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463rd out of 535 books
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552 voters
The Prince and Betty
Royal Romance—Prince Weds American Girl—Love at First Sight—Picturesque Wedding!
These are the headlines American businessman Benjamin Scobell envisions when he pieces together his latest scheme: a publicity stunt designed to attract customers to his newly built casino on the Mediterranean island of Mervo. If only he had a few royals running around making headlines he knows...more
These are the headlines American businessman Benjamin Scobell envisions when he pieces together his latest scheme: a publicity stunt designed to attract customers to his newly built casino on the Mediterranean island of Mervo. If only he had a few royals running around making headlines he knows...more
ebook, Legacy Vintage Collection Enhanced Edition, 191 pages
Published
April 12th 2012
by Legacy Romance
(first published 1912)
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I selected The Prince and Betty for the collection after coming across it completely by accident. I’d always been aware of P.G. Wodehouse, but I’d never read him before, and I never suspected he wrote romantic fiction. I was utterly charmed and smitten with The Prince and Betty by page four, and by the end I was impressed by his ability to express profound ideas in such simple, beautiful language. Wodehouse’s masterful prose, sparkling dialogue, and trademark sense of humor blend together in a s...more
My first book for the year and, it appears, my first Mills and Boon ever. PG Wodehouse was a comic writer whose work basically nostalgises a period before the First World War when young, pointless men gadded about London and the countryside trying to amuse themselves despite their lack of education, drive, or purpose. I love his work, and so when there was a book I didn’t recognise on Librivox (which is, I have discovered a home for completists like me), I snapped it up.
It’s an odd, odd book, st...more
It’s an odd, odd book, st...more
A not typical PG Wodehouse. Apparently originally published in serial format in the Stand Magazine and then latter published in book form in Britain. There is a guy, and there is a girl and they do have an on again/off again romance, but this book is far less humorous than the usual Wodehouse fair and in fact, has a huge social message. A real "everyman" vs. big business tale with muck racking journalism tossed in as a story within the story within the story.
So, girl likes boy; boy yearns for g...more
So, girl likes boy; boy yearns for g...more
This is two storiesprobably written separately then later loosely tied together, as a shift in tone is pronounced and abrupt. In the first, the main focus is upon an all American young man whose evil stepfather turns him out after coming in to work bleary eyed one morning after a night of partying with his chums. Lucky for him that shortly thereafter he learns he is the rightful heir to the throne of a sleepy little island kingdom near Greece called Mervo! In this first section of the book, pred...more
Wow! What a little socialist Wodehouse was! And how much more violent his books were in the early days! Of course, because it's Wodehouse, the actual violence against the lead characters is kept to a minimum, but OMG! he almost killed one off! And his characters are trying to clean up what can only be described as a section of Hell's Kitchen on the east side!
After becoming Prince For a Day, our Mr. Maude rejects la vie royale once it's pointed out by the woman he loves that he's being a patsy....more
After becoming Prince For a Day, our Mr. Maude rejects la vie royale once it's pointed out by the woman he loves that he's being a patsy....more
Betty is called to Mervo, a small island off Marseille by her wealthy step father, Benjamin Scovil, where she is told he wants her to marry the Prince. The Prince (John Maude) was raised in the US after Mervo became a republic. He was never told about his father having been a Prince. However, Scovil decides his gaming casinos will get more business if the monarchy comes back, and the Prince gets married. He thus sends for the Prince. It turns out that Betty and John met several years back at Har...more
While the story started on with a typically Wodehouse flavor it quickly became apparent that he was merging in his 'P. Smith in the City' story and just rewriting the storyline with different characters. What is worse is that he doesn't appear to try to hide the fact with the changing of character names. Had I not read the other story first I might have found it more interesting but as it was it was a major disappointment. I heard there was a previous British version that didn't do this merge bu...more
Apr 18, 2012
Elisabeth
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Elisabeth by:
Legacy Romance
Shelves:
humor
The Prince and Betty may come as a bit of a revelation to those who know P.G. Wodehouse mainly through the escapades of Jeeves, Wooster & Co. It's unquestionably humor, but it's humor with heart. The romance is sweet, and the principal characters' subsequent brushes with difficulty and heartbreak are very genuine. Wodehouse was a master of the English language, and he could turn his gift with words to more serious purpose, too, when he wanted.
The fact that this was originally two stories wov...more
The fact that this was originally two stories wov...more
Oct 20, 2007
Ian Wood
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
no-one at all, I only wish I could un-read it
Shelves:
p-g-wodehouse
Wodehouse’s American publishers elected not to publish ‘Psmith, Journalist’ in American, it could be that with it having no love interest they considered that it jarred with his output at that time, it could be they considered the references to cricket and the MCC would confuse an American audience. Anyway not to be refused Wodehouse took another magazine serial he had recently published, ‘A Prince for Hire’, and blended the two stories together. Blend is really not the right word as the two boo...more
Not the usual neat plot with sprightly dialogue that one comes to expect. Instead, the reader is left with two divergent stories clumsily stitched together with less than expected literary flair. What gives, Wodehouse?
I loved this book. It made me laugh out loud countless times. It was a bit predictable, but that didn't curb my enjoyment of it in the least. I think I may have found a new author to explore.
I was so excited to find a PG Wodehouse that I hadn't read. It was his usual delightful fair. Maybe not quite as screamingly funny as some of the others but certainly charming.
The first Wodehouse to disappoint me. It's too disjointed, not in the charming string-of-short-stories way that many Bertie Wooster books are, but in a disconcerting way.
British Humor at its best! Great wodehouse!!!!! Not as good as his Jeeves and Bertie series but still AWESOME!!!!!
It's a little different than his other books. Good story. Not as funny and Bertie Wooster.
Such a fun read! Typical Wodehouse. :)
Still the amusing diversion one expects from Sir Pelham G but this time he descends into the underbelly of New York and displays a bit of social conscience along with the usual bumbling love story.
Not the best of pg wodehouse
A so-so early Wodehouse novel, much in the plot is typically Wodehouse but there are only a few smiles and next to no laughs. The book which I read was the original English version, most of the latter part of which takes place at a typically Wodehouse-ian English country house, however there are two versions of the book the one published in the U.S.A. is largely set in America, incorporates the plot of "Psmith, Journalist" and has Betty working as a typist for "Peaceful Moments" magazine.
it was cute
Half wodehouse, half upton sinclair. Strangely i really liked it.
Apr 30, 2013
Elizabeth Barter
marked it as to-read
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Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE, was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read over 30 years after his death. 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 prewar English upper-class so...more
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