Customer Reviews

Biffen's Millions

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While Wodehouse continued to turn a funny phrase this book did not live up to his earlier works. The plot turns around a gentleman named Biffin who stands to inherit a fortune... providing he doesn't get arrested prior to his 30th birthday. Since Biff's hobby is to get drunk and punch police officers it takes plotting by several of his friends to save Biff despite himself. The trouser sub-plot was a nice touch as well. I certainly recommend this for anyone who is a true fan of Wodehouse and wants to experience the full spectrum of his work. The edition I borrowed, however, had a some printing errors in which two lines on two seperate pages were placed out of order.

I really wanted to like this book, but it was slow going from start to finish. I found myself not really caring about the characters and their contrived predicaments. A few hours' reading took me almost a week to finish.

Having said that, the language is still as beautiful as ever. Wodehouse is always putting words in uncommon situations. For example, someone will "trouser" an item, or instead of screaming shrilly, he will say "she shrilled." A wonderful way to expand one's vocabulary.

But all in all, this book failed my acid test of a Wodehouse novel: I didn't laugh out loud once.