# Where to start reading P.G.Wodehouse? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625 "2018-03-15T20:37:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/1 "2018-03-15T20:37:30Z")
I think it’s time that I gave P.G.Wodehouse a shot. I keep reading what a witty guy he was and I’ve never read any. Benchley, Thurber, yes, but Wodehouse? Not yet. Any suggestions as to something I could look at that isn’t too dated, arch, corny or unfunny? Dopers? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/2 "2018-03-15T20:45:57Z")
Here’s some advice: [Getting started with Bertie and Jeeves: a chronological challenge – Plumtopia](https://honoriaplum.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/getting-started-with-bertie-and-jeeves-a-chronological-challenge/) Either _Carry On, Jeeves_ or _The Inimitable Jeeves_ make a very good starting point. If you don’t care for these collections of stories, you probably won’t like anything else he did either. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/3 "2018-03-15T20:56:30Z")
Oh, you are in for a treat. I’m jealous. And listen to as much as you can. A good lilting Brit accent can bring out the quirkiness of many of Wodehouse’s characterizations. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/4 "2018-03-15T21:18:05Z")
I’d start with _The Code of the Woosters_. I did, and I read a whole lot of Wodehouse after that. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/5 "2018-03-15T21:40:10Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Here’s some advice: [Getting started with Bertie and Jeeves: a chronological challenge – Plumtopia](https://honoriaplum.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/getting-started-with-bertie-and-jeeves-a-chronological-challenge/) > > Either _Carry On, Jeeves_ or _The Inimitable Jeeves_ make a very good starting point. If you don’t care for these collections of stories, you probably won’t like anything else he did either. I think it’s possible someone could dislike Jeeves but still like Mr. Mulliner and/or the golf stories. A fair amount of his works have fallen into public domain, and can be obtained from [P. Gutenberg](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=wodehouse) ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/6 "2018-03-15T23:05:42Z")
> [@digs](#): > > And listen to as much as you can. [Jonathan Cecil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Cecil)’s readings are great. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/7 "2018-03-15T23:51:33Z")
A few thoughts … The first Wodehouse book I ever read many years ago that got me to become a devoted fan and collector of original editions was _Vintage Wodehouse_, an eclectic short story collection. It’s now out of print but you should be able to pick up a used one from Amazon affiliates or someplace like [Abebooks.com](http://Abebooks.com). Failing that, there are lots of short story collections still in print or newly in print that will give you a feel for a wide range of Wodehouse, which is where I would start. In that vein, don’t think of Wodehouse as being just the Jeeves and Wooster novels and stories. The Jeeves stories are excellent but I never thought they were Wodehouse’s best work, though many do. I think some of the Mulliner and Drones stories are more creative and funnier. He also wrote quite a large number of novels that had no major recurring characters. With regard to things that are “not too dated”, it’s all dated, though not in a bad way. But to fully appreciate some of the humor you really have to acquire some perception of life and culture in early 20th century Britain – the pervasiveness and role of the servant class, for instance, or the prevalence in society of what Wodehouse called the “knut”, the independently wealthy young aristocrat who didn’t have to work and spent his time in idle leisure. The knut was wealthy by virtue of his family and future inheritance, but often severely constrained in day-to-day cash, a theme that pervades many of the stories. You also have to get used to old British currency and the slang that goes with it – to pounds, quids, shillings, and crowns, and to the idea that “a fiver” is a great deal of money. And of course, cars that are always breaking down. You should be cautious about the Project Gutenberg material. The Wodehouse stuff that is out of copyright and available free is mostly his early writings, the most dated of all and not generally his best work. I would focus instead mostly on novels and collections that are currently in print, which tend to be the most popular ones. Many are available from Amazon, though in my own quests I have gone to UK bookstores, and the used book markets everywhere as far as Australia and New Zealand in search of books that were out of print or first editions. The Overlook Press in the US (and their equivalent in the UK, which I believe is called Everyman) publishes a hardback series of Wodehouse books in a uniform “collector’s edition” that should be a good source for many of his works in a high quality, nicely bound form at reasonable cost. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/8 "2018-03-15T23:53:55Z")
I’d recommend starting with [_The Most Of P.G. Wodehouse_](https://www.amazon.com/Most-P-G-Wodehouse/dp/0743203585), which gives you a nice selection of stories with a variety of differenct characters and one short novel. And yes, listening to a good read or watching Fry and Laurie’s portrayal of _Jeeves & Wooster_ will give an ear for the dialogue if you aren’t British. I agree with **wolfpup** that the earlier works that are in the public domain are not his best, and whatever you think of the _Jeeves & Wooster_ stories he has done excellent work with other characters. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/9 "2018-03-16T00:24:31Z")
**Stranger** ’s suggestion of _The Most of PG Wodehouse_ is excellent, and unlike _Vintage Wodehouse_ – which I remember fondly as my starting point in my Wodehouse journey – _The Most of_ is still in print in paperback. I have it, though had forgotten about it; I got it even though at the time I already had most of the content in other volumes (hey, I’m a collector!). It has the aforementioned Jeeves and Wooster, Mr. Mulliner, and some Drones stories – all classic Wodehouse – and the description also reminded me that the Blandings stories and novels featuring Lord Emsworth have been among my favorites, and some of the relatively scarcer Ukridge stories are among the funniest, and it has some of those, too. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/10 "2018-03-16T01:18:38Z")
I like the idea of hearing\* some Woodhouse first. I’d read a couple of stories but didn’t really “hear” the dialect until a student did a Woosteresque accent: _“I say, let’s pop down to Chumley’s, what?”_ I’d never understood the “what?” at the end of so many posh asides (nor had I known how to pronounce “Chalmondalay”). I’ve since remedied that with a dozen or so audiobooks. Second only to Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry’s voices, I do love Jonathan Cecil (I have a friend with that name, and I often say “Jawnny Sess’-ill”). \*or seeing: here’s some Jeeves and Wooster [S01 E5: Will Anatole Return to Brinkley Court?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_CwiNVtuxE) Youtube has a lot of Wodehouse. Oh, here’s [Fry on Wodehouse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogZv_mWBD4)! And there’s even a young lady opining on “P.G. Wodehouse: Where to begin?” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/11 "2018-03-16T02:07:38Z")
_Carry On, Jeeves_ is where I started, at around 11 or 12 years old. That’s the one where the first story has the swans, right? You can’t go wrong with the swans. JEEVES, THE PLACE IS ALIVE WITH SWANS. Anyway, short stories to start is the best; you get your jollies quick, like cocaine. When you go on to the Jeeves novels, I recommend _Right Ho, Jeeves._. Save _The Code of the Woosters_ and _Joy in the Morning_ until you’re ready for deeper waters. Then you can start on Lord Emsworth. What larks, eh? ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/12 "2018-03-16T16:51:42Z")
Plenty of good advice in this thread, but I’ll just throw out (in case it isn’t obvious from context) that the Jeeves & Wooster stories don’t really have any meaningful serialized story. You can start in the middle and be fine. As people have mentioned, the earliest stories aren’t the strongest, but that doesn’t mean you have to slog through them to get to the good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/13 "2018-03-18T16:38:35Z")
I mentioned the Overlook Press earlier as a good source for Wodehouse, most of the older editions and recompilations being out of print. I happened to be looking through the site just now to see if they had added any new volumes in the years since I last looked at their catalog, and indeed they have. In fact, Overlook in the US and their equivalent in the UK, the Everyman Library, are now undoubtedly the best source of new in-print Wodehouse material since the Wodehouse Penguin paperbacks went out of print, and probably the most complete Wodehouse collection from a single source ever. I was delighted to see that _Louder and Funnier_, one of the rarest Wodehouse books on the used market, has been added, as well as the wonderful semi-autobiography _America, I Like You_, oddly published by Overlook under its original UK title _Over Seventy_. The books are nicely printed on good paper sewn into hardcover bindings. I’m not particularly fond of the style of dust jacket art, but that’s just me. Most of the Wodehouse original editions had very colorful, almost cartoonish dust jackets, and the series of Penguin editions with the Chris Riddell art on the covers – which was most but not all of them – managed to capture that same spirit. Otherwise, these are physically very nicely made books, and the relative completeness of the collection today is remarkable. The complete Overlook Wodehouse collection (and I presume Everyman is the same) now numbers 102 books, though that includes a few box sets that duplicate some of the others. The respective websites are here, and I believe all or most of the books should be available from Amazon and other major retailers: [http://www.overlookpress.com/p-g-wodehouse.html?limit=all](http://www.overlookpress.com/p-g-wodehouse.html?limit=all) > **[P.G. Wodehouse - Everyman's Library](http://www.everymanslibrary.co.uk/wodehouse.aspx)** > > The finest editions in English of the world’s greatest books. Elegant new typography, cream-wove acid-free paper, sewn full cloth bindings, at paperback prices. /\>\ **Author:** ![pipperroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@pipperroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pipperroo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/14 "2018-03-18T19:14:31Z") Thanks for bringing this up. I have read random Wodehouse over the years, just whatever was on the shelf in the library. I really enjoyed the book I read about Psmith, and never thought to check if there were anymore with that character. I have just requested them from my library. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/15 "2018-03-27T18:01:14Z")
Is this the greatest website, or what! Thank you all for your wisely heartfelt and absolutely excellent advice. I’ve started with the _Inimitable_ and _Carry On_ and I love it. I’m ready, though, for new people, different settings and some different plots for now. Here I go. Thank you again. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/16 "2018-03-27T18:08:14Z")
Because of this thread, I’ve picked up _The Inimitable Jeeves_ also. It’s still a few layers down in the TBR pile, but I’m looking forward to it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/17 "2018-03-28T09:00:23Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Is this the greatest website, or what! Thank you all for your wisely heartfelt and absolutely excellent advice. I’ve started with the _Inimitable_ and _Carry On_ and I love it. I’m ready, though, for new people, different settings and some different plots for now. Here I go. Thank you again. I’m so glad that you’re enjoying it and that the comments here were helpful. If you want to move on beyond the Jeeves stories, my personal favorites are the many Drones short stories (among the prominent characters being Bingo Little and the pimple-faced millionaire at the Drones Club, Oofy Prosser), all the Mulliner stories collected in the three Mulliner books, the Ukridge stories, and perhaps most of all, the idyllic Blandings stories and novels. Evelyn Waugh, in a tribute to P. G. Wodehouse, once said that “For Mr. Wodehouse there has been no fall of Man; no ‘aboriginal calamity.’ His characters have never tasted the forbidden fruit. They are still in Eden. The gardens of Blandings Castle are that original garden from which we are all exiled.” ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/18 "2018-03-28T11:44:02Z")
> [@zombywoof](#): > > [Jonathan Cecil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Cecil)’s readings are great. My first experience with Wodehouse was _Code of the Woosters_, read by Cecil. It was awesome, though I did have the awkward experience of bursting out laughing on the treadmill at the gym. I got some odd looks. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/19 "2018-03-29T13:38:48Z")
I don’t know about this. No writers are any good except Vladimir Brusiloff. Sovietski is no good, and Nastikoff is worse than Sovietski. P.G. Wodehouse and Tolstoi are not bad. Not good, but not bad. But no novelists are any good except Vladimir Brusiloff. So stick with Brusiloff, that’s my suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625/20 "2018-03-29T17:36:10Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > No writers are any good except Vladimir Brusiloff. Sovietski is no good, and Nastikoff is worse than Sovietski. P.G. Wodehouse and Tolstoi are not bad. Not good, but not bad. But no novelists are any good except Vladimir Brusiloff. > > So stick with Brusiloff, that’s my suggestion. True, but those observations have to be delivered in the proper style by a bearded Russian, in the following manner: Down in the forest something stirred. It was Vladimir’s mouth opening, as he prepared to speak. He was not a man who prattled readily, especially in a foreign tongue. He gave the impression that each word was excavated from his interior by some up-to-date process of mining. He glared bleakly at Mr. Devine, and allowed three words to drop out of him. “Sovietski no good!” He paused for a moment, set the machinery working again, and delivered five more at the pithead. “I spit me of Sovietski!” Of course, if you really want your love life to click you forget about authors altogether and stick with great golfers like Abe Mitchell and Harry Vardon. “Yais! Yais! Most! Very!” shouted Vladimir Brusiloff, enthusiastically. “Arbmishel and Arreevadon. You know them, yes, what, no, perhaps?” Which is also an example of how dated some of the cultural references are. Abe Mitchell was born in 1887 and died in 1947, Harry Vardon lived from 1870 to 1937. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-to-start-reading-p-g-wodehouse/810625.md?page=2)