Customer Reviews

Piccadilly Jim

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

P. G. Wodehouse is at his best in "Piccadilly Jim". One or two humorous plotlines simply aren't enough for one of his stories. In this book we have Jimmy Crocker, a playboy of sorts on both sides of the Atlantic he becomes ashamed when his antics may have cost his American father an English Lordship. He decides to take on a different name, because of a girl, and then is forced to pretend to be that person pretending to be himself for the sake of that same girl. His father decides to come to America to be a butler so that he can follow baseball again. There are also kidnapping plots, other people pretending to be someone they aren't, an invention worth stealing, and more; all contained in this one story. If it sounds like it doesn't make sense, then it will when you read this book.

This is a fairly early Wodehouse book, first being published on February 24, 1917 by Dodd, Mean and Company in the U.S., and it was published in May of 1918 in the U.K. by Herbert Jenkins Limited. This book is not part of a series, although the characters Ogden Ford and his mother Nesta were introduced in "The Little Nugget".

For anyone who likes the Jeeves stories, I recommend continuing with the Wodehouse oeuvre with this short novel. It's an embarrassing thing to laugh out loud in public, but I enjoyed every page of this quick-paced story.

The story involves Jimmy Crocker, who is a bit of a troublemaker. Always getting into scuffles in his home country of England (the papers call him "Piccadilly Jim" to his chagrin), he decides to go to New York. On the way, he meets a beautiful young woman, but later hears her talking to her family about what an awful person "that James Crocker" is. He decides in order to meet her, he will have to pretend to be someone else, one Algernon Bayliss (a name made up on the spur of the moment).

However, due to his uncanny resemblance to James Crocker (he is continually running into people who recognize him as Crocker), the girl plans to pass "Algernon" off as Crocker to their shared aunt. So Jimmy has to pretend to be Algernon pretending to be Jimmy, all the while trying to get this girl to fall in love with him. (They're really only step-cousins through a second marriage.)

This is a terrific story of mistaken identity (there are several other events involved including James' father masquerading as a butler and a rich couple's child who wants to be kidnapped in order to split the proceeds) but Wodehouse carries all the confusion perfectly, making sure we are able to follow the action, yet without insulting our intelligence, a great feat in itself.

Picadilly Jim is the first Wodehouse book I have read and thoroughly enjoyed it.This is not a book that you finish reading in 3 days.You want to take your time and relish the language and the play of words. The story has many layers and each layer is as delightful (if not more) as the previous one.
Cant wait to read another Wodehouse!

I fell off my couch, laughing, when reading this one. The only reason I gave it four stars is that I've had a Wodehouse overdose. As with any Wodehouse book, you'll smile when you read this one. If you're never read a book by him before, Wodehouse looks at life from a different perpespective. He has a light, almost playful, way of looking at problems his characters face, exaggerating the problems ever so slightly to bring out the humor.

I very highly recommend this book. It has a great storyline and is very funny and entertaining. I'd give it more stars if I could. If you like the novel I also recommend the 1936 movie version staring Robert Montgomery.

This is the third novel of Wodehouse's mature (married) period, following his breakthrough _Something Fresh_ and _Uneasy Money_. It's well worth reading, with his hallmark impostors, mistaken identity, and implausible romantic reticence. It falls short of the humor of its two predecessors, though. It is unusual (for Wodehouse) in that one of his characters (the father of Ogden Nash, from _The Little Nugget_) has died; Ogden and his mother reappear in this book.

Wodehouse lovers can never get enough of him, and I am glad to have added this book to my collection. I believe it is an earlier work - maybe written in the 1920's - but has all the right elements to make pleasurable reading. Wodehouse honed his craft and improved with age, but the basic components of his style appear in even his earliest works. I can recommend this one without reservation.

I can't stop laughing. Hahahahahaha. (okay, I am done- here is the review)

This book was wonderfully hilarious. Twist after twist kept me on my toes, and the author's playful way with words kept me wishing I could be as clever as he. Picadilly Jim was my first Wodehouse and I immediately built up quite a collection. This one, however, remains my all-time favorite.

A witty and sparkling comedy of manners where you, the reader, are always in the know but the varied cast of charactes often are, hilariously, not as fortunate. Throughout, a playful zesting of the old aristocracy and some of their attendant foolishness.

Missing the collected works of P. G. Wodehouse has not been a literary catastrophe of epic proportions for this discerning reader, who has finally decided to plunge into Wodehouse's quaint universe of madcap English eccentrics based on the praise he's heard from others, most notably a celebrated former teacher of his. Although Wodehouse's seemingly effortless witty prose runs wild throughout this short novel, I had much difficulty trying to understand the humor behind this mistaken identity tale about the carefree English bohemian Jimmy Crocker. Crocker seeks to find a new identity of sorts in America, after running afoul of the Fleet Street tabloids in London, having earned a roguish reputation of sorts as "Piccadilly Jim". I suppose if I want to laugh aloud, I'll have to take a look again at the literary classics written by the great Mark Twain himself, but judging from my brief exposure to Wodehouse, this isn't the sort of literary cup of tea I want to drink from again.