Wodehouse books available) in the exquisite Overlook edition -- the beautifully designed, well crafted uniform editions that will last for generations and only cost a couple of bucks more than the mass marke paperback.

or a sunny one for that matter. P.G always delivers!! If you haven't read him don't wait!

This is one of the lightest and brightest of the Jeeves and Bertie novels, from 1949, smack dab in the middle of Plum's acquaintanceship with the half wit and his gentleman's gentleman. Other reviewers have capsuled the insane plot admirably; let me add a few happy notes. The author limns a number of his ensemble cast quite handsomely in this book, but one who takes center stage, literally, and steals the show is Bertie's lifelong female friend, now a famous Hollywood star, the beautiful willful handful, Cora "Corky" Pirbright. I am madly in love with this character, and not just because she's a gorgeous celluloid ingénue. Her ferocity of purpose is matched only by the nonchalance with which she pursues it. For instance, the way she gets Gussie to do her bidding would be cruel were it not carried off with such whimsy. Her honest friendship with Bertie, whom she clearly likes, is as refreshing as a spring breeze. Corky is actually kind. She tolerates an endless visit with a matronly fan, only later revealing to Bertie that the woman is the final and interminable authority on Hollywood. "She even knows how many times Artie Shaw has been married, which I bet he couldn't tell you himself. She asked if I had ever married Artie Shaw, and when I said No, seemed to think I was pulling her leg or must have done it without noticing. I tried to explain that when a girl goes to Hollywood she doesn't HAVE to marry Artie Shaw, it's optional..."

As the story's climax approaches, Wodehouse takes the reader inside a small English village amateur show, a benefit for an extraordinarily tired church organ. The account is almost as long as the show; the master really takes his time. The funny thing is: every line. It's a tour de force, and exemplifies why we read PG Wodehouse. Not to rush to the finale, not to find out what happens, but to sit as one sits before a warm clear sunrise, to take in every word and phrase and let it slowly bring its own chuckling light into your heart.

OK, I'll put a sock in it now. By the way, Plum uses that phase in this book just the way we use it today. I wonder if it's his creation.

If there is a master of the feel-good book - one of those novels that elevates your mood every time you read a page - it must be P.G. Wodehouse. Yes, his stories may not be deep, but they are always delightfully entertaining. And nowhere is Wodehouse better than with his incomparable Jeeves and Wooster tales.

These stories are typically narrated by Bertie Wooster, a well-meaning but not-too-bright fellow who tries to enjoy the life of the idle rich. Since he isn't all that sharp, he constantly gets into trouble, which is where his valet Jeeves steps in. In any crisis, the omniscient Jeeves is unflappable.

The Mating Season again puts Bertie in the soup. This time, he is coerced by his fearsome Aunt Agatha into visiting Deverill Hall, a mansion filled with a bunch of elderly aunts; they aren't Bertie's aunts, but Agatha has given him a phobia about all such relations. Bertie's friend, Gussie Fink-Nottle, is also supposed to attend, but an unexpected incarceration spoils that. This threatens Gussie's engagement to Madeline Bassett, and Madeline has made clear that she intends to marry Bertie if ever Gussie doesn't work out. For Bertie, there is only one choice: he goes to Deverill Hall impersonating Gussie.

Complications, of course, ensue. First of all, Gussie gets out of jail early and goes to Deverill Hall impersonating Bertie. Meanwhile, there is a tangle of romances that could still well-endanger Bertie's beloved bachelorhood. Corky Pirbright wants to be with Esmond Haddock, who in turn is wooing his cousin Gertrude (to make Corky jealous) who in turn is in love with Corky's brother, Catsmeat. Gussie falls for Corky, Catsmeat gets mixed up with the maid Queenie who is on the outs with the police constable Dobbs.

This comic soap opera plays out perfectly with Wodehouse's adept plotting and even more adept use of language. The only bad part is it eventually must end. But until that conclusion is reached, there are few reading pleasures quite like a Wodehouse book.

Evelyn Waugh, a tight man with a compliment for his fellow authors, referred to P.G. Wodehouse as the Master, and nowhere are the reasons more apparent than in The Mating Season.

There is never a dull moment as Bertie Wooster impersonates Gussie Fink-Nottle, Claude Cattermole ("Catsmeat") Pirbright impersonates the non-existent Meadowes, to appear at Deverill Hall as Gussie's personal gentleman (Bertie is impersonating Gussie at the time), Gussie impersonates Bertie, with Jeeves in tow, no fewer than four pairs of sundered hearts are re-united, as Bertie once again escapes the matrimonial trap, and Esmond Haddock, the landed proprietor of Deverill Hall, defies his five aunts to marry Claude's sister, the celebrated Hollywood actress Corky. With all this action and imposture, however, Wodehouse's writing is so skillful that the reader, with no effort, keeps the characters and action straight. There is, of course, time for Wodehouse's unexcelled magic with the English language. To put it more briefly, this novel provides one whale of a good time.

Wodehouse wrote dozens of hilarious, wonderfully-written, and intricately-plotted novels. It is high praise indeed to note that The Mating Season would almost certainly rank in the top five in any poll of Wodehouse fans.

P.G. Wodehouse's _The Mating Season_ is very entertaining. Wodehouse's wonderful, comic writing is sure to bring smiles and laughter. _The Mating Season_ is filled with hare-brained schemes plotted by the likes of Bertram Wooster and his chronies, disguises and impostors, and tales of weak-willed men, who quail in the presence of imposing Aunts and fall in love (in swoons) with precisely the wrong young women. And, of course, there is the resolute, unflappable man-servant Jeeves. Jeeves "shimmers" in and out of the book at just the right moments, devising ingenuis solutions to extricate Bertie and his friends from their troubles.

As the other reviewers have noted, the story is intricate with four romantic plots and four characters--Berties, Jeeves, Gussie Fink-Nottle, and "Catsmeat" Pirbright--variously impersonating each other at Deverill Hall, an estate dominated by five Aunts. Bertie, the narrator, helps the reader keep track of the story by explaining to characters how things stand as the plot twists and turns. In the final chapter, Bertie gives the reader a final chart, hilariously assembled, of how Jeeves has managed to sort out "the great web."

There are many wonderful scenes, including one where Jeeves literally plays the "deus ex machina" with a "blunt instrument knowns as a cosh" and another where Bertie, mistaken as a burglar, is nearly shot. There are hilarious, laugh out loud sentences like this description of Rev. Sidney Pirbright: "A tall, drooping man, looking as if he had been stuffed in a hurry by an incompetent taxidermist." Bertie's way of telling the story, peppered with latin phrases and exclamations of "Right Ho!," is always funny.

For readers unfamiliar with Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster characters, I would recommend as a starting point the anthology _The World of Jeeves_, a great collection of Jeeves short stories. These stories introduce all of the major and minor characters, including the unforgetable Aunt Agatha.

About ten years ago, my uncle lent me his copy of the _World of Jeeves_ before a long summer trip abroad. Not only did I enjoy the stories immensely, but my friends loved them, too. Living without TV for a few months, these stories became like episodes of _Seinfeld_ to us. I'm still "borrowing" my uncle's book.

Pigs have wings is one of the best books I have read, because it so funny. The way the characters are many times spaced out and the way they act on their stupidity, mostly the way P.G. Wodehouse makes fun of characters. Pigs have wings, is about competition between two pigs for the fattest pig class. They try to steal each other's pig, and the Empress (the name of the hero's pig) has been the winner of this class for two years in a row. All this is tied with some knotted yet silly love relationships. But the way Wodehouse makes fun of it is so funny that you will laugh untill tears start pouring down.

A great and entertaining read. I highly recommend it. It's one of P.G. Wodehouse's best in my opinion. Life at Blandings castle
is like paradise!

In typical Wodehouse fashion, this is a comical story with many hilarious twists and turns. I found myself laughing aloud in many places. Simply put, if you like Wodehouse and especially the Blandings Castle series, you like this book. It is one of the later "chronicles" of Blandings Castle, but it would be a good read for anyone--even those unfamiliar with Lord Emsworth. This is a great book, and author, for those who enjoy light, comical novels.

P.G. Wodehouse was the 20th century's answer to William Shakespeare reproduced as musical comedy. In Pigs Have Wings, Mr. Wodehouse produced one of his very best efforts.

As usual, the themes involve a satire of romantic love, miscommunications between the sexes, the vapid interests of the titled class, and the silliness of people in general.

As the book opens, Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth finds himself faced with a threat to the supremacy of his pig, Empress of Blandings, in the Fat Pigs class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, Bart, of Matchingham Hall, had already hired away Clarence's pig handler, George Cyril Wellbeloved . . . and Clarence is sure that some new skullduggery will soon follow. As the story develops, we find that it's all too true. Soon both pig camps are doing their best to knobble the other man's pig. With everyone else having a bet on the outcome, many other people are soon engaged in trying to sabotage one pig or the other. It's the most pignapping fun caper you can imagine!

In the background, we have all sorts of people who've become engaged to totally unsuitable people on the rebound from slights they feel from the one they really love. P.G. Wodehouse does a yeoman effort of returning all of those twisted loves to the proper party. The plot will keep you constantly chuckling throughout.

There are quite a few books based on the Empress of Blandings. So if you enjoy this one, go on to the others in the series.

Wodehouse, master of words that he is, shows his wit to be in top form in this wonderfully funny story of Blandings castle. As usual, Lord Emsworth is a bit dazed and obsessing about his pig (now hoping that she'll win first in her division for the third year running at the local agricultural show) and the guests at Blandings are falling hopelessly in love with one another. This is a great book for both those new to Wodehouse and those who have enjoyed his other works. I highly recommend it.

Although P.G. Wodehouse's non-Bertie and Jeeves novels aren't as well-known to the casual reader, they're in many ways, even better than their more popular counterparts. FRENCH LEAVE is an ingeniously constructed farce that, unlike so many attempts in the genre, doesn't feel excessively dependent on random coincidence and implausible events. I will say, however, that I found the denouement slightly disappointing.

I highly recommend this book. It's one of my favorites by P.G. Wodehouse. It's very entertaining and funny!

Why, in Heavens name, should a modern reader take the time to read the novels of P.G. Wodehouse?? Is it because he was the funniest writer of the 20th century? He was. Is it because you will marvel at his complete mastery of the English language? You will. Is it because his heroes and villians are equally likable persons?? They are. The star of every Wodehouse novel is not Bertie or Jeeves or Lord Emsworth or Psmith or even Mr. Mulliner; the star, of course, is Wodehouse himself. And when he speaks, you should listen!

French Leave is a non-saga novel (meaning no Jeeves or Uncle Fred) with very appealing characters and wonderous and hilarious misunderstandings. It is the story of three American girls and their adventures in France: a story of love at first sight, of mineral-water millionaires, of rascally French policemen, and of a breach of promise suit that never happens. And like all Wodehouse settings, France seems like Heaven on earth. Warm sunshine seems to glow from each and every page. It is almost as if Wodehouse is speaking directly to his audience saying: Wouldn't you like to be here and spend time with my friends? I think all readers of French Leave would transport themselves there in a minute.

If you've never read Wodehouse before, I cannot but strongly encourage you to join the millions who have discovered this wonderful writer. French Leave is just as good a place as any to start. Because it is a later novel (written in the mid-fifties), it will prime you for some of the even wackier masterpieces of the 20s and 30s. Read on, ladies and gentlemen, and even you may find that song lurks in the depths of your heart.

I've read over 100 Wodehouse stories and this one is one of my favorites. The harmless phrase "Where is the dossier Quibolle?" had me rolling off the floor (you have to read the book to find out more...). Wodehouse also weaves in French pronounciations and hilarious interactions between the French and non-French characters in the novel. This book makes you laugh right from the Preface to the last page.

French Leave is the epitome of Wodehouse writing. Everyone gets into more scrapes than any other author could pack into 250 odd pages. I enjoy reading all Wodehouse books and this is an especial favorite. Mr. Wodehouse has a command of the English language we could all do well to emulate. You will enjoy this light look at love and foriegn countries!

Readers versed in the Wodehouse canon will recall a delightful episode titled "Extricating Young Gussie." This installment in the Blandings Castle saga could be titled "Gally extricates everyone." It's not much about Lord Emsworth, and the perennially prize winning pig, Empress of Blandings, features only in a bit part. The usual bevy of imperious aunts cause the usual sackfuls of trouble for numerous tangled hearts. But the plot, such as it is, turns on Lord Emsworth's resourceful brother, the loveable rogue, Galahad Threepwood, and his Jeeves- like power to make things come right. While some of Lord Emsworth's behavior seems uncharacteristic, this later novel from 1965 is nevertheless prime Wodehouse and a ripping good read.

This story by P.G. Wodehouse is very entertaining and a really good read. A great escape into the magical world of Wodehouse.

Galahad at Blandings is a book part of the Blandings Castle series, but I wouldn't call it Wodehouse's best book. It is a about a couple, Sam and Sandy, and how they come together. They have a fight, and Sam comes to Blandings Castle as an imposter, to resolve the fight, as Sandy won't talk to him at all. Then in the end, money is given, fights are resolved, and everyone is happy. It is a tremendously funny book, as many of the main character are quite eccentric, so I suggest you pick up a copy quickly. Enjoy!!! Cheers!!!!!!!!! : )

The Hon. Galahad Threepwood is back. This time he has assigned himself the dubious task of bringing three different couples together. The setting is England, Blandings Castle, of course, complete with the amiable dunce Lord Emsworth and his prize-winning porker, the Empress, infamous for her role in `PIG-HOO-EY'.

On his way to London to pick up his brother Clarence (Lord Emsworth), Galahad, a dapper middle-aged man eyes the name on a sinister package that Lord Emsworth's secretary Sandy Callendar has asked him to post. The parcel is addressed to a chap named Bagshott. This detail excites Galahad's curiosity because he used to be bosom with a fellow named Bagshott. But the Bagshott that the Hon. Galahad knew (Boko) had long since retired from the earth. Discovering that the contents of said package are a pile of letters that will effectively sunder Sandy Callendar's relationship with Boko's son, Samuel Galahad Bagshott, Gally becomes determined to keep the sparring couple afloat. Having been staunchly opposed to sundered hearts since he was a boy, Galahad Threepwood is resolved to put matters right.

Sam and Sandy's dispute happens to be related to gambling and, well, naturally, the Drones Club. You see Sam stands to gain a sackful in a sweep if Tipton Plimsoll (fellow Drones Club member) weds the pretty dolt Veronica Wedge, Lord Emsworth's niece. But Sandy is diametrically opposed to the whole enterprise, urging Sam to part with the debatably generous syndicate offer. And she still hasn't forgiven Sam for telling her that she looks like a "horror from outer space" with a particular pair of glasses on. Plus, Sandy is a redhead, making the task for Gally that much more difficult - as we all know, redheaded women have short and irrational tempers. Enter the "pint-sized bozo," Wilfred Allsop, cousin of Veronica Wedge. On a bender one night in New York with his new friend Tipton Plimsoll, Willie, who somewhat "resembles the poet Shelley," reveals his affections for Lord Emsworth's pig lady, Monica Simmons. Tipton Plimsoll endorses the arrangement despite his belief that Ms. Simmons has the appearance of an "all-in wrestler."

As it is, all three of these impending alliances are dependent upon each other and the Hon. Galahad Threepwood knows it. You'll have to read the story to find out whether or not Gally is successful with his scheme to reunite the warring couples. Just know that he is a skilled raconteur and "teller of the tale." Gally will never miss a beat and he stays on top of it all, undoubtedly aided by his fondness for cocktails at all hours.

Galahad has many passions in life. One is to protect the reputation of one of his oldest and greatest friends, whiskey. Disgusted and offended by "coloured slides" and "temperance lectures" Gally goes on an anti-Tea tirade, accusing "the muck" as he calls it, of being responsible for the death of his poor, dear old friend Buffy Struggles, who "got run over by a hansom cab as he was crossing Piccadilly." Evidently, tea had sapped Buffy's strength.

Recalling another seemingly outrageous send-up, the Hon. Galahad exclaims, "The only safe way to get through life is to pickle your system thoroughly in alcohol." The story to prove the aforementioned theory involved two brothers, Freddie and Eustace Potts. Their French chef once served them a hedgehog while pretending that it was a chicken just to save some money. Well, Eustace, who was a "teetotaler" nearly died, but Freddie, who "had lived mostly on whiskey since early boyhood" showed no ill effects at all after consuming the carcass.

A large part of Gally wishes he could go back to his days at the Pelican Club. There, he would fascinate the members with his inimitable wit, and tireless devotion to mopping the sauce up like a vacuum cleaner in London pubs. Galahad happily recalls his days of getting pinched by the gendarmerie for being drunken and disorderly, vaunting that it would always take three of them to drag him away to the jug.

I recommend this book, especially as a device for teaching English. As the plot thickens, and it does thicken, especially when the Empress gets pie-eyed, and Gally is stretched not quite to his limits, the reader becomes aware that the Hon. Galahad could have been the Prime Minister if he had wanted to. Threepwood is a leader of the first rank - truly a man that we can all look up to. What Ho, Gally?

P.G. Wodehouse once said that you could write about life as it is or as musical comedy. He chose to do the latter. As a result, I strongly prefer to listen to audio recordings of Mr. Wodehouse's novels. The dramatic portrayals add a great deal to the humor of the stories. This is the first one that I have heard by Jeremy Sinden. He is very talented and flexible in his characterizations, moving easily from men to women, from one English class to another, and even to including Americans.

If you are familiar with the stories about Jeeves and the gentleman he serves, Bertram (Bertie) Wooster, which Mr. Wodehouse also wrote, you will feel at home with this tale, as well. Galahad plays the Jeeves-like role, but with greater elan than Jeeves ever did. You'll like Galahad. He's never let a pal down, and he has lots of them from his days carousing at the old Pelican Club. He's the bright, ne'er-do-well younger brother of Clarence, Lord Emsworth (who is fond of pigs, especially his prize-winning, Empress of Blandings, and his peace and quiet).

The story begins with a misunderstanding (not unlike the ones that Shakespeare used in his comedies -- it must be something about the water in England). An American millionaire, Tipton Plimsoe (I apologize for the fact I may have the spellings wrong in this review, since I have only heard the audio cassettes), runs into his fiancee's cousin, and they imbibe a bit too much. In the middle of the night, he awakens to find himself in jail. Someone has taken the millionaire's wallet, so he has no money to post bail. The cousin remembers that Lord Emsworth is in New York, staying at the Plaza, so they call him. Lord Emsworth is a little simple and has a poor memory. Although he dispatches the $20 by messenger to release the two, he mistakenly interprets this as meaning that the millionnaire has lost all of his money in the stock market crash of 1929 (the backdrop of this story).

The consequences of this misunderstanding almost cause three sets of lovers to be kept apart and Lord Emsworth to become engaged to a most unsuitable person. Worse yet, the Empress of Blandings herself is put at risk!

You might think that such a story would have a very predictable plot. Nothing could be less true. Just when the plot seems to be comfortably taking you left, Wodehouse puts in a complication that suddenly causes a u-turn. Then, when you get settled into that direction, he sends you off suddenly at a 45 degree angle. And pretty soon, you are overwhelmed with complications to keep you amusingly occupied with how in the world this can ever be straightened out . . . even though you have a pretty good idea of how things must turn out eventually.

But the complications serve an important purpose beyond keeping up the suspense. They also provide wonderful chances to show the true nature of the characters, and to flesh them out. This I found to be particularly well done in this book. Basically, Wodehouse likes to contrast those who care about others in a sincere way with those who are only concerned with their self-interest. The self-obsessed people unwittingly do themselves in, while the caring people somehow muddle through. The caring people have to also clean up the messes the self-interested ones make.

This book includes two of P.G. Wodehouse's most intimidating and unstoppable older women, Clarence's and Galahad's sister, Lady Hermione, and her friend, Dame Daphne Winkworth, who has her eye on Clarence. The upper class men are, as usual, very unintelligent (except for Galahad), which makes for much of the humor.

I suggest that you use your experience with hearing the narration of this story to think of a story that you would like to read aloud to a child you know. Then do so. Be sure to pick one that you can make very entertaining and which teaches valuable lessons.

See the humor . . . even in the worst circumstances!

Hi, I'm glad to share my opinion on the book. It's very funny and entertaining. As far as I understand that's what classic British humor should sound like. I would highly recommend this book to everybody who likes this type of literature.

Be careful when you listen to this in the car! I laughed so hard at some passages that tears ran down my cheeks. I'm lucky that the oncoming drivers didn't use their cell phones to call for the men in the white coats.....

There are very few novels that can guarantee five good laughs a page and chuckles during all the spaces between, but the Bertie Wooster/Jeeves novels of P.G. Wodehouse fill the bill. It is even jollier when a good British comedian simply reads the novel to you, as does Jonathan Cecil in the Audio Partners release of the 1938 (1-57270-182-X).

Here on 6 audiocassettes with a total running time of 7 hours is one of the stories you might have seen dramatized on Masterpiece Theatre a while ago. Oh, you know, the one about Bertie having to steal a cow-shaped creamer from Sir Watkyn Bassett for his Aunt Dahlia. Along the way, he becomes entangled in the on again, off again engagement between the newt-loving Gussie Fink-Nottle and the simpering Madeline Bassett, Roderick Spode who heads the Black Shorts (since all the Black Shirts have been bought up by an Italian of the period) and harbors a shameful secret), Stiffy Bynge who wants to marry the local clergyman H.P. "Stinker Pinker," and the local Constable whose helmet has been pinched.

The plot is simple at first and then, as in any good farce, rapidly accelerates into the complexity of a Baroque French clock and with about as much socially redeeming value. We simply sit back and marvel at the mechanism as (to carry on the analogy) Wodehouse's puppet-like characters perform their intricate movements around the hapless Bertie Wooster who not for the first time in these stories tends to lose faith in Jeeves just as that master of intrigue is at his brainiest. All this in the inimitable Wodehouse upper-class British twit jargon and a world every bit as real as that of Damon Runyon and W.S. Gilbert, providing you accept certain premises.

Jonathan Cecil was very badly miscast as Arthur Hastings in two or three Poirot films in which Peter Ustinov played the sleuth. Here he is a gem, reading as he does every word of the novel and acting out every character, male and female, in a different voice. His reading, Wodehouse's literary style and plotting, and all the rest made 7 hours on the exerciser pass pleasantly quickly.

Highly recommended even for more relaxed listeners.

This tape, which our library has since lost or destroyed, is terrific. The reader, Jonathan Cecil, is amazing, entertaining and amusing, of course. After discovering this taped book I went on to read all of the Jeeves books, and I rented, borrowed or bought all the taped versions of this series read by Jonathan Cecil. Readers voices are a matter of taste but, for my money, this guy is the best.

The Code of the Woosters, by the inimitable P. G. Wodehouse, is a fun and enjoyable romp with Bertie Wooster and his Man Jeeves. This novel features numerous plotlines, including but not limited to, the battle over a cow creamer, a lost notebook, romantic entanglements, the theft of a policeman's helmet, a potential jail sentence for Bertie, a dictator, and more romantic entanglements. Each plotline is brought to a conclusion by the brilliance of "Plum" the excellent English humorist. The book is full of hilarious one liners and brilliant wit. Amazingly, this novel was first published in 1938, yet it is still full of timely situations.

This novel of classic comedy introduces us to Totleigh Towers and its owner, Sir Watkin Bassett. Several memorable mainstay characters are in this book including Gussie Fink-Nottle, Aunt Dahlia, Madeline Bassett, and Stiffy Bing. Any journey taken with Wooster and Jeeves is time well spent. This classic series endures because the characters are wonderful and memorable. A 5 star fun-filled romp.

With delightful, tongue-in-cheek humor, P. G. Wodehouse continues the adventures of Bertie Wooster, an often silly member of the upper class who depends on his much more sensible "gentleman's gentleman," Jeeves, to keep his life from falling apart. In this novel, Wooster has been growing a mustache for the two weeks that Jeeves has been on a shrimping holiday, and he fears that Jeeves will not like it. Sure, enough Jeeves does not, and neither do any of his other friends--except for Lady Florence Craye, his former fiancée, now engaged (to Bertie's great relief) to Stilton Cheesewright.

The fate of the mustache is only the starting point for Wodehouse's comedy of errors, however, as Bertie goes from London to his Aunt Dahlia's country home, where Lady Florence, Stilton Cheesewright, and Percy Gorringe, a young man who wants to produce a play based on Lady Florence's book, are also in attendance. As Lady Florence and Stilton Cheesewright play out their on-again, off-again romance, Percy is casting longing eyes at Florence, who is flirting with Bertie, once again.

As is always the case with Wodehouse, events quickly become more complex. Percy wants Bertie to invest one thousand pounds in the play. Aunt Dahlia, wanting to sell her magazine, decides to "salt the mine," secretly selling her pearls so she can serialize a novel by a famous romance author to make the magazine more attractive. Her husband, at this point, decides to have the pearls appraised. Bertie takes Florence to a nightclub to "do research for her new novel," and he is arrested. Not surprisingly, it is the resilient Jeeves who comes to the rescue, time and time again, proving that good sense and grounding in the real world are far more important than the silly pretensions of Bertie and his friends.

Wodehouse's gentle satire of upperclass life makes his novels appeal to a broad spectrum of readers. His word play, consummate sense of irony, and ability to make dialogue sound simultaneously absurd and realistic create a fast-moving set of outrageous scenes in which Jeeves, the "gentleman's gentleman" proves to be the real hero, the one person who knows how to live in this silly world. Mary Whipple

In this novel, also published as Bertie Wooster Sees It Through, farceur supreme P.G. Wodehouse brings together all the elements for a delightful Bertie and Jeeves adventure: the endangerment of Bertie's bachelorhood, threats to his physical well-being, Aunt Dahlia's magazine Milady's Boudoir, the necessity for Bertie to steal jewelry, the possibility that Aunt Dahlia will have to part with her marvelous cook Anatole, and more.

Bertie's narration, always a joy, is in particularly fine form in this novel, and, as always, Bertie's engagement is broken off when his fiancee decides to wed another, Anatole stays with Aunt Dahlia at Brinkley court, and things in general turn out for the best, thanks largely to Jeeves's genius. Any veteran reader of Wodehouse's work knows that this will be the case, but Wodehouse's genius is such that the book is an absolute joy, anyway, on the first reading or the seventh.

I listened to this again for the first time in over a year. It has lost nothing. Every humorous incident is just as funny the second time around. Wodehouse has an ingenious way of pulling you into comedic situations and you're suddenly there before you realize it. Jonathan Cecil is one of the best of the Wodehouse narrators.

To the ever growing Audio Partners catalogue of complete books on tape can be added yet another of those hilarious Jeeves novels, this one called "Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit." Written in 1954, this Bertie Wooster epic brings in many characters familiar from earlier works (Roderick Strode, Aunt Agatha, Uncle Tom, Frances Craye, Stilton Cheesewright) and many all-too familiar situations. Yes, Wodehouse does repeat himself, but I look upon it as ringing the changes. A line of bells is a line of bells, but their various combinations are what make things interesting.

Again Bertie is trying to avoid both marriage and having his spine broken in an increasing number of places, again having to purloin a valuable object to help out his only likable aunt, again depending on Jeeves first, middle, and last to extricate himself from dilemmas of his own doing and (at least in this book) those of others. Of the four actors assigned to read these novels and short stories on Audio Partners tapes, I think Jonathan Cecil is the best. He gives Wooster just that goofy intonation and all the other characters their due, making this set of four audio tapes a real humdinger. I have grown to realize that it is not so much that Wodehouse says funny things as that he says ordinary things in a funny way. That is why almost all of the Jeeves adventures are narrated first person by Wooster himself.

Just the ticket to cheer one up after a hard day or during a long boring drive.

As a PS, there is a very good life of Wodehouse by David A. Jasen put out by Schirmer Trade Books, "P.G. Wodehouse: A Portrait of a Master." It makes an easy read and brings you closer to the creator of the dreamworld in which lives the Woosters and the rest.

P.G. Wodehouse writes in a Dave Barry meets Agatha Christie style which makes you laugh out loud. P.G. Wodehouse was Agatha Christie's favourite author for a good reason. He gives you a visit to England in 1930 (or thereabouts) and plots with every twist you can imagine. In this one, Bertie, the upperclass twit, gets himself into the usual fix, and Jeeves finds a way out. The plot carries you along and keeps you in both suspense and stitches. Please listen to it if you have even a smidgen of the blues! If you have kids who are intelligent teens, this is a great family car trip book.

This is English humour at its droll aristocratic best. Much of this 3-novel omnibus centers around that most noble specimen of the porcine race, christened by her owner as the "Empress of Blandings". Lord Emsworth is convinced that jealous rivals are out to get this prized pig, so he suspects everyone and hires a detective. The novels are full of delightful characters that leap out of the pages with their eccentricities. People get into crazy mix-ups, skullduggery and shambolic plots. Beach is the perfect picture of Butlerine restraint; Lord Emsworth is hilarious as the doddering fool; and his sister-in-law - "Her Ladyship" - epitomises upper-crust hauteur. Most of all, the novels present a vanished world where people "dress" for dinner; have valets and butlers; don't have to lift a finger for money; and get addressed everyday by people around them with quirky titles like "the Right Honourable Galahad" and "My Lordship".

Blandings Castle comes alive when the Empress of Blandings arrives, which she does in Summer Lightning. All fans of romantic comedies will enjoy these books very much.

Be sure to begin the series by reading, Leave It to Psmith, which has an outstanding plot and introduces most of the major characters in the series

Summer Lightning is better than many other P.G. Wodehouse books in that the plot and character development are more thorough than most which keeps the fun going longer.

Clarence, the ninth Earl of Emsworth, is at home in his castle in Shropshire where he dotes on his famous prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings. Having dispatched his earlier secretary, Baxter, Clarence is at peace contemplating how his pig will win again when he learns from his brother Galahad (Gally) that the neighbor's pig man is offering 3:1 odds against the Empress. Clarence and Gally presume that their neighbor, Sir Gregory Parsloe is planning to knobble the Empress. Their worst fears are borne out when the Empress disappears!

At the same time, Parsloe lives in fear that Gally will publish old stories about his wild younger days in Gally's new book. Clarence's and Gally's sister Connie wants to stop publication as well. Soon the castle is overrun with manuscript thieves!

At the same time, love is in the air. Clarence's new secretary, Hugo Carmody, is secretly and unsuitably in love with Millicent Threepwood, niece to Clarence, Connie and Gally, and Millicent is in love with him. But they need to get some financial help to pull off the merger.

Ronald Fish, a wealthy young man whose money is tied with Clarence, is also in love with an unsuitable person . . . one Sue Brown who is a chorus girl. Ronnie has proven himself to be a poor judge of investments in the past, and Clarence is skeptical of allowing any more money. It doesn't help when Clarence finds that Ronnie doesn't truly share his love of pigs!

Will love win out? Of course! It's a P.G. Wodehouse book. But before love wins, humor will take the day in many silly scenes worthy of Shakespeare's best in the forest of Arden.

Heavy Weather picks up where Summer Lightning leaves off. Ronnie Fish's jealousy gets Sue Brown and him into trouble when his mother, Lady Julia Fish, arrives to sunder the pair. Gally's manuscript continues to play a role throughout as does the Empress. This book would only be a three-stars book if you didn't read Summer Lightning first.

In most P.G. Wodehouse stories, the innocents and the not-so-innocents attempt to solve tricky family problems with feats of misdirection and partial truths. The result of these complicated ruses is usually a great deal of unexpected consequences that will tickle almost any funny bone. Heavy Weather is an unusually fine example of this type of story.

Monty Bodkin, who's rolling in dough, must hold a job for a year to win the approval of his fiancee's father. Then the wedding bells can chime. Monty isn't the most helpful fellow, and makes a hash out of his writing for Tiny Tots. He soon uses his uncle's influence a second time to get a new job as private secretary to Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, whose pride and joy is his prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings.

This new employment creates much consternation for Sue Brown, who is engaged to marry the jealous Ronnie Fish. Monty and Sue had been engaged earlier, and Sue's afraid that Ronnie won't be able to handle having Monty around. Wedding bells for Sue and Ronnie depend on getting Clarence to release trust funds for Ronnie. There are a few other problems, as well. For example, Sue earns her living as a chorus girl. What will Ronnie's mother, Lady Julia, think?

The key theme of the story is that true love will win out, if the lovers follow their hearts and seize opportunity when it arises. In that way, the end will charm almost anyone . . . much like Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream does.

In most stories like this, you can anticipate how the obstacles will be overcome. Well, Heavy Weather will surprise you, if you are like me. The plot complications and resolution are delightfully adept, acrobatic, and subtle. I felt like I was watching the elephants do their ballet dance again in Fantasia. The contradictions between the messy moments and the final neatness are brilliantly handled!

The conflict between the desire to have a good reputation and the willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed (including cutting all possible corners) is shown off to good effect in Heavy Weather. Developing this point creates questions about what real goodness is, versus assumed goodness from social position and family connections. In fact, inherited intelligence is also questioned for its morality. The more powerful minds in the story tend to use those capabilities to plot for self-advantage, rather than to accomplish anything meaningful for all involved. Those of limited intelligence, by contrast, tend to follow their hearts and try to do the right thing.

Good results follow in this story whenever people are loyal and honor goodness.

What can you accomplish by being loyal and honoring goodness today? And tomorrow?

I love PG Wodehouse, and the Blandings books are by far my favorites. I have the hardback edition of this omnibus, and the prefaces by the author are every bit as charming and witty and sweet-natured as the three novels they introduce.

The three novels in this volume are three of the first four novels in P G Wodehouse's great Blandings Castle series (the other is Leave It to Psmith). Something Fresh isn't quite as good as Summer Lightning and Heavy Weather, because that memorable pig, the Empress of Blandings, has not yet appeared at the Castle. Heavy Weather takes place immediately after Summer Lightning, and the two are, in my opinion, two of Wodehouse's very best. Some of the great Wodehouse characters are here - the woolly-headed Ninth Earl of Emsworth, his sister, Lady Constance, and brother, The Honorable Galahad Threepwood, not to mention, among others, The Efficient Baxter. Not to be missed by anybody with a sense of humor.

This is my first P.G. Wodehouse book. I liked the stories so much that I immediately bought another of his books. The plots are amusing, but the characters are the center of the book. Lord Emsworth is described as a man who "never experienced the thirll of ambition fullfilled, ... but never knew the agony of ambition frustrated". Another very interesting character, Mr. Peters, who belongs to a group of men who "... cannot rest, who are so constituted that they can only take their leisure in the shape of a change of work". Interestingly, their personalities evolve as the story unfolds. Wodehouse satire excludes no one not even writers. He writes, "The reason why all we novelists with bulging foreheads an expensive educations are abandoning novels and taking to writing motion-picture secnarii is because the latter are so infinitely the more simple and pleasant". I also enjoyed his reference to the critics in the preface of "Summer Lightning".

It's certainly a very entertaining book, with a lot of opportunities for vocabulary building. I would recommend this book for students of English as a second language.

Of all of the Wodehouse books we have read--and they have been many--this is one of the very funniest. The main character is, as others have said, largely responsible for the most comical parts, but he couldn't have pulled it off alone. Great reading!

If laughter is the best medicine, then those who read Wodehouse are destined to live until 130. Quick Service, one of Wodehouse's non-series novels, is the ultimate pick-me-up. It is a novel filled with great schemes got astray, suspicious butlers, Americans who appropriately respond to the most difficult questions by saying: "Yeah", and the most delicious sounding, toothsome Paramount Ham. This novel has threads galore, twisting and entwined, and only a Master like Wodehouse could bring it all to such a satisfying conclusion.

But the main reason to read Quick Service is to make the acquaintance of Joss Weatherby. After it was over and the brain-box slowly pondered the preceedings, it came to me that Joss is a combination of Bertie and Jeeves rolled into one. On the Bertie front, Joss is quite capable of getting himself into one scrape after another without even trying. On the Jeeves front, he is able to rescue himself from these scrapes by using his flashes of genius. Also, Joss is a total charmer. It is not hard to see why Sally (our heroine) quickly joins the Weatherby ranks. I would love to have another novel and another chance to read more Joss adventures.

Quick Service is now the third non-series Wodehouse I have read. I highly encourage those who have primarily feasted on Blandings and Jeeves to try these non-series gems. They are just as satisfying as any of the others. And we get a clear resolution of the scrapes within each novel.

So, go out there, hunt in your used bookstores, or wait until the publishers have the good sense to re-issue Quick Service. But read it! The lips will curl, the teeth will part, and the laughter will flow. And if this is medicine, your good health turly awaits!

Howard and Mabel Steptoe are recently moved from Hollywood to Loose Chippings, Sussex, England. Here they reside in Claines Hall with Beatrice Chavender and Sally Fairmile, two of Mabel's relatives. Add into the mix Sidney Chubnall, proper English butler. They are joined by George Holbeton, who has just engaged himself to Sally.
Enter the household one Joss Weatherby, who arrives seeking employment so as to be near Sally. He is soon followed by the man who sacked him, J.B. Duff, of Paramount Hams. Duff holds out at the Rose and Crown, where barmaid Vera Pym finds the merchant highly suspicious. The barmaid is betrothed to the butler.
Comic situations are called for. Misunderstandings, deceits, and of course, True Love. The British are wonderful at this type of comedy; P.G. Wodehouse was masterful. Not heavy stuff, perhaps. You know everyone and everything will end as they should. Predictable? Yes, but also fun and with a natural innocence all too uncommon today.
"Lord Holbeton stared. His question had been intended in a purely satirical spirit, and her literal acceptance of it stunned him. For an instant, compassion gripped him. She seemed so young, so frail to go up against one who even on his good mornings resembled something out of the Book of Revelation.
"Then there swept over him the thought of what a lot of unpleasantness this would save him. If somebody had to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, how much more agreeable if it were not he."

Penguin paperback edition

This is one of Wodehouse's many, many novels, and one of the more charming ones, due mostly to the main character, Joss Weatherby, a bright, exuberant, insanely optimistic and intelligent young artist who falls in love with Sally, a poor relation & companion to Mrs. Steptoe, a wealthy ex-American determined to enter and conquer the landed and titled social circles of England. Sally, a bright and feisty girl, is engaged to the Lord Holbeton, a spineless, intellectually-uninspired young man who sings "Trees" and whose money is held in trust by J.B. Duff, the Ham King, who is Joss' boss and was once in love with Mrs. Chavender who..... well, it's a typical Wodehouse plot, with people falling in and out of love, fortunes, inheritances held in trust getting in the way of people in love, obsessions with ham, bad indigestion, butlers going above the call of duty, paintings being stolen for nefarious purposes, all accomplished in loopy, flight-of-fancy, ingeniously light and happy prose that floats along, delightful and humorous. A Wodehouse effort other than his Jeeves and Wooster books that I really liked.

"You can never trust a writer not to make an ass of himself," P.G. Wodehouse once remarked, and novice readers who have dipped into a Jeeves or Mulliner story must be wondering how long their luck will last. How long until they come on to some dog of a novel that forever smirches the name Wodehouse? Well, as opposed to nearly anyone else you can name, all the Wodehouse exhibits I've delved into so far have all been Very Readable or above. Not a dog in the bunch, except in the good sense of the dumb chums and interminable pekes collected in the Wodehouse Bestiary.

But Quick Service was a favorite of PGW, whom you would think would know his own mind. This light novel from 1940 mixes equal parts musical comedy and whatever else his books are about, with some hysterical lines. "Oo!" said Miss Pym, pouring beer in a flutter. That's the response of the copper-coloured haired barmaid at the pub in Loose Chippings to the question posed by young artist and man-of-action, Joss Weatherby, who's madly in love with Sally Fairmile, "Isn't marriage a wonderful institution?" Miss Pym is dreaming of her betrothed, butler Sidney Chibnall, but that monosyllable is fraught with meaning, because she and Sidney are on to a gang of plotters, with Joss as suspect number one. An avid reader of mysteries, she warns Chibnall: "pretty silly you'd look if you suddenly found him murdering you in your bed."

Of course there's about a million other things happening with the cast of dozens, and this is one of the few Wodehouse romps where I can follow all the romantic embroilments. This very visual book could easily be performed on stage given the music hall bits dropped in all through it, as when Miss Pym tries to draw out a stranger with a false mustache. "You can always tell an American," she says, "but you can't tell him much. Ha ha." "Ha ha," replies the other, the gag falling flat like a card played in a deadly cat and mouse game of intrigue, as Miss Pym might say. It's just about perfect.