UKridge [Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

P. G. Wodehouse (Author), Fredrick Davidson (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1999

Laddie, write my biography. Bung it down on paper. Thus spake Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge to his long suffering friend Corky Corcoran, whose literary efforts to date have consisted of weekly newspaper articles and a single music hall song.

--This text refers to the CD-ROM edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Money makes the world go round for Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge – and when there isn’t enough of it, the world just has to spin a bit faster. Ever on the lookout for a quick buck, a solid gold fortune, or at least a plausible little scrounge, the irrepressible Ukridge gives con men a bad name. Looking like an animated blob of mustard in his bright yellow raincoat, he invests time, passion and energy (but seldom actual cash) in a series of increasingly bizarre money-making schemes. Finance for a dog college? It’s yours. Shares in an accident syndicate? Easily arranged. Promoting a kind-hearted heavyweight boxer? A snip.

Poor Corky Corcoran, Ukridge’s old school chum and confidant, trails through these pages in the ebullient wake of Wodehouse’s most disreputable but endearing hero and hopes to escape with his shirt at least. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

The author of almost a hundred books and the creator of Jeeves, Blandings Castle, Psmith, Ukridge, Uncle Fred and Mr Mulliner, P.G. Wodehouse was born in 1881 and educated at Dulwich College. After two years with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank he became a full-time writer, contributing to a variety of periodicals. As well as his novels and short stories, he wrote lyrics for musical comedies, and at one stage had five shows running simultaneously on Broadway. At the age of 93, in the New Year's Honours List of 1975, he received a long-overdue Knighthood, only to die on St Valentine's Day some 45 days later. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged edition (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786115831
• ISBN-13: 978-0786115839
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,183,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( W ) > Wodehouse, P. G.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Gold, October 15, 2001

By 

MRS P NICHOLSON (U.K.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ukridge (Paperback)

Ukridge is P G Wodehouse's greatest creation. Unfairly eclipsed in the public imagination by Jeeves&Wooster, for the simple reason that like Psmith Wodehouse didn't write that much for the character. But what there is, is pure gold and 'Ukridge' is no exception. No one story stands out as they're all mini-masterpieces. Get hold of it as soon as you can, old horse!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ukridge Romps!, November 4, 2004

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ukridge (Hardcover)

If you haven't met Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge yet, you've missed a treat. I think of Ukridge as a comic character virtually equal to Falstaff.

P.G. Wodehouse based the character on a school friend which adds extra poignancy to the many hilarious tales in this book.

The book has ten chapters, each of which is an entire short story. However, the stories are connected to one another so you have continuing development of characters and plots.

The story is told from the perspective of the long-suffering James Corcoran, an impecunious author who is one of Ukridge's favorite sources of money, clothes, lodgings and all other sorts of accommodations.

Ukridge is a great schemer . . . who doesn't bother to work out all of the details. He's confident that an abundant universe will take care of him. Sometimes he's right and sometimes not.

Most people will be thrilled by Ukridge's career as a boxing manager for Battling Billson, the most mercurial fighter the world has ever know. Three chapters are devoted to that story.

The book opens with a classic Ukridge scheme; he's going to make a mint by training dogs to behave at Ukridge's Dog College.

The second story, Ukridge's Accident Syndicate, shows that even if a scheme works, it may not pay off in the way you expected.

Ukridge tries his hand at being a political surrogate in The Long Arm of Looney Coote, with hilarious consequences.

In First Aid for Dora, Ukridge decides to help Dora recover from having lost her job . . . which she lost because of him. With help like his, one should probably seek out enemies instead! In Ukridge Sees Her Through, Dora gets more "help" from Ukridge.

Ukridge is prone to overstate his position to others. He lives to regret that tendency when it almost leads to unexpected matrimony in No Wedding Bells for Him.

In Ukridge Rounds a Nasty Corner, Ukridge falls in love and has to prove himself worthy of his love's family. Now that's a tough trick!

You can read each of these stories in less than an hour. I suggest spacing them out over time so you can enjoy their flavor longer.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Corky, Old Horse, April 17, 2005

By 

Gord Wilson "alivingdog.com" (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ukridge (Hardcover)

Reviewers of Ukridge seem to be diffident, and the discussion tends to center on their view of one Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, leading light and subject of said book. Missing the point, I'd say. When P.G.W. introduced this large and in charge Man of Affairs in Love Amoung the Chickens, he knew he was on to a good thing, and that they would travel many miles together. When, more brilliantly still, he hit upon Corky Pirbright as narrator and true blue friend of our dauntless hero, he laid a path that he himself would retread many times, in the Oldest Member, in Mr. Mulliner, in the unsinkable Bertie Wooster, and even in the occasional Drones Club Member.

He struck gold, I'd say, in these first sketches of the faithful but tempermentally at odds narrator who, for all his seeming passivity, is yet crucial to the plot. These early stories are a bit much taken together, but they read delightfully when sprinkled in anthologies or as an occasional hiatus for readers engrossed in Jeeves or Blandings novels. Taken that way, some of them are very good indeed, notably "Ukridge's Dog College" (early on done for television) and Ukridge's Accident Syndicate, which unleashes the blue blood of the sportsman that will play so much a part in the fortunes and misfortunes of Bingo, Uncle Fred, and others who like a little flutter, down to the most savvy of them all, the inimitable Jeeves. These stories stand alone, as do most of the earlier PGW bits, being largely written for serialisation or as one offs for magazines, particularly the Saturday Evening Post, but at least three of them tie together to tell the tales of Battling Billson, an early type of the pugilists who later would be so much a part of the world of Wooster, and these tales, especially, show young Wodehouse well on his way.