Been bingeing on Wodehouse lately...
The Small Bachelor - based on a musical he co-wrote with Guy Bolton and dates from 1927, so very much golden era Wodehouse. Brilliantly bafflingly convoluted plot. Very funny.
The White Feather - 1907, an early school story about a boy's attempt to recover his honour following an episode of cowardliness. Pretty good on the whole, but still very much the work of a writer learning his craft and discovering his style. A definite improvement on The Gold Bat (1904) but not yet as polished as Mike (1909), which is easily the best of his school books. A few unfortunate signs of an "of its era" outlook (you'd have to call Wodehouse institutionally racist rather than maliciously racist but you would hope for better from someone of his apparent intelligence).
Uncle Fred In The Springtime - 1939, yet another Blandings story involving people posing as other people and attempted pig theft. I don't particularly mind his habit of rehashing storylines but this feels a bit stale compared to Blandings classics such as Leave It To Psmith and Summer Lightning. Meh.
Money For Nothing - 1928, another bona fide classic, this time featuring the notorious criminals Dolly and Soapy Molloy and Chimp Twist, who are among my favourite recurring Wodehouse characters. Not one of his very best but still wonderful by most normal standards.
Tales Of St Austins - 1903, a collection of short school stories, all of which had previously appeared in The Public School magazine. A lot of in jokes that you'd probably only get if you attended a minor English public school at the turn of the century. Plotting is thin - extremely thin by Wodehouse standards - but there are some good lines. Interesting mainly for its historical value.
