The Most Of P.G. Wodehouse [Paperback]

P.G. Wodehouse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2000

The most lavish P. G. Wodehouse collection ever published. In addition to Wodehouse's best known and beloved Jeeves and Bertie stories, The Most of P. G. Wodehouse features delightful stories about The Drones Club and its affable, vacuous members: Mr. Mulliner, whose considered judgment on any and all topics is drawn from the experiences of his innumerable relatives; Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, the man of gilt-edged schemes; and Lord Emsworth, ruler of all he surveys at Blanding's Castle. Rounding out the collection are Wodehouses's witty golf stories and a complete and completely hilarious novel, Quick Service. As Jeeves would say, "The mind boggles, sir."

Editorial Reviews

Review

Christopher Buckley author of Little Green Men It is impossible to be unhappy while reading the adventures of Jeeves and Wooster. And I've tried.

Kurt Andersen author of Turn of the Century Wodehouse can be extremely funny, of course, and Bertie and Jeeves are echt-Englishmen, but the surprising and surpassing pleasure of these books is their cheerful humanity. Reading Wodehouse always makes me feel good.

David Foster Wallace author of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men Timelessly funny and mean.

Evelyn Waugh Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.

From the Publisher

"It is impossible to be unhappy while reading the adventures of Jeeves and Wooster. And I've tried."--Christopher Buckley, author of "Little Green Men"

"Wodehouse can be extremely funny, of course, and Bertie and Jeeves are echt-Englishmen, but the surprising and surpassing pleasure of these books is their cheerful humanity. Reading Wodehouse always makes me feel good."—Kurt Andersen, author of "Turn of the Century"

"Timelessly funny and mean."—David Foster Wallace, author of "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men"

"Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in."—Evelyn Waugh

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743203585
• ISBN-13: 978-0743203586
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book really is a "best of" Wodehouse....., March 3, 2004

By 

"efoff" (Ecotopia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Most Of P.G. Wodehouse (Paperback)

If you are at all wondering if you would like to try P.G. Wodehouse, this is definately the book for you.

This is a sampling of hilarious stories, from some of his main themes. Most notably, there is a selection of stories involving Freddie Wigeon and his doomed attempts at finding true love (all hilarious), a selection of stories involving Mr. Mulliner telling of the bizare adventures of his extended family, a selection of Stanley Ulkridge stories: The man who is determined to get rich the quick & easy way, and a stunning selection of Jeeves stories....

I became interested in reading Wodehouse after reading Douglas Adams's "The Salmon of Doubt." There is a brief essay where Adams praises Wodehouse, and describes Wodehouse's writing style. If you like Adams, you should like Wodehouse.

Wodehouse is very inventive with this short stories. There is always a lot of action, and emotional uproar. But his talent lies in his language and choice of words. If you think the following phrases are amusing--then read this book:

"He realized too late that George was in public relations, and the brains of people in public relations are like the soup in poor restaurants: It's never a good idea to stir them up."

"Luckily, I gave them a false name when I came in."
"Why did you do that?"
"Usual business precautions."

"If you took all of the women Freddie loved & lost, and laid them end to end, they'd stretch half way from here to picadilly."

"Longer, I'd say. Some of them were pretty tall."

Now--if you thought those jokes were "stupid," then don't buy this book. But if you're looking for some of the best short stories I have ever seen (and I've seen a whole big bunch), then go for this. The Jeeves stories in particular are very sharp.

Still----this is not the best book ever. There is a large section of "Golfing" stories that I did not like, but I really hate golf so don't take my word for it. There is also a longish story involving Blandings and some pig of his that I did not care for--but I don't think Blandings is funny either. The novel "Quicksilver" I found only average (a previous reviewer thought it was the best ever, so go figure).

At any rate--This book is worth owning, because you'll want to go back and visit these stories (maybe not the "golf" ones if you hate golf as much as I do) many times.....

66 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good sampler from the Wodehouse canon, June 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Most of P. G. Wodehouse (Paperback)

Wodehouse's quintessentially British slapstick either tickles you or it doesn't. If you think it will but you aren't sure, this book is for you. (Personally I can't get enough of that "I say, old bean" stuff, despite its irremediable white-maleness.) But the homogeneity of the stories isn't going to win any converts.

Many of the stories are written according to the following formula: (A) boy meets girl; (B) formidable relative or rival stands between boy and girl; (C) boy overcomes all obstacles to successfully obtain girl unless boy happens to be Freddie Widgeon. The remainder of the stories will appear to follow basically the same formula, if you substitute "money" for "girl." The journey from points (A) to (C) inevitably involves hilarious parodies of proper upper-class British life - situations like gallopping over the English moors chased by angry farmers, engaging in polite negotiations with a gorilla, or being fixed under the steely eye of any number of powerful relations.

This anthology brings together about a half-dozen representative stories each from a number of areas (e.g. the Drones Club, Mr. Mulliner, Ukridge, and Jeeves stories), as well as a short novel called "Quick Service." If you are a hard-core Wodehouse fan, it might be advisable to skip this sampler and just buy the original books in order to avoid overlap.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful!, July 12, 2003

By 

Timothy G. Morrison "chwelve" (Provo, UT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Most Of P.G. Wodehouse (Paperback)

P.G. Wodehouse is one of my all-time favorite authors, and this is the best collection of his work I have read (although I'd also recommend "Life With Jeeves," with three of the "Jeeves" books). Every story in the book is immensely enjoyable, and it's physically impossible to read any of them without smiling. The complete novel, "Quick Service," is probably my favorite Wodehouse Work (pardon the alliteration), Jeeves and Bertie withstanding. Wodehouse's impossibly sunny style is impossible to resist, and in "Quick Service" he is at its most impossibly sunny. If your eyes are lacking in glint or your step is rather devoid of spring, then I highly recommend this book!