The Man Upstairs [Hardcover]

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Herbert Jenkins (1914)
• ASIN: B000J34VXK
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice collection from early in Wodehouse's career, August 3, 2011

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Hal Jordan "A reader" (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Man Upstairs (The Collector's Wodehouse) (Hardcover)

I am a huge Wodehouse fan and I enjoyed this collection of his early short stores. I have to say, though, that if Wodehouse had continued writing stories like this, I doubt I would ever have heard of him or that this book would still be in print nearly 100 years after its first publication. The stories in this collection are mostly light romantic comedies set in New York, London, and Paris. A number of critics have observed that Wodehouse in his better known stores about Bertie Wooster and his butler, Jeeves, the Earl of Emsworth, the denizens of the Drones Club, and so on continued for decades to write about an England frozen in the pre-World War I Edwardian era. This collection was first published in 1914, so the stories actually take place during the Edwardian era. For the most part, however, they do not involve the doings of the upper classes, as most of his later stories did. Instead they are mainly about average men and women getting into various romantic predicaments.

Although these stores are amusing enough, for the most part they lack the inspired zaniness that characterized his later work. Only the next to last story, a fanciful satire of knights in the Middle Ages, has the kind of laugh-out-loud wackiness of Wodehouse's best work. Here and there, these stories exhibit the word play and inspired plotting of the Bertie and Jeeves stories, but for the most part they are only moderately amusing. I would hazard a guess that there were in those days probably other authors writing stories that were as good. Those stores are likely to be out of print, though, because their authors never rose to the heights that Wodehouse did in his best work.

So, if you have read most of Wodehouse's later (and better) work, you should give these stories a try. If you are new to Wodehouse, then I would very strongly suggest you start with one of the Bertie and Jeeves short story collections (or novels) and leave this book for later. Finally, I really like the job Overlook Press has done in publishing these new editions of Wodehouse's work. The books are nicely bound, handsomely produced, and quite suitable for multiple rereadings.