Customer Reviews

The Prince and Betty

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

 

 

Wodehouse is at his best when lampooning upper class New York and British society. He is clearly out of his element in this book. While the book's main characters are the typical young couple in love, much of the story is set in lower class New York City, and the other characters include gangsters, poor immigrants, and prize fighters. Wodehouse's attempts to imitate gangster speech are annoying, and many of his characterizations ring false.

P. G. Wodehouse had not really hit his stride yet when this story was published. The American accents/language seem somewhat stilted. Still a very funny story. Well worth collecting and well worth reading. ON the Wodehouse scale of 1-10 about a 4 (compared to Jeeves, and Blandings stories). That would translate to about an 8 on a scale with other writers.

A previous reviewer has mentioned that the hero of this book, named Smith, seems so much like the more famous Wodehouse character, Psmith. The reason is that they are the same character with a few minor changes, most importantly Smith is American.

This has to do with the publication history of this book. In 1910, Wodehouse published a novel called "Psmith Journalist" werialized in the American magazine continuing the adventures of Psmith and Mike from "Psmith in the City" as they grapple with lots of American gangsters, boxers, slumlords, etc. This novel was published in book form as "Psmith Journalist" in 1915.

In the meantime, he published 2 different (US & UK) revised versions under the title "Prince and Betty" -- one with and one without an additional love story. The version here appears to be the US version.

I have read and enjoyed "Psmith Journalist," and while ,it is the weakest of his Psmith books I definately recomend it as a must for any Wodehouse fan. I haven't yet read "Prince and Betty" but am looking forward to it to see the differences between it and Psmith Journalist. Also, Jimmy Pitt the hero of the excellent Wodehouse book, "Gentleman of Leisure" makes an appearance in Prince and Betty

Wodehouse is finely honing the comical style that characterizes the later novels. This novel, however, is very dissimilar to Bertie/Jeeves. Instead, it's more like Damon Runyon, if Runyon had written a novel. The characteristic near-misses and misunderstandings of Wodehouse are present, as is the jocular young man in spats (here called Smith, supposedly American, but reading like the Psmith of the Wodehouse books of that name), but the two main characters are college-educated Americans. It is the subplot in the last half of the story involving gangs and their "canisters" (guns) that makes it almost unbelievable that this is Wodehouse. Although comedic, the real level of danger presented to the characters is great, especially compared with later novels in which danger is usually in the form of an avenging aunt who threatens to cut off the money supply. Imagine what Wodehouse would have been like if he had chosen to follow the path of this novel rather than the Psmith novels or the Bertie/Jeeves stories!

Wodehouse does a wonderful bit of satire here on the "wholesome" newspapers of the day, probably little knowing that his fare would be held up as wholesome in later years.

This American version of _The Prince and Betty_ is a combination and mutilation of the original English version (which now seems unobtainable) and _Psmith, Journalist_. The English original might be worth reading, as is _Psmith, Journalist_; but I don't see any reason for anyone but a Wodehouse completist to read this mishmash. Wodehouse didn't even take the opportunity to remove the glaring dei ex machinę from the plot, and some aspects (e.g., [P]smith's inconsistent characterization) make sense only if you know their origin in an attempt to reconcile the unreconcilable. Some amusement is to be had, however, from the sheer incongruity, e.g., [P]smith as an alumnus of Harvard and (mild spoiler) a jailbird.