The Uncollected Wodehouse [Paperback]

P. G. Wodehouse (Author), David A. Jasen (Editor), Malcolm Muggeridge (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1992

For all fans of the incomparable and outrageously funny portrayer of English upper-class life, here is a necessary addition to the Wodehouse shelf. Taken mostly from old newspapers and magazines, these previously uncollected articles and short stories were written early in Wodehouse's literary career. Included are the only mystery story Wodehouse ever wrote, the first of his many articles for Punch, a hilarious spoof of the advertising world, amusing accounts of British public school life, and many other collector's delights.

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: International Polygonics (May 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558821198
• ISBN-13: 978-1558821194
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,426,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No Bottom to This Barrel, May 1, 2000

By 

E. T. Veal (Chicago, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Uncollected Wodehouse (Paperback)

When the wary reader encounters "The Uncollected So-and-So", he is wise to keep a tight grip on his billfold. He may suspect that what has gone uncollected may have been left lying about for good reason and perhaps should have been placed in the hands of a "collector" of a kind other than literary.

Happily, P. G. Wodehouse inspires no such fears. One might say that, while some Wodehouse is better than others, none is worse. Though falling largely into the second class, the pieces in this modest volume lack nothing of the familiar Plumsian delight.

The historically minded will find the very first writing for which Plum received pay ("Some Aspects of Game-Captaincy", in which the terms "blot" and "excrescence" are coupled in the way that would someday rolling trippingly off the tongues of Bertie Wooster's aunts), his first appearance in Punch ("An Unfinished Collection", the prelude to many a future collecting mania), his first published short story ("When Papa Swore in Hindustani", where, not for the last time, a recalcitrant father learns the hidden virtues of his daughter's beau) and his first butler story ("The Good Angel", whose Keggs misplaces his h's and lacks Jeeves' nobility of spirit but nonetheless applies a keen understanding of the psychology of the individual to reunite young hearts separated by an interloping poet).

There are, in all, fourteen stories, none likely to be familiar to even the most assiduous Wodehousian, and fifteen occasional items from newspapers, including a couple of poems. The non-stories ("nonfiction" would be distinctly not le mot juste) are very slight (averaging only two pages each), and some depend on topical references for their humor. They are best enjoyed as bon-bons between the more substantial fare.

Wodehouse unfortunately stopped writing a few years ago. Editors must now fish into the barrel for new entertainments. It is our good fortune that this particular barrel has no bottom.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's Wodehouse. How bad could it be?, November 30, 2001

By 

"davebear" (Watertown, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Uncollected Wodehouse (Paperback)

These collected writings, of various sorts, while not the cream of the Wodehouse crop, are still Wodehouse. As such, they are still superior to roughly 95% of everything else written in a humorous vein. What's more, taken as a whole, they show the evolution of Wodehouse's writing from schoolboy days into his prime. And, some of them are, in fact, gems.

Not, perhaps, the book with which to makes one's acquaintance with Wodehouse, but a worthy addition to the published Wodehouse collection.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uncollected collection, September 19, 2005

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Uncollected Wodehouse (Paperback)

P.G. Wodehouse is known to generations of fans as the creator of Jeeves and Wooster, but his writing was quite more eclectic and widespread than that venerable collection of tales. This text, compiled by David Jasen (Wodehouse's principal biographer) shows a new breadth to Wodehouse - this includes newspaper and magazine articles, short stories beyond his usual genre (including the only mystery short story Wodehouse ever wrote), and even a little bit of poetry.

Wodehouse himself had an eventful life, including time spent in a prison camp as well as incarceration in a maternity home in France, but, according to Malcolm Muggeridge in the Foreword, there is no diminishment in the quality of Wodehouse's writing regardless of his personal circumstances. This is apparent reading across this broad collection that spans the greater part of seven decades, that Wodehouse had a particular gift and style that remained permanent.

Wodehouse, according to Muggeride and Jasen, was a clown of the highest order - clowns are often keen observers of human nature and activity, knowning what makes people tick, so as to make them laugh. 'Laughter, indeed, is a great equaliser between the impulse to adulate and a propensity to scoren those, as the Book of Common Prayer has it, set in authority over us - which is why, incidentally, laughter is so abhorrent to all authoritarians whatever their ideology.' Humourous romances are rarely the stuff of revolution, but they often do little to support the existing order of things. Wodehouse's stories have depth to them, but there's always an undercurrent that simultaneously admires and disparages the system - whatever that system may be.

In this collection are characters little known even to Wodehouse fans. For example, the character of Reggie Pepper, was the first series character for Wodehouse; however, with the advent of Bertie Wooster, Pepper receded from view. This is a book full of 'what ifs' that the keen observer can derive much pleasure, and much frustration, from considering. This, in the end, is only true to form of the Wodehouse style.