Серия книг «P.G. Wodehouse» — 99 книг — стр. 5

This charming novel is one of Wodehouse’s best late works. The vintage plot concerns a Gainsborough miniature, a mouldering country house, an overweight solicitor, a fortune-hunter, a butler who isn’t a butler, an American corporate lawyer and his kleptomaniac sister; but the heart of the story – in every sense –concerns Jerry West and his determined pursuit of air hostess Jane Hunnicutt. When Jane unexpectedly becomes a millionairess, Jerry despairs of wooing her, but the sun never goes behind a cloud for long in Wodehouse: Jerry gets his Jane in the end, but only after a series of trials which raise the comic stakes to the author’s highest level.

This charming novel is one of Wodehouse’s best late works. The vintage plot concerns a Gainsborough miniature, a mouldering country house, an overweight solicitor, a…

When Sam Marlowe falls in love with his cousin's sparky ex-fiancée he finds himself up against stiff opposition from her millionaire father, her father's best friend and the best friend's son for whom she is destined, all of them travelling together aboard the RMS Atlantic. Nothing daunted, Sam perseveres in his suit: though he fails at sea he eventually triumphs on land. This Anglo-American musical comedy in prose begins in New York, crosses the Atlantic in leisurely fashion and ends in an English country house where all manner of things go bump in the night.

When Sam Marlowe falls in love with his cousin's sparky ex-fiancée he finds himself up against stiff opposition from her millionaire father, her father's best friend and the best…

When O’Hara and Moriarty, two boys at Wrykyn School, tar and feather the statue of a pompous local MP, O’Hara mislays at the scene of their crime a tiny gold bat borrowed from Trevor, captain of the school cricket team. The plot revolves around the fate of this bat and attempts to retrieve it, but the real focus of the novel is a vivid portrayal of school life. Though the setting is an English public school in the years before World War I, so sharp is Wodehouse’s ear for the way children talk that everyone will recognize familiar characters and situations, whatever their place of education. A gentle early comedy which should delight Wodehouse addicts and new readers alike.

When O’Hara and Moriarty, two boys at Wrykyn School, tar and feather the statue of a pompous local MP, O’Hara mislays at the scene of their crime a tiny gold bat borrowed from…

It is the general view at Eckleton that there never was such a house of slackers as Kay’s. The fags run riot, the senior dayroom lacks moral fibre, and no one seems to care much about sport. Fenn, head of house and county cricketer, does his best to impose some discipline but is continually undermined by his house-master, the meddlesome and ineffectual Mr Kay. After the Summer Concert fiasco, Mr Kay resolves to remove Fenn from office and puts his house into special measures, co-opting Kennedy, second prefect of Blackburn’s, as reluctant trouble - shooter with a brief to turn the place around. But without the backing of Fenn, and with the whole house hostile towards him, how can he achieve the impossible…? This simple school story, in the hands of the young Wodehouse, becomes a delightful and compelling read.

It is the general view at Eckleton that there never was such a house of slackers as Kay’s. The fags run riot, the senior dayroom lacks moral fibre, and no one seems to care much…

In nine of Wodehouse’s ripest stories from the 1920s, the characters are united by their worship of golf. From Rodney Spelvin, the sickeningly good-looking romantic poet who comes to his senses when he discovers the game, to Rollo Podmarsh, who finishes his round even when he thinks himself fatally poisoned, and Chester Meredith who discovers eloquence on the eighteenth green, we meet the full range of humanity in fair weather and foul.

In nine of Wodehouse’s ripest stories from the 1920s, the characters are united by their worship of golf. From Rodney Spelvin, the sickeningly good-looking romantic poet who comes…

The Little Nugget is one of the novels in which Wodehouse found his feet, a comic thriller set in an English prep school for the children of the nobility and gentry. Into their midst comes eleven-year-old Ogden Ford, the mouthy, overweight, chain-smoking son of an American millionaire. Ogden (whom we meet again in Piccadilly Jim) is the object of a kidnap attempt which forms the basis of the plot. The comedy arises from Wodehouse’s favourite topics of Anglo-American misunderstanding and the absurdities of school life.

The Little Nugget is one of the novels in which Wodehouse found his feet, a comic thriller set in an English prep school for the children of the nobility and gentry. Into their…

Monty Bodkin's pursuit of Gertude Butterwick is temporarily interrupted by his encounter with silver-screen siren Miss Lotus Blossom, who sees in him a means of restoring relations with her idol, the novelist Ambrose Tennyson. But Monty is not the only one with problems. Ambrose's brother Reggie has money troubles and Ikey Llewellyn is struggling with difficulties which would tax anyone's ingenuity, let alone his limited brain power. When the paths of these men collide, the ensuing plot complications produce a vintage Wodehouse farce involving London, New York, Hollywood and translatlantic liners. A delicious period piece from 1935.

Monty Bodkin's pursuit of Gertude Butterwick is temporarily interrupted by his encounter with silver-screen siren Miss Lotus Blossom, who sees in him a means of restoring…

Published under a pseudonym in the weekly magazine Chums, The Luck Stone was written very early in Wodehouse's career when he was still trying to establish himself as a write by trying different genres. It is the solitary example of his output of what one scholar has called the 'blood and thunder' adventure stories of which the youthful Wodehouse was himself an avid consumer. It even includes what must be one of the earliest fictional car crashes!

Published under a pseudonym in the weekly magazine Chums, The Luck Stone was written very early in Wodehouse's career when he was still trying to establish himself as a write by…

This substantial collection of early stories displays a variety of tone, style and setting which may surprise readers familiar only with the author’s later light comedies of aristocratic life. Wodehouse’s well-known gift for satisfying plots and comic surprises is evident on every page, but there are also signs of his debt to earlier writers in the realistic tradition. Set mainly in London or New York, many of the stories concern ordinary people – shop assistants, schoolmasters, secretaries, servants, unsuccessful writers – living the life of rented rooms and cheap cafés Wodehouse knew well from his own experience. Yet there is nothing sad or gloomy about these tales. Far from it: they are brimming with life and energy, beautifully written and invariably delightful. And for Wodehouse addicts there is also a goodly sprinkling of goofy young men-about-town and their valets to satisfy the strongest appetites.

This substantial collection of early stories displays a variety of tone, style and setting which may surprise readers familiar only with the author’s later light comedies of…

Following the death of Carmen Flores, the lubricious Mexican star, her Hollywood house is bought by wealthy Adela Cork, whose impecunious brother-inlawSmedley searches forCarmen’s legendary lost diary, in the belief that its scorching revelations about the sex life of her fellow stars will make him millions. He is helped and hindered by a posse of engaging characters: a safe-cracking butler, an unemployed scriptwriter and the girl who won’t marry him, a goofy English peer, two Beverly Hills policemen who would much rather be actors, and – former queen of the silent screen, and the terror of directors and husbands alike – the redoubtable Adela herself. Fortunately, her sister, ‘Bill’ Shannon, not for nothing nicknamed ‘The Old Reliable’, is on hand to ensure a satisfactory outcome. A light comedy which is also a sharp satire on Hollywood mores.

Following the death of Carmen Flores, the lubricious Mexican star, her Hollywood house is bought by wealthy Adela Cork, whose impecunious brother-inlawSmedley searches forCarmen’s…

When someone breaks into the cricket pavilion and steals two silver cups, the whole school is agog. Could it possibly be an inside job? Nothing less than the honour of St Austin’s is at stake, not to mention the reputation of Jim Thomson, an excellent athlete with a talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this charming novel of school life, the first book he published, Wodehouse demonstrates right away a talent for story-telling and characterization, and a sharp ear for the inflections of schoolboy speech, still recognizable after more than a century. But what marks the story out from others of the same sort are the many humorous touches which hint at a master of comedy in the making.

When someone breaks into the cricket pavilion and steals two silver cups, the whole school is agog. Could it possibly be an inside job? Nothing less than the honour of St Austin’s…

A classic musical comedy plot turned into a novel, The Prince and Betty is the story of a man who gives up everything for his girl. Fortunately, she chances to be the stepdaughter of a millionaire.

John Maude and Betty Silver are in love, but when John turns out to be heir to the principality of Mervo, a small Mediterranean island not a thousand miles from Monte Carlo, he finds himself ensnared in the establishment of a new casino, much to his beloved's high-minded disgust. She leaves him and takes a job with an American family in London; he abandons his post to follow her.

Eventually their misunderstandings are disentangled, and in the process of telling their story, published early in his career, Wodehouse constructs the critique of Europe versus America, privilege versus enterprise, decadence versus adventure, which was to underpin many of his later tales.

A classic musical comedy plot turned into a novel, The Prince and Betty is the story of a man who gives up everything for his girl. Fortunately, she chances to be the stepdaughter…

Would-be painter, George Finch, with lots of money and no talent, falls for lovely Molly Waddington who falls for him. Unfortunately, Molly's snobbish stepmother, Mrs Sigsbee H. Waddington, New York society queen, has grander ideas for Molly, not least because George comes from Idaho, which is in every sense beyond the pale.

Based on a 1917 musical comedy script by Wodehouse and his friend, Guy Bolton, The Small Bachelor tells the story of George's struggle to win his girl, with the willing help of Hamilton Beamish, author of sepf-improvement pamphlets, and the unwitting assistance of a poetic policeman, Molly's henpecked father, and New York's premier female pickpocket. A light comedy in Wodehouse's most playful vein.

Would-be painter, George Finch, with lots of money and no talent, falls for lovely Molly Waddington who falls for him. Unfortunately, Molly's snobbish stepmother, Mrs Sigsbee H.…

Clarence Chugwater is not a Boy Scout for nothing. It is summer 1909 and everyone is too interested in the Test Match to notice that England has been invaded by the Germans. And the Russians. And the Chinese. Not to mention a ‘boisterous band of the Young Turks’, a mad Mullah, and a brace of North African pirates. The government has recently abolished the army so there is nothing to be done about it anyway, except give a masterly display of polite indifference. But this would be to reckon without patriotic Clarence, ‘Boy of Destiny’, who alone is prepared to stand up to the foe, and who devises a highly unorthodox plan to restore his country to freedom…

An amusing jeu d’esprit of the young Wodehouse, which satirizes the popular ‘Invasion literature’ of the era while poking gentle fun at English (and Foreign) manners and generally revelling in absurdity. The Swoop! Or, How Clarence Saved England reprints the 33 black and white drawings by C. Harrison that accompanied the first edition. It is supplemented byThe Military Invasion of America, in which Clarence’s story is humorously transplanted across the Atlantic.

Clarence Chugwater is not a Boy Scout for nothing. It is summer 1909 and everyone is too interested in the Test Match to notice that England has been invaded by the Germans. And…

In order to save his reputation and the honour of his house at school after he shames himself by running away from a fight between fellow pupils and toughs from the local town, a studious schoolboy takes up the study of boxing. This charming early novel by P. G. Wodehouse plays a series of witty variations on the standard school story of the period, balancing the minor heroics of the action against a humorously ironic commentary. The simple tale is given sparkle by vivid character drawing and the author’s sharp ear for schoolboy dialogue.

In order to save his reputation and the honour of his house at school after he shames himself by running away from a fight between fellow pupils and toughs from the local town, a…

If Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge had a fiver for every dodgy scheme he has ever floated, he would be a rich man indeed. In these ten stories he tries every way of making money, from writing political slogans to opening a college for dogs. In his own eyes, Ukridge is a Great Man and a Visionary. In ours, he is English literature's most delightful chancer and one of Wodehouse's greatest comic creations: charming, ambitious, persuasive, optimistic and almost always disastrous. Sometimes supported by his rich Aunt Julia – but more often expelled from her house for his sins – he moves through the landscape in his eternal yellow mackintosh, dreaming of riches and borrowing shillings, an innocent abroad in a hostile world.

If Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge had a fiver for every dodgy scheme he has ever floated, he would be a rich man indeed. In these ten stories he tries every way of making…

Although the story of Uncle Dynamite concerns Bill Oakshott’s struggle to find ways of getting his girl while financing his inheritance at Ashenden Manor, the real hero of the book is Frederick Altamont Cornwallis, fifth Earl of Ickenham. This noble lord who describes himself as ‘one of the hottest earls that ever donned a coronet’ was one of his creator’s favourite characters, featuring in three other novels. Lord Ickenham sees it as his mission to bring a little joy into the lives of others, and on this occasion he surpasses himself.

Although the story of Uncle Dynamite concerns Bill Oakshott’s struggle to find ways of getting his girl while financing his inheritance at Ashenden Manor, the real hero of the…

These are strange times for the English aristocracy. When hard-up William FitzWilliam Delamere Chalmers, Lord Dawlish – otherwise known as Bill – sets off for America to make a fortune, he does not expect to be left one by an American millionaire with whom he strikes up a passing acquaintance. Honour demands that Bill Dawlish should restore this unexpected windfall to the rightful heirs, but this involves him in complicated adventures with greedy relations, haughty dowagers, dogs, chickens and an angry monkey. Calm is eventually restored but not before Bill has met the woman of his dreams and married her in the church on Fifth Avenue.

These are strange times for the English aristocracy. When hard-up William FitzWilliam Delamere Chalmers, Lord Dawlish – otherwise known as Bill – sets off for America to make a…

Wodehouse is at his most sparkling in this collection of stories concering members of the Drones Club. Pongo Twistleton and Freddie Widgeon may be small of brain and short of cash but they are always good for ingenious adventures, especially when it comes to falling in love with the wrong girl or cooking up hopeless schemes to make money. They and their contemporaries populate a series of vignettes in which the plot-twists keep you on your toes while the jokes keep on coming.

Wodehouse is at his most sparkling in this collection of stories concering members of the Drones Club. Pongo Twistleton and Freddie Widgeon may be small of brain and short of cash…