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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
This is the first book I've read by Wodehouse, and it is obvious I've been missing a lot. This is a nice collection of short stories, and even though they are all engaging there is not one that I found amazingly good.
"Bill the Bloodhound" and "The Making of Mac's" are not as funny as entertaining; "Extricating Young Gussie" introduces Bertie and a lot of funny situations; "Wilton's Holiday" and "A Sea of Troubles" find characters in weird and complicated situations. "Crowned Heads" and "One Touch of Nature" are sort of forgettable; "At Geisenheimer's", "Black for Luck", "The Romance of an Ugly Policeman" and "The Man with Two Left Feet" are all endearing. Finally, "The mixer" is adorable!
"Bill the Bloodhound" and "The Making of Mac's" are not as funny as entertaining; "Extricating Young Gussie" introduces Bertie and a lot of funny situations; "Wilton's Holiday" and "A Sea of Troubles" find characters in weird and complicated situations. "Crowned Heads" and "One Touch of Nature" are sort of forgettable; "At Geisenheimer's", "Black for Luck", "The Romance of an Ugly Policeman" and "The Man with Two Left Feet" are all endearing. Finally, "The mixer" is adorable!
"The Man with two Left feet and other stories" consist of some of Wodehouse's humorous short stories. Though most of them are stories about young love, there are quite a few stories that certainly stood apart. Wodehouse's talent to present serious sentences in the funniest way possible makes him as great as writers such as Charles Dickens or Robert Stevenson.
"Bill the bloodhound" is a story which we can sit back and read as if we were watching a movie. How Bill made amazingly stupid mistakes, how he's in love with Alice, and how he became a part of their group.
"Extricating Young Gussie" was also a good one, though I didn't feel as committed to it as the other stories.This is also where Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster, as well as his Aunt Agatha, Wodehouse's most famous characters known all over the World, are introduced. "Wilton's Holiday" didn't offer me much interest either.
"The Mixer" (containing 2 parts) was what I was talking about when I meant that there were some stories that stood out. The story's protagonist is a puppy, who meets different owners and how it slowly changes his life. Life from this little puppy's perspective is a long journey, where he struggles to understand his master's orders and how the society works. The Mixer was an extremely entertaining piece of Wodehouse.
I loved "Crowned Heads", where the handsome Ted Brady falls in love with the shy and quiet Kate Bennett. How Ted tries hard to change her grandfather's mind so that he consents to their wedding shows his love for Kate.
"The Making of Mac's" was a story about how the Waiter of a restaurant talks about how it was made, about the developments of their family issues and about how it was all ultimately solved.This was a good story, though I wouldn't give it 5 stars if I could.
"One Touch of Nature" is a story about a sports fan, Mr J Wilmot Birdsey, who loves baseball as much as his own life. He goes to a baseball match that took place in England, where he lives now - a rare occurence. He apparently notices two "sports fans", and invites them to dinner. Both of them reluctantly agree. What takes place after that is an astounding turn of events when he discovers that one of them was a criminal and the other a reporter, who reports to the Scotland Yard at once.Mr Birsdey, unable to look on the misery of the criminal helps him escape. This was one of my most favourite stories out of the whole lot.
"Black for luck" seems to give the message that no one can defeat you if you've got someone to care for you and love you. The Struggling playwright's last shot at writing a play fails but even then he feels happy because he's in love. Not exactly my favourite though.
"Bill the bloodhound" is a story which we can sit back and read as if we were watching a movie. How Bill made amazingly stupid mistakes, how he's in love with Alice, and how he became a part of their group.
"Extricating Young Gussie" was also a good one, though I didn't feel as committed to it as the other stories.This is also where Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster, as well as his Aunt Agatha, Wodehouse's most famous characters known all over the World, are introduced. "Wilton's Holiday" didn't offer me much interest either.
"The Mixer" (containing 2 parts) was what I was talking about when I meant that there were some stories that stood out. The story's protagonist is a puppy, who meets different owners and how it slowly changes his life. Life from this little puppy's perspective is a long journey, where he struggles to understand his master's orders and how the society works. The Mixer was an extremely entertaining piece of Wodehouse.
I loved "Crowned Heads", where the handsome Ted Brady falls in love with the shy and quiet Kate Bennett. How Ted tries hard to change her grandfather's mind so that he consents to their wedding shows his love for Kate.
"The Making of Mac's" was a story about how the Waiter of a restaurant talks about how it was made, about the developments of their family issues and about how it was all ultimately solved.This was a good story, though I wouldn't give it 5 stars if I could.
"One Touch of Nature" is a story about a sports fan, Mr J Wilmot Birdsey, who loves baseball as much as his own life. He goes to a baseball match that took place in England, where he lives now - a rare occurence. He apparently notices two "sports fans", and invites them to dinner. Both of them reluctantly agree. What takes place after that is an astounding turn of events when he discovers that one of them was a criminal and the other a reporter, who reports to the Scotland Yard at once.Mr Birsdey, unable to look on the misery of the criminal helps him escape. This was one of my most favourite stories out of the whole lot.
"Black for luck" seems to give the message that no one can defeat you if you've got someone to care for you and love you. The Struggling playwright's last shot at writing a play fails but even then he feels happy because he's in love. Not exactly my favourite though.
This is my first Wodehouse and from what I have heard from people,he writes stories and books with a relaxed tone that usually end well.
All of the stories in this collection conform to this pattern. I particularly enjoyed At Geisenheimers because of the way the dancer comes to the rescue of a woman's happiness by showing her husband what a great dancer she is. The ending of this one stuck with me. It made me deeply happy to read how the dancers priorities re aligned after this experience of hers.
Another story I really enjoyed was the titular story,The Man With Two Left Feet. It's another simple but superbly well written short story about the honest intention of a man who wants to make his wife happy by trying his hardest to learn to dance out of a burst of jealousy for his co worker. He spends weeks at it and when the time comes,he makes a total fool out of himself. But then he finds out his wife didn't care at all that he couldn't dance and simply wanted him to be himself. Lovely ending,lovely story.
I am in the mood to read all of Wodehouse's works now and would heartily recommend this one as a starter even though it isn't one of the "classic" Wodehouse starter books in the Jeeves and Wooster series.
All of the stories in this collection conform to this pattern. I particularly enjoyed At Geisenheimers because of the way the dancer comes to the rescue of a woman's happiness by showing her husband what a great dancer she is. The ending of this one stuck with me. It made me deeply happy to read how the dancers priorities re aligned after this experience of hers.
Another story I really enjoyed was the titular story,The Man With Two Left Feet. It's another simple but superbly well written short story about the honest intention of a man who wants to make his wife happy by trying his hardest to learn to dance out of a burst of jealousy for his co worker. He spends weeks at it and when the time comes,he makes a total fool out of himself. But then he finds out his wife didn't care at all that he couldn't dance and simply wanted him to be himself. Lovely ending,lovely story.
I am in the mood to read all of Wodehouse's works now and would heartily recommend this one as a starter even though it isn't one of the "classic" Wodehouse starter books in the Jeeves and Wooster series.
A bit of a mixed bag, as short story collections usually are. This batch is still from somewhat early in Wodehouse's career, so some of the stories lack that lighthearted frothiness that becomes his later trademark. Still, there are some enjoyable tales here. All in all a quick and entertaining read, but not where I would start if you are new to Wodehouse.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a lovely selection of short stories from Wodehouse. The 13 stories are largely absent of the famed, and often hilarious, Bertie and Jeeves but are still enjoyable in their own right. Each story has a sense of playfulness to them making them fun to read despite the sometimes heavy subject matter (like suicide) .
Does not seem like Wodehouse at all (I would never have guessed he was the author had I not known otherwise); very dull. I think there was only one Bertie story in this book of various short stories, but it wasn't that great, and barely hints at his future stellar writing career.
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Another collection of Wodehouse stories, only one of which ("Extricating Young Gussie") is a Bertie Wooster story. Reading these stories at the same time as a Theodore Sturgeon volume of short stories constantly had me drawing comparisons between the two writers. Wodehouse never wrote fantasy per se (that is, Bertie Wooster never encountered a genie or a god in his garden), but in truth his stories were always fantastical. As commentators have said, the idyllic world of young men in spats and authoritative aunts was a figment of Wodehouse's imagination, and never existed at any time in England. I don't think Wodehouse would have disagreed; he knew the power of fantasy. In this volume, he tells one story ("The Mixer") from the point of view of a dog, and one of his habits was to read the entire Shakespeare's collected works every year, and Willy wasn't a stranger to fantasy, either.