I am rejoined by Gwen Sheldon to peruse the first collection of Wodehouse short stories for a general audience, The Man Upstairs and Other Stories (1914), a bumper crop of nineteen stories and a favourite of both of us. Because there is so much to discuss, we have split it into two parts. In the second part we look at the remaining eleven stories, including the two stories whose success persuaded Wodehouse to move to America, "Archibald's Benefit" (his first golf short story) and "The Good Angel" (the first Keggs story, and first mention of a Lord Emsworth). Also in this batch we have a rare football-themed story, a Knights of the Round Table parody, and a highly autobiographical love story. We also each list our ten favourite stories. There will be spoilers.
You can e-mail me at wodehousekeeping@gmail.com
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Stories covered in this instalment, with start times:
"Archibald's Benefit" / "Reginald's Record Knock" 2m 09s
"The Man, The Maid, and the Miasma" 10m 44s
"The Good Angel" 17m 12s
"Pots o' Money" 30m 08s
"Out of School" 38m 46s
"Three from Dunsterville" 43m 53s
"The Tuppenny Millionaire" 51m 26s
"Ahead of Schedule" 55m 22s
"Sir Agravaine" ih 05m 50s
"The Goal-Keeper and the Plutocrat" 1h 06m 40s
"In Alcala" 1h 16m 16s
Other works by Wodehouse mentioned
Love Among the Chickens
"The Truth about Webster"
A Damsel in Distress
"Mr Punch's Spectral Analyses. IV - An Official Muddle"
"Love Me, Love My Dog"
The Coming of Bill
Over Seventy
Something Fishy
"The Crime Wave at Blandings"
"Creatures of Impulse"
"Jeeves in the Springtime"
William Tell Told Again
"The Idle King"
"At Geisenheimers"
Reference works consulted
Richard Usborne, Wodehouse at Work to the End, notes to Sunset at Blandings
Sophie Ratcliffe, P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters
Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life
Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook
Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website
Also mentioned
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Robert Browning
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King
Gene (band)
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet
Flanders and Swann, At The Drop of Another Hat (stage patter)
"Purity" Statue, Times Square, New York City, 1909
Thomas Mallory, Le Morte D'Arthur
Shrek
James Thurber, The 13 Clocks and The White Deer
Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur
J B Priestley, The 31st of June
Ted Lasso
André Messager, Mirette
Alice Dovey
Leslie Bradshaw
William Townend
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