Customer Reviews

Mike and Psmith

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you pick up Mike and Psmith and expect it to be like the wacky comedies that Wodehouse composed in the 20s and 30s, you might be slighted disappointed. This is early Wodehouse, a Wodehouse concerned with school masters, ragging (an expression for creating mischief) and especially cricket. It is also a more grounded Wodehouse, a novel where the comedy is more subtle, a novel where the characters are not quite so flighty. This is also Wodehouse at his least complex. This is not the novel that shows his mastery of the convulted plot, where every word spoken and deed done entagles our heros and heroines in further trouble.

This said, I need to quickly confirm that Mike and Psmith is a wonderful novel. It still has a freshness and innocence about it that is highly appealing. In this day and age, of rampant murders and unclear elections, Mike and Psmith is as sunny and cheerful a book as you are likely to find. And just to show you that I read Mike and Psmith with my eyes wide open, I have to state that my early comments are not intended as criticism but as a compliment. The subtlety is the very reason why this novel is so great! It is his art in creating a scene or a character and putting in the interesting setting of Sedleigh that Wodehouse shows why so many refer to him as the Master.

Mike and Psmith is not the funniest book Wodehouse wrote, but it does have many incredible scenes, especially Mr. Downing's search for the paint splashed shoe. I agree with the other reviewers that this is the high point of the book. I think readers will find a lot to enjoy in this novel. It is an escape to a world not that far removed for our own but placed in a time that we will never see again. This novel truly scores a century!

I have to confess that I am a Wodehouse addict. I read the predecessor to this book (Mike at Wrykyn) when I was fifteen and had always wanted to read Mike and Psmith. Re. this book, Wodehouse had me in stitches most of the time - the portions relating to Mr. Downing are hilarious. Cricket is also a focus of this novel. If you are like me and miss the game, this will bring those school time memories flooding back.

For those who haven't read a Psmith novel before, I highly recommend them. It is said that Wodehouse created the Jeeves and Wooster characters as 2 spin-offs from Psmith and you can certainly see the connections! On the whole, another Wodehouse classic.

I first read this book when I was 13, and it was the third Wodehouse book I had read. Some people say Wodehouse is boring; never! Wodehouse's English is so nicely crafted, it gives his stories a vivid character. Particularly Psmith's charactre is notable, and his mannerism and ingenuity make one laugh. There are some scenes in the book that are really hilarious(to me, at least) such as where Psmith and Mike talk to the headmaster about the study and the scene with the shoes. This is a humorous romp through boarding school, and a worthwhile book to put your nose into.

In this uproarious volume we make our first acquaintance with R. Psmith, whose humorous speech and mannerisms combined with his genius for quickly solving his way out of a jam make him such a memorable character. His readiness with ingenious solutions in the nick of time as well as his punctiliousness of attire both remind us of Jeeves, who wouldn't appear for another eight years; his self assurance foreshadows Uncle Fred of the Blandings stories. As in many of the author's early novels the plot is considerably weaker than in the classic novels that came later, hence my witholding one star. But the individual scenes and conversations are hilarious and make the book a must-read for any Wodehouse fan.

This is so, so completely funny. I love this book. I have read it so many times and it's still funny. It's about this two English boys at school. The school-story genre is fairly grim, I know, with all it's moralizing and weird relationships between students etc., but this is so completely funny. It's probably my favorite of all the Psmith books (although, Leave it to Psmith is fairly excellent as well).

Most people who have read P.G. Wodehouse have focused on his Jeeves and Blandings Castle stories. In those books and short stories, the aristocratic bumblers often refer fondly back to their old school chums and the rollicking times they had while there. The Drones Club is often the starting site for trying to recreate those halcyon days. Occasionally, Bertie Wooster is called upon to interact with some school or another and those tales are often brilliantly funny as he climbs in and out of where he isn't supposed to be.

I recently read Plum Sauce, the excellent P.G. Wodehouse companion, and found that Mr. Wodehouse had also written a number of earlier books and stories based on school days. I wondered what they would be like.

An early offering was called Mike, from 1909. The book is now titled Mike and Psmith (pronounced "Smith" according to the book and the author). Psmith became a major character for Mr. Wodehouse in latter years, so this is his origin story. Psmith will remind you of a young Gally (who is often found in the Blandings stores).

The story begins simply enough. Young Mike Jackson is happily enjoying the end of his public school (that's a private school in the UK) education before heading off to Cambridge to start his university studies. He's about to become the captain of the Wrykyn cricket squad and is the team's star batter.

Life is good only briefly for young Mike, however. His father had warned him that another bad report about his academic performance and young Mike would be shipped off to another school. When that report arrives, he father packs him off to cricket and social Siberia, Sedleigh.

Mike vows to be as indolent as ever in his academics and to refuse to involve himself in cricket for such a lowly place. He's joined in this attitude by Psmith who arrives as a recently expelled new student at about the same time. The two find that they're from the same part of England and social class, and quickly team up against those whom they see as little more than mildly amusing bumpkins.

Their attitudes allow them to be quite effective in pulling the wool over the eyes of his housemaster who is easily manipulated in many amusing ways. Those same attitudes put both young men right in the sights of an increasingly angry and vengeful form master who supervises their academic performance.

The conflict continually escalates in humorous ways that had me happily laughing aloud on many pages. I also enjoyed the story because it brought back memories of many wonderful pranks that I helped play when I was in high school.

All of the conflicts are eventually resolved in typically unexpected and very ironic ways.

Now, for those who don't know a cricket pitch from a bocce court, I suggest that you not be inhibited by that sport's appearance in this book. You'll get the general idea, and that's all you really need.

If you would like to have some specific ideas of what Mr. Wodehouse meant by Bertie's relations with all of his old school chums, be sure to read Mike and Psmith. It's a corker!

I should probably declare an interest here; P.G.Wodehouse has been a hero of mine from the age of thirteen. In the eleven years since I first picked up "Psmith in the City", I have developed a rapacious appetite for all things Wodehousian. Until the age of sixteen, I read very little else. Bearing this in mind, anyone reading this would be quite entitled to sniff with indignation and dismiss this rant as the work of one who, although well-intentioned, is basically a one-dimensional fool. It probably is. However, it is my firm belief that this is one of the five funniest novels I have ever read. Anyone who can read the account of Mr. Downing, searching in vain for a paint-splattered shoe, without at the very least chuckling, must be some sort of stoic. Wodehouse created a pantheon of memorable characters and Psmith will take his place with the immortals. The vast majority of these characters are schoolboys in an adult world; Psmith is exactly the opposite. It is his capacity both for absurdity and for the most studied solemnity that make this book what it is. It deserves to be read.

This book was originally published as two separate serials, _Jackson Junior_ and _The Lost Lambs_, and the connection between the two is not strong. The only continuing character is Mike Jackson, and the starting point for the second half is largely inconsistent with his characterization in the second. _Jackson Junior_ is a fairly typical early Wodehouse Wrykyn school story, with the usual weak plot about pointlessly misbehaving schoolboys mostly escaping their well-deserved punishment, though it's the best of the lot, with clearly-drawn characters and amusing incidents.

_The Lost Lambs_, however, is the start of the turning point in Wodehouse's career: in it he introduces his first great character, Psmith. The plot is still weak, and driven largely by lazy coincidences and by characters acting in ways they obviously wouldn't. But Psmith's attitude and dialogue show the first flashes of Wodehouse's mature style.

I should probably declare an interest here; P.G.Wodehouse has been a hero of mine from the age of thirteen. In the eleven years since I first picked up one of his novels, I have developed a rapacious appetite for all things Wodehousian. Until the age of sixteen, I read very little else. Bearing this in mind, anyone reading this would be quite entitled to sniff with indignation and dismiss this rant as the work of one who, although well-intentioned, is basically a one-dimensional fool. It probably is. However, it is my firm belief that "Mike and Psmith" is one of the five funniest novels I have ever read. Anyone who can read the account of Mr. Downing, searching in vain for a paint-splattered shoe, without at the very least chuckling, must be some sort of stoic. Wodehouse created a pantheon of memorable characters and Psmith will take his place with the immortals. The vast majority of these characters are schoolboys in an adult world; Psmith is exactly the opposite. It is his capacity both for absurdity and for the most studied solemnity that make this book what it is. It deserves to be read.

This book transitions between Wodehouses School books and his Psmith books. For me it ranks second only to Leave it to Smith. A must read for Wodehouse fans.