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Last edited by David Scotson
September 16, 2023 | History

P. G. Wodehouse

15 October 1881 - 14 February 1975

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE (15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) (pronounced /ˈwʊdhaʊs/) was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be widely read. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained that of pre-war English upper-class society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career.

An acknowledged master of English prose, Wodehouse has been admired both by contemporaries such as Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by modern writers such as Stephen Fry, Douglas Adams, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith and Terry Pratchett. Journalist and writer Christopher Hitchens commented, "there is not, and never will be, anything to touch him."

Wodehouse's characters are often eccentric, with peculiar attachments, such as to pigs (Lord Emsworth), newts (Gussie Fink-Nottle), antique silver (Bertie's Uncle Tom Travers), golf-collectables (numerous characters) or socks (Archibald Mulliner). His "mentally negligible" good-natured characters invariably make their lot worse by their half-witted schemes to improve a bad situation.

A key figure in most Wodehouse stories is a "fixer" whose genius soars above the incompetent blather and crude bluster of most of the other characters, Jeeves being the best known example. Other characters in this vein are Lord Ickenham ("Uncle Fred") and Galahad Threepwood, who perform much the same role in the Blandings Castle stories—though never both at the same time—and Psmith, who does the same thing in the stories that bear his name.

Wodehouse was known for his consummate skill at their detailed construction and development. Typically, a relative or friend makes some demand that forces a character into a bizarre situation from which it seems impossible to recover, only to resolve itself in a clever and satisfying finale.

Source: Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse]

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  • Cover of: Oh, Clarence!
    First published in 1900 1 edition

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  • Cover of: Meet Mr. Mulliner
    First published in 1900 19 editions in 2 languages — 2 previewable Cover of edition meetmrmulliner0000wode

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  • Cover of: The heart of a goof: by P. G. Wodehouse.

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  • Cover of: A Damsel in Distress
    First published in 1900 48 editions in 1 language — 4 previewable Cover of edition damselindistress0000wode_f9w0 Cover of edition damselindistress0000wode Cover of edition damseldistresswo00wode

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  • Cover of: The Pothunters
    First published in 1902 22 editions in 1 language

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  • Cover of: William Tell Told Again

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  • Cover of: The white feather.
    First published in 1907 13 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition whitefeather0000wode

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  • Cover of: Love Among the Chickens
    First published in 1908 41 editions in 2 languages — 2 previewable Cover of edition loveamongchicken0000wode

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  • Cover of: Mike: a public school story
    First published in 1909 15 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Psmith in the City
    First published in 1910 33 editions in 1 language — 4 previewable Cover of edition psmithincity0000wode_v2x0 Cover of edition psmithincity0000wode Cover of edition OL9902398M

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  • Cover of: The intrusion of Jimmy
    First published in 1910 31 editions in 1 language — 4 previewable Cover of edition intrusionofjimmy0000wode Cover of edition gentlemanofleisu0000wode Cover of edition intrusionjimmy00wode

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  • Cover of: The prince and Betty
    First published in 1912 20 editions in 2 languages — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: The little nugget
    First published in 1914 24 editions in 2 languages — 2 previewable Cover of edition littlenugget00wode_638

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  • Cover of: Something new
    First published in 1915 49 editions in 1 language — 5 previewable Cover of edition somethingfresh0000wode_d2h2 Cover of edition somethingfresh0000wode_o9y7 Cover of edition somethingfresh0000wode Cover of edition somethingfresh0000wode_e6t7

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  • Cover of: Psmith, Journalist
    First published in 1915 60 editions in 1 language — 3 previewable Cover of edition psmithjournalist0000pgwo Cover of edition psmithjournalist00wode

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  • Cover of: Uneasy Money
    First published in 1917 34 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition uneasymoney00wode

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  • Cover of: Piccadilly Jim
    First published in 1917 20 editions in 1 language — 3 previewable Cover of edition piccadillyjim0000wode_i8b8 Cover of edition piccadillyjim0000wode_t0s0

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  • Cover of: My man Jeeves
    First published in 1919 30 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition mymanjeeves00pgwo

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  • Cover of: Their mutual child
    First published in 1919 1 edition in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: The coming of Bill.
    First published in 1920 1 edition

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Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
September 16, 2023 Edited by David Scotson removed some audiobook narrator names
April 14, 2023 Edited by Tom Morris Remove bad AKAs
September 3, 2021 Edited by Jenner merge authors
September 30, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot add ISNI
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user initial import