Customer Reviews

The Most Of P.G. Wodehouse

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.....

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.

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!

This delightfully daffy book was my introduction to the humor of the great Wodehouse, whom has often since saved me from sorrow and despair. A nice collection of stories about dotty Earls and demonic aunts, The Most of Wodehouse she be read and enjoyed by anyone who has a drop of anglo-philia and a sense of humor. Long live Plum!

The back of The Most of P. G. Wodehouse declares this to be the "most lavish P. G. Wodehouse collection ever published," and when one considers the breadth of selection crammed into just over 700 pages, it's hard to argue with the publisher's assertion. Wodehouse's writing career spanned over forty years, and while I am far from being able to claim that I've read even a third of his output, in my opinion his genius and comic timing rarely faltered. Probably Wodehouse's best known creations are Bertie Wooster and his indefatigable valet, Jeeves (memorably portrayed by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, respectively). The pair is represented here by five short stories. As I recently acquired Jeeves & Wooster - The Complete Series, I have to say that Laurie and Fry captured the characters so perfectly that I now hear their voices in my head when I read the J&W tales. Wooster's cronies at The Drones Club are represented by seven stories - "Tried in the Furnace" and "Goodbye to All Cats" are particularly hilarious. There are seven Mr. Mulliner stories, where he sagely dispenses his life wisdom based on the experiences of various and sundry members of his incredibly large family - I especially liked the story "Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo." In five stories one can read five of Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge's wildly whacky money-making schemes, and there's a brief stop at Blandings Castle, home of Lord Emsworth and his prized pig the Empress of Blandings. There are five of the Golf Stories, and they were an absolutely revelation - so hilarious, and I am not a fan of golf in the least. The one complete novel, Quick Service, is a solid representation of Wodehouse's full-length fiction, full of romantic entanglements and comic misunderstandings. Wodehouse's sense of humor and command of the English language make his stories and novels an absolute joy to read, and this anthology is probably one of the best introductions out there. Read, enjoy, and laugh till you cry.

I'm left alone on a small island and offered just the bible and one author's works: P.G.W. is my choice.

The nice thing about this book is that it has a little bit of everything. Say you don't like the Mr. Mulliner stories very much; well, then you can skip those stories and just read about Jeeves. Also, if you haven't read much Wodehouse, this book will help you decide what characters and storylines you like best, so you that you can purchase later novels with discrimination. The one thing I don't like is that it only has one Blandings story (although it is a good one); I'd rather they switched out some of those silly Ukridge stories for more Blandings ones.

Wodehouse is famous for gently poking fun at British aristocracy and the not so aristocratic as well. His Jeeves and Bertie Wooster characters have become classics. The stories project such a good sense of life that reading them is therapeutic.

I agree with what others have written here regarding Wodehouse and must add this: the more Wodehouse in one place, the better, thus my unguarded praise for the present volume.

As someone who closely observes another human writer at work, I must also say that Wodehouse should be enjoyed (and studied) for three reasons: 1) the fine clarity and elegance of his prose; 2) his sheer inventiveness; and, not least, 3)his (possibly) preternatural ability to weave comic plots of Rube Goldberg complexity (this comes from my direct observation of just how difficult it is to create a genuinely satisfying comic plot).

Alas, Wodehouse currently suffers because we inhabit an age given over to a kind of cynical perpetual adolescence that discounts silliness or, rather, where silliness is detected discounts the wisdom and literary value that might also be found there.

Evelyn Waugh had this to say of Wodehouse: "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." This is no doubt true and Wodehouse's lack of staleness is largely the result of his mastery of the English language --the great writers create their own universes with language. But don't forget point #3: his comic plots are perhaps his lasting gift to our civilization and worthy of the most serious study.

Give my regards to the Drones!

Sincerely,

Randolph

This is not so much a review - more a prayer of thanks.

I had got through a fair proportion of my life before I fell into deep Wodehouse via this wondrous tome. Scandalously, I had gone round avoiding Wodehouse on the ground that he was just too "silly". Everyone said so - although I did note obscurely that Everyone usually had a twinkle in his eye. Back in those distant days I prefered my humour to be of the more robust and acrid sort as dispensed by the (now cruelly under-noticed) Stephen Leacock, the hidden star of Canada.

However, this innocent looking collection was dropped into my lap one Christmastide, and smiling uncertainly now and then, I nibbled my way safely to the third story, which is called The Amazing Hat Mystery. I was at the point where a young woman is informing her bemused young man that he is wearing a size of hat far too big for his head, and that he looks ridiculous in it; he ripostes stoutly that he isn't, and doesn't. They fume about it for a bit and then they both stamp off, never to be romantic with each other again. I have no idea why this cursory exchange had me in sudden shrieks of helpless laughter, without even a warning build-up of giggles - but that is the case, and I have belonged to Wodehouse ever since.

Actually, I think I DO have the secret - it is in the simple fact that Wodehouse is so heroically, divinely and sublimely SILLY. The Upanisads, the great spiritual texts of India, have been called the Himalayas of the Soul: very well, then, Wodehouse should rightfully be deemed the Himalayas of Humour. Because you can go no further. But I go further - that there really should be a religion founded in his honour; that it should be called, naturally, SILLYISM: and that its startled but happy devotees should be called, of course, SILLYUNS. They will be unfailingly happy creatures, these gilded Sillyuns - for they have been invaded and occupied by the benign Spirit of Wodehouse, and they have no wish to be free.

Now, The Most of Wodehouse is but one of innumerable holy books. The Everyman Best of Wodehouse is also a real treat for beginners. But really, wherever you choose to roam in Wodehouse-land, the world is simply your Plum.*

* Wodehouse's nickname