French Leave

“Wodehouse is the greatest comic writer ever.” –Douglas Adams

“Could a P. G. Wodehouse revival be more timely? Overlook Press, which is reissuing Wodehouse’s comic novels, clearly has its finger on America’s pulse…With its sumptuously bound editions, Overlook Press has done the master proud.” –“Los Angeles Times”

“Wodehouse’s novels are the very definition of British humor–bubblingly witty and dryly loony. And as Overlook continues its reissue of these absurd souffles, you can buy the work for yourself in suave hardcover volumes, the dust jackets as natty as the prose” –“Entertainment Weekly”

“Writers from Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell to Frank McCourt and Ben Elton have praised not only Wodehouse’s comic genius but also his impeccable craftsmanship…Each element in a Wodehouse plot, however comically familiar, is irreplaceable.” –“Boston Globe”

“The jokes in Wodehouse aren’t like anyone else’s jokes, because they depend less on punch lines than on how he manipulates the language–flawlessly, but with a well-honed sense of fun.” –“Newsweek”

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (always known as ‘Plum’) wrote about seventy novels and some three hundred short stories over seventy-three years. He is widely recognised as the greatest 20th-century writer of humour in the English language.

Perhaps best known for the escapades of Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, Wodehouse also created the world of Blandings Castle, home to Lord Emsworth and his cherished pig, the Empress of Blandings. His stories include gems concerning the irrepressible and disreputable Ukridge; Psmith, the elegant socialist; the ever-so-slightly-unscrupulous Fifth Earl of Ickenham, better known as Uncle Fred; and those related by Mr Mulliner, the charming raconteur of The Angler’s Rest, and the Oldest Member at the Golf Club.

In 1936 he was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for ‘having made an outstanding and lasting contribution to the happiness of the world’. He was made a Doctor of Letters by Oxford University in 1939 and in 1975, aged ninety-three, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He died shortly afterwards, on St Valentine’s Day.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.