Leave it to Psmith

Psmith #4

by P.G. Wodehouse

Ronald Psmith (“the ‘p’ is silent, as in pshrimp”) is always willing to help a damsel in distress. So when he sees Eve Halliday without an umbrella during a downpour, he nobly offers her an umbrella, even though it’s one he picks out of the Drone Club’s umbrella rack. Psmith is so besotted with Eve that, when Lord Emsworth, her new boss, mistakes him for Ralston McTodd, a poet, Psmith pretends to be him so he can make his way to Blandings Castle and woo her. And so the farce begins: criminals disguised as poets with a plan to steal a priceless diamond necklace, a secretary who throws flower pots through windows, and a nighttime heist that ends in gunplay. How will everything be sorted out? Leave it to Psmith!

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Classics, Comedy, Audiobook, British Literature, Novels

328 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 1923

About the author

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 40 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 society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career.

An acknowledged master of English prose, Wodehouse has been admired both by contemporaries such as Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by more recent writers such as Douglas Adams, Salman Rushdie and Terry Pratchett. Sean O'Casey famously called him "English literature's performing flea", a description that Wodehouse used as the title of a collection of his letters to a friend, Bill Townend.

Best known today for the Jeeves and Blandings Castle novels and short stories, Wodehouse was also a talented playwright and lyricist who was part author and writer of fifteen plays and of 250 lyrics for some thirty musical comedies. He worked with Cole Porter on the musical Anything Goes (1934) and frequently collaborated with Jerome Kern and Guy Bolton. He wrote the lyrics for the hit song Bill in Kern's Show Boat (1927), wrote the lyrics for the Gershwin/Romberg musical Rosalie (1928), and collaborated with Rudolf Friml on a musical version of The Three Musketeers (1928).

Reviews

[Henry Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ronald Psmith ( the P is silent) needs a job, he has just quit a good position in the fish market working for his dedicated uncle, who was stunned, can you imagine developing a strange malady against aquatic creatures ? Neither can I...Smith, pardon me, Psmith, puts a want ad in the newspaper, this book being written and set in London in the early 1920's, that gets him on the front page, implying anything for money ... even less than honest work, can be negotiable . Most readers are amused, a few send him silly notes asking him for cash... thousands of pounds... they are discarded into the nearest trash can, but one has possibilities... a mysterious request . From Freddie, the dimwitted son of a rich Earl with a wild scheme, from someone else to be sure. All he has to do is become an impostor, give a lecture about "his" poems as the bogus poet McTodd, an assignment the perpetually unflappable Englishman will enjoy immensely, being one of the few who likes public speaking, words he will enthusiastically recite...the longer the better...and by the way, steal a trifle piece ... diamonds for worthy people, but how to get in? This starts the plot that leads to Blandings Castle a massive home in the English countryside, owned by the absentminded, yet lovable Earl of Emsworth, this gentleman lives for beautiful flowers, constantly annoying his chief gardener, competent Mr. McAllister, with moronic ideas ...A priceless necklace stolen during the switching off of lights, many suspects, intrigue follows, Rupert Baxter, the brainy secretary of his eminence, is watching, but that's the future, first an umbrella, rain in the summer and a gentleman doing a noble deed for a lovely lady in distress. The man is Psmith, naturally, the woman, pretty Eve Halliday, his soon to be love, she distrust the weird but affable man , having borrowed this umbrella in his London club, maybe without permission but seeing the circumstances , Miss Halliday requires one to continue her important walk. The sudden downpour not permitting it, inside magic, the formerly well-to- do Psmith is invited to the castle by the Earl, call him Clarence, the family does, both are members, not having his spectacles, mistakes Mr. Psmith, for a famous, though temperamental Canadian poet, Ralston McTodd who had left before, being insulted by the Lord. And lucky Eve will be working for the less than brilliant Earl in his library, criminals arrive too, everyone including the aristocrat's son wants the jewelry ( and Eve) , that belong to his beautiful aunt, the sister of his father, Lady Constance the formidable, who likes having the not quite honorable literary crowd around. Poets and writers that cause so much mayhem, more than their writings. A delightful , funny book, probably P.G. Wodhouse's best...a hilarious romp into the always interesting view of the idle rich and their parties and vast homes...the wealthy require a lot of entertainment to pass the time and we benefit by their shenanigans. So will you...

[Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

In trying to explain to one exactly why I find Wodehouse so laugh-out-loud funny, I might use this passage: "One uses the verb 'descend' advisedly, for what is required is some word suggesting instantaneous activity. About Baxter's progress from the second floor to the first there was nothing halting or hesitating. He, so to speak, did it now." This is a brilliant example of Wodehouse's ability to put it just so, - how can you explain this any better? "Planting his food firmly on a golf-ball which the Hon. Freddie Threepwood, who had been practising putting in the corridor before retiring to bed, had left in his casual fashion just where the steps began, he took the entire stiarcase in one majestic, volplanning sweep." This is an excellent example of Wodehouse's exquisite characterization. I was in tears, tears, imagining that Hon. gentleman, able to see perfectly his plan to practice putting near the stairs & then wandering off absentmindedly. ". . . . He came to rest with a squattering thud on the lower landing, and for a moment or two the fever of the chase left him." Fever of the chase! Slays me! As astute readers of Wodehouse will no doubt know, Baxter always Suspects but when oh when will he ever stop rushing downstairs in the dark to try to catch the criminal? It always ends badly. At least there was no tongue involved in this episode.

[Charles van Buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Wodehouse's funniest.

With Wodehouse, the journey, not the destination, is usually the point of the read. The fun is in how Wodehouse arrives at his amiable, "every thing works out for the good guys" ending. And the journey with Psmith and company is Wodehouse at his best.

I will use quotes from the book to introduce some of the main characters beginning with Blandings Castle itself:

"A writer, describing Blandings Castle in a magazine article, had once said: ‘Tiny mosses have grown in the cavities of the stones, until, viewed near at hand, the place seems shaggy with vegetation.’ It would not have been a bad description of the proprietor. Fifty-odd years of serene and unruffled placidity had given Lord Emsworth a curiously moss-covered look. Very few things had the power to disturb him. Even his younger son, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood, could only do it occasionally."

"Lord Emsworth turned to the window again. The scene that spread itself beneath him—though he was unfortunately not able to see it—was a singularly beautiful one, for the castle, which is one of the oldest inhabited houses in England, stands upon a knoll of rising ground at the southern end of the celebrated Vale of Blandings in the county of Shropshire. Away in the blue distance wooded hills ran down to where the Severn gleamed like an unsheathed sword; while up from the river rolling park-land, mounting and dipping, surged in a green wave almost to the castle walls, breaking on the terraces in a many-coloured flurry of flowers..."

Now Lord Emsworth:

"...Earl of Emsworth, that amiable and boneheaded peer, stood gazing out over his domain. It was a lovely morning and the air was fragrant with gentle summer scents. Yet in his lordship’s pale blue eyes there was a look of melancholy. His brow was furrowed, his mouth peevish. And this was all the more strange in that he was normally as happy as only a fluffy-minded man with excellent health and a large income can be."

The Honorable Freddie Threepwood, youngest son of Lord Emsworth:

"...a young man in a beautifully-cut suit of grey flannel was standing in the doorway. He had a long and vacant face topped by shining hair brushed back and heavily brilliantined after the prevailing mode, and he was standing on one leg. For Freddie Threepwood was seldom completely at his ease in his parent’s presence."

Elsewhere, Freddie is described as, "Freddie looked puzzled. His was no lightning brain."

Then there is Lady Constance Keeble, Aunt Constance to some. Wodehouse's unpleasant characters are often aunts:

"But Lady Constance Keeble really took the eye. She was a strikingly handsome woman in the middle forties. She had a fair, broad brow, teeth of a perfect even whiteness, and the carriage of an empress. Her eyes were large and grey, and gentle—and incidentally misleading, for gentle was hardly the adjective which anybody who knew her would have applied to Lady Constance. Though genial enough when she got her way, on the rare occasions when people attempted to thwart her she was apt to comport herself in a manner reminiscent of Cleopatra on one of the latter’s bad mornings."

Now for the main villain of the piece, The Efficient Baxter:

Rupert Baxter, his secretary, so pronouncedly spectacled. It was his spectacles that struck you first as you saw the man. They gleamed efficiently at you. If you had a guilty conscience, they pierced you through and through; and even if your conscience was one hundred per cent. pure you could not ignore them. ‘Here,’ you said to yourself, ‘is an efficient young man in spectacles.’ In describing Rupert Baxter as efficient, you did not overestimate him. He was essentially that. Technically but a salaried subordinate, he had become by degrees, owing to the limp amiability of his employer, the real master of the house. He was the Brains of Blandings, the man at the switch, the person in charge, and the pilot, so to speak, who weathered the storm. Lord Emsworth left everything to Baxter, only asking to be allowed to potter in peace."

As for Psmith himself, well here is the advertisement he placed on the front page of the MORNING GLOBE newspaper:

LEAVE IT TO PSMITH!
Psmith Will Help You
Psmith Is Ready For Anything
DO YOU WANT
Someone To Manage Your Affairs? Someone To Handle Your Business? Someone To Take The Dog For A Run? Someone To Assassinate Your Aunt?
PSMITH WILL DO IT
CRIME NOT OBJECTED TO
Whatever Job You Have To Offer (Provided It Has Nothing To Do With Fish)
LEAVE IT TO PSMITH!
Address Applications To ‘R. Psmith, Box 365’
LEAVE IT TO PSMITH!

These and other characters come together at Blandings Castle and are off on a romp that will delight the reader.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know Psmith was a series and I didn't know this was the last book in said series.
But it didn't matter.
Like most of the Jeeves or Blandings books, even if you don't know anything prior to picking one up, they function very well as humorous self-contained stories.



Psmith, unlike most of Wodehouse's main characters, is a lucky bastard who seems to fall into opportunity at every turn. He sees the woman of his dreams, steals an umbrella to impress her, impersonates a poet to be near her, foils a robbery to clinch the deal, and waltzes off into the sunset without any repercussions.



Now I'm going to have to track down the first Psmith book and read about what happened to him to get him to the spot he was in when we first meet him here.
Good stuff!

Read by Jonathan Cecil

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Psmith and my first Blandings book and I adored it! Psmith is hilarious as well as eccentric and kind-hearted and following his adventures is a delight.

It's also worth saying that watching Wodehouse piece together this farce is a masterclass in plotting: nothing is surprising but he gathers all the strands together with sure-footed aplomb and seeing each piece slot into place is nothing less than a joy. With all the usual exuberance of language, this is like sunshine and happiness in a book!

[Jason Koivu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why oh why did I wait to read one of Wodehouse's Psmiths?

Psmith is a character that resides somewhere between Wooster and Jeeves in temperament and intellect. He's overly confident, but he's got a bit of the old grey matter to back it up. Sometimes he's a little too sure of himself and takes one step too far, too fast. However, Psmith is clever enough to extract himself from the soup before he sinks in too deep.

The setting is good old Blandings Castle. So, while Psmith was an unfamiliar character, I was quite familiar with Blandings and its inmates from numerous other Wodehouse books.

I'd try to explain the plot, but it would only confuse me further. Basically, we have the usual misunderstandings and deception. Thievery, love, thievery in the name of love, it's all there. The various characters have their desires and foibles, all of which are bouncing off one another throughout, creating havoc and mayhem in often humorous ways.

While not my favorite of Wodehouse's books, Leave It To Psmith ranks right up there!

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast, furious and gloriously funny, an early entry in a series featuring the hapless, pig-fancier Lord Emsworth that works brilliantly as a standalone piece. It centres on a hasty plot to purloin a priceless necklace belonging to Lord Emsworth's formidable sister. A setup which results in bizarre coincidences, unexpected romance and mistaken identities galore. I was particularly struck by how much Wodehouse's narrative seemed to anticipate the Hollywood, screwball comedies to come - films like Bringing Up Baby that were such significant forms of entertainment in the Great Depression. The other element that captured my attention was the uncanny resemblance between Wodehouse's style and Raymond Chandler's in his later detective novels, they both delight in peppering their prose with eccentric similes and metaphors. It seems Chandler and Wodehouse were both educated at Dulwich College in London but at slightly different times, so it's not clear if the overlap relates to how they were taught or to Wodehouse's later influence on Chandler's writing.

[Algernon (Darth Anyan) · Rating 4 out of 5]

[9/10]

It is the opinion of most thoughtful students of life that happiness in this world depends chiefly on the ability to take things as they come.

When his life starts to smell too strongly of Fish, Psmith feels the need for a change of scenery. I have become acquainted with Psmith (the 'P' is silent) during his college days at Wreckam where he dazzled his colleagues with his nonchalant atitude, his well-cut suits, his ability to fast-talk his way out of the troubles brought about by his love for mischief, his cavalier atitude towards other people's properties that he disguise as practical socialism. I've skipped a couple of his adventures, as they were not easily available at the library, and settled on the fourth book in the series, which sees Mike visiting one of the most popular spots for romance and adventure in the Wodehousian universe: the Blandings Castle.

By bringing together one of the most subversive of his characters with one of his most sedate country retreats Wodehouse creates here an explosive mix that will soon have flower-pots flying at the castle's windows, serious people tumbling down staircases in the middle of the night, precious necklaces doing dissapearing acts, stern Aunts putting their foot down, mistaken identities by the bucket and last, but not least, marriage proposals and changes of the heart. Freddie Threepwood, one of the clueless aristocrats in the book, exclaims at one point : "I wish life was a bit more like the movies!" His wish is granted by the author, who puts the screw in screwball once again.

So, how exactly did Psmith manage to land at Blandings? As I already mentioned, it has to do with fish and with the redistribution of wealth (in the form of umbrellas) from rich gentlemen to young ladies in distress. There's also an ambitiously creative curriculum vitae that Psmith submits to the newspapers in the hope of landing a job more fitted to his aspirations in life:

LEAVE It TO PSMITH!
Psmith Will Help You
Psmith Is Ready For Anything
DO YOU WANT
Someone To Manage Your Affairs?
Someone To Handle Your Business?
Someone To Take The Dog For A Run?
Someone To Assassinate Your Aunt?
PSMITH WILL DO IT
CRIME NOT OBJECTED TO
Whatever Job You Have To Offer
(Provided It Has Nothing To Do With Fish)
LEAVE IT TO PSMITH!

This announcement comes to the attention of Freddy Threepwood, who is under curfew at Blandings after incurring heavy debts at the racing track. Freddy needs somebody to steal his aunts necklace and offers the job to Psmith. Psmith has his own reasons to accept, as his heart is stolen by a young lady headed for the same old pile of masonry:

I am a plain, blunt, rugged man, above the softer emotions as a general thing, but I frankly confess that she stirred a chord in me which is not often stirred. She thrilled my battered old heart, Comrade Walderwick. There is no other word. Thrilled it!

Aided by Lord Emsworth's eyesight problems and his tendency to get distracted when he starts to talk at length about his beloved garden, Psmith manages to get invited for a visit, impersonating an American poet. Once there, he dedicates his life almost exclusively to the pursuit of the lovely Eve Halliday, the young lady in need of an umbrella in an earlier chapter. I will not go into all the complications that ensure, other than to mention that misunderstandings and pratfalls and dastardly acts come in rapid succesion, barely leaving the reader time to catch his breath before a fresh screwball assault.

Wodehouse is for me a byword for laughter therapy, offering the kind of novel that is almost impossible to read in public places on account of incontrollable guffaws and chuckles. The ingredients of his recipes :

- a pastoral setting: an opulent Arcadia where misery or poverty dare not enter or are quickly dealt with, a place that most probably never existed outside the writer's imagination, but one that serves well as a panacea for weary souls. The popularity of Wodehouse is not much different from that of the musicals and posh comedies that dominated the box office during the Great Depression. Here's how a place like this is described in the novel:

Market Blandings had a comforting air of having been exactly the same for centuries. Troubles might vex the generations it housed, but they did not worry that lichened church with its sturdy four-square tower, nor those red-roofed shops, not the age-old inns whose second storeys bulged so comfortably out over the pavements.

- young people in love: drama is often created by the obstacles put on the path to happiness by grumpy aunts or tight fisted Uncles, by mistaken identities or misdirected affections. The fact that these stories always have a happy ending relieve the reader of anxiety about the outcome, and allow him/her to relax and enjoy the ride.

'Alone?' Psmith looked at her, astonished. 'When you have the chance of being with me? This is a strange atitude.'

- a feast of words, witty observations and elaborately constructed phrases that are always a delight to follow thorugh to their logical and hilarious conclusion. I rarely use a dictionary nowadays when I am reading a novel in English, preferring to extract meaning from context when I come upon unfamiliar words, but in the case of Wodehouse I don't want to miss a thing, so I happily look up words like :

'solecism' = a phrase that trespasses the rules of grammar

'cavilled' = made petty or unnecessary objections.


Final words : one of the best novels from the author I have read so far. To use Wodehouse own form of praise, (he came up in an earlier book with 'the bee's knees'), the fourth Psmith adventure can be described as:

Well, if this ain't the cat's whiskers!

and,
You're the snake's eyebrows!

and,
You're the oyster's eye-tooth!

[Nigeyb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read Leave It to Psmith (1923) around 2010, and recall I found some sections hilarious. I'm delighted to report that the P.G. Wodehouse magic is still present and correct. Hilarity also ensued second time round.

The eloquent and resourceful Psmith is such a wonderful character and of course the Blandings series never fails. In Leave It to Psmith, Psmith visits Blandings where he is called upon to imitate a Canadian poet, woo the woman of his dreams, get involved in a jewellery theft, and pit his wits against the Efficient Baxter, Lord Emswoth's personal secretary. Baxter is another fabulous character who provides much of the humour in this splendid farce.

Interestingly in this early Blandings book Lord Emsworth is not yet pig-obsessed but instead consumed by his garden.

4/5





Ronald Psmith (“the ‘p’ is silent, as in pshrimp”) is always willing to help a damsel in distress. So when he sees Eve Halliday without an umbrella during a downpour, he nobly offers her an umbrella, even though it’s one he picks out of the Drone Club’s umbrella rack. Psmith is so besotted with Eve that, when Lord Emsworth, her new boss, mistakes him for Ralston McTodd, a poet, Psmith pretends to be him so he can make his way to Blandings Castle and woo her. And so the farce begins: criminals disguised as poets with a plan to steal a priceless diamond necklace, a secretary who throws flower pots through windows, and a nighttime heist that ends in gunplay. How will everything be sorted out? Leave it to Psmith!

[ꕥ Ange_Lives_To_Read ꕥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. At one point, when Psmith was explaining to its previous owner why he had stolen an expensive umbrella, I had one of those giggling fits that takes on a life its own and I'm helpless to stop until it passes.

In this second Blandings Castle novel, the convoluted plot involves multiple mistaken identities, jewel thieves, bad poetry, and the explanation as to why the Efficient Baxter was hurling flowerpots through the Earl of Emsworths bedroom window. This was a pressing concern for me since the flowerpot incident was referred to often, but not explained, in the 4th novel that I accidentally read before this one.

Freddy Threepwood, the Earl's dimwitted youngest son was back and some background on the Earl's sister, Lady Constance Keeble, was provided in the form of Joe Keeble her husband, a commoner who made a fortune in diamonds. And of course, we were introduced to Psmith, who is simply an awesome character and apparently features in three other non-Blandings novels that I definitely will be reading after I finish this series. Wodehouse is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

[Melindam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the 2nd Wodehouse book I read at the ripe age of 14 (after Summer Lightning) & it made a lasting impression, though now I have read a few more P.G.W books to compare, I would say this is not among his best and funniest.

Still, very much enjoyed it again.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading P. G. Wodehouse can dispel the clouds, bring tulips into bloom in the dead of winter, make adorable putti with parchment scrolls fly around your head, and elicit a hardy laugh at all times. If you have never read Wodehouse, I am deeply sorry for you.

Leave It to Psmith is not the best of his novels, but it is as good a place to start exploring his inexhaustible array of country houses, eccentric gentry, American gunmen and their molls, deranged poetesses, rank impostors, hateful and efficient male secretaries, and wayward Scottish gardeners. Not to mention the lovely popsies like Eve Halliday and, yes, all the down-at-heels young men, those

... free young spirits who had chafed at the prospect of being herded into the drawing-room on the eventful night to listen to Psmith's reading of Song of Squalor.... As far as the Reggies, Berties, Claudes, and Archies at that moment enjoying Lord Emsworth's hospitality were concerned the thing [i.e., the theft of a necklace] was top-hole, priceless, and indisputably what the doctor ordered. They spent a great deal of their time going from one country-house to another, and as a rule found the routine a little monotonous. A happening like that of the previous night gave a splendid zip to rural life. And when they reflected that, right on top of this binge, there was coming the County Ball, it seemed to them that God was in His heaven and all right with the world. They stuck cigarettes in long holders, and collected in groups, chattering like starlings.

If the wacky characters don't get you, there is that wonderfully arresting use of the English language, which will have you guffawing in the library. For instance: "You're the sort of dumb Isaac that couldn't find a bass drum in a telephone booth!" Or, even better: "A depressing musty scent pervaded the place, as if a cheese had recently died there in painful circumstances." Then there is "that not unpleasant emptiness which is the silent luncheon-gong of the soul." One character, the obnoxious but efficient Baxter, "staring through his spectacles, often gave people the impression of possessing an eye that could pierce six inches of harveyized steel and stick out the other side."

You may not know any more than I do what is harveyized steel, but you can no doubt appreciate that the English language is being given an intensive workout.

Most of the action takes place at Blandings Castle near Market Blandings, where Lord Emsworth is deeply involved in raising prizewinning flowers. If you know your Wodehouse, you will note that I have not mentioned the Empress of Blandings, that prize pig which will in future Blandings novels take up all of Lord Emsworth's considerable devotions. But, in 1924, when Leave It to Psmith was written, Emsworth had not yet taken this little piggy to market.

Oh, hell, what can I say. I was intensely amused, as I always am when reading Wodehouse's best efforts, such as this novel.

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wodehouse at his hilarious, genius best. The weaving of the plot, the density of the action, the humorous use of quotations, the whole lovely farce are remarkable. I do love Psmith!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delight - to happen upon an additional Wodehouse series, one I hadn't previously experienced!

Apparently the Ronald Psmith series wasn't a particularly long one; 'Leave it to Psmith' is the 4th of 4 books. These things are relative and in the eye of the reader, but 'LITP' is largely thought to be the best in the series. And it might not have been written at all except for the fact that his beloved step-daughter Leonora implored him to write one more - and so he did (dedicating the work to her). 

Although, in his own way, Psmith is unlike any other Wodehouse creation, he does bear something of a resemblance to the equally whimsical Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, 5th Earl of Ickenham (aka Uncle Fred), who would begin showing up in the Wodehouse canon several years later. 

The two characters share a singularly loquacious air (though, of the two, Psmith may very well have the edge; he *does* go on!). However, considering how he ultimately ends up (in this novel), it's not surprising that, upon the story's conclusion, Psmith departs from Wodehouse-World altogether.

As is rather common with the author, the plot is a frivolous means to a humorous through-line as well as an end. Its madcap complications notwithstanding, it's a soothing, summer souffle.

If there is a unique angle to be found, it can be sighted in the way that Psmith falls in love. The circumstances are, of course, tangled but - even while held at arm's length (by his quick-witted but still bewildered 'intended'), Psmith can be disarming or persuasive... whichever will get him to his goal first:

'I merely say "Think it over." It is nothing to cause you mental distress. Other men love you. Freddie Threepwood loves you. Just add me to the list. That is all I ask. Muse on me from time to time. Reflect that I may be an acquired taste. You probably did not like olives the first time you tasted them. Now you probably do. Give me the same chance you would give an olive.'

And, later...

'By the way, returning to the subject we were discussing last night, I forgot to mention, when asking you to marry me, that I can do card tricks.'

'Really?'

'And also a passable imitation of a cat calling to her young. ... These things come in very handy in the long winter evenings.'

 

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first book of Wodehouse's "Blandings Castle" series, Something Fresh, a lot. This second book, which is a kind of crossover with his other series "Psmith," didn't make anywhere near as good of an impression.

Something Fresh felt sympathetic to all of its characters, whether the forgetful Lord Emsworth or Joan, who was introduced as being in a financial position where she would have to choose between food and paying her rent. That compassion was lacking here, the narrative seeming more inclined to mock the characters or present them as types or tropes.

Maybe part of that was because of the very different "hero and heroine" in this book. Eve is only in financial straits because she's in between her quarterly allowances and spent the previous one on fashion. Psmith himself is supposedly the kind of person who can charm his way into anything, but to me he came across as more of a façade than a human being. I saw no spark in their interactions at all, and their pairing up at the end of the book was more confusing than satisfactory The man and woman pair of card sharps/would-be thieves had potential--they didn't seem like such terrible people, and they genuinely cared for each other--but they attained nothing at the end, and didn't even get a short scene showing what happened to them after they left Castle Blandings.

The physical comedy didn't come across quite as well as it did in Something Fresh, either. I remember chuckling out loud at some of slapstick surrounding the scarab in the first book; scenarios with the necklace in this one were repeats, i.e. Baxter falling down the steps and crashing into a side table, or not all that funny (anything having to do with the flower pots). As for Baxter, I ended up feeling sorry for him more than anything else. I could have stood to see Psmith have even the slightest setback at some point in the story, but he was completely impervious and even gets a James Bond-lite action scene at the end where he retrieves the necklace, defeats the Americans, gets the girl, and even cuckoo-like, takes Baxter's job.

I'm interested in seeing if this series gets its energy back, so I'll listen to the next one at least, at some point. I'm not that excited about seeing Psmith as the secretary in Blandings Castle, though.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Word goes 'round the net . . . Don loves this book!

I highly recommend this one over all of the Jeeves and Wooster novels. Psmith must have been the inspiration for Bugs Bunny, not in the sense of wacky antics, but more in his ability to talk himself into or out of any situation. Psmith's misplaced self-confidence is the perfect vehicle for Woodhouse's dry British humor. The language alone is worth experiencing.

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pedig hát szemre milyen könnyű ilyen humoros regényt írni. Fogjunk egy angol kastélyt jó nagy parkkal valami kies vidéken, népesítsük be arisztokratákkal, akik a beltenyészet áldásainak köszönhetően számos… khm… szórakoztató tulajdonsággal rendelkeznek – legyen köztük legalább egy végzetesen kétballábas, minimum egy másiknak pedig biztosítsunk valami egészen fura vesszőparipát. Aztán szerepeltessünk pár határozott női karaktert, akik részei lehetnek egy majdani romantikus szálnak, és pár innen-onnan odakeveredett mókás fickót is az alsóbb néposztályokból (egyik-másikuk lehet amerikai, bár a magyar fordítás során alighanem elvész majd az akcentusukból származó humorforrás). No és persze ne feledjük az elmaradhatatlan halszemű komornyikot, mert úgy kerek. Aztán legyen valami családi feszültség, egy drága nyakék, meg egy csomó elképesztő véletlen – például derüljön ki, hogy a kastélyba keveredő X. már egyszer összefutott Y.-nal, Z. pedig (aki W.-nek adja ki magát, de ebbe ne menjünk bele), Zs.-vel együtt gyeplabdázott Etonban, és amúgy is Zs2.-be (Zs. régen látott unokahúgába) szerelmes. Aztán bizonyos szereplők guruljanak le a lépcsőn, más szereplőket (vagy ugyanazokat) meg zárjanak ki a kertbe éjnek idején egy szál pizsamában, aztán a nyakéket lopják el, és mindenki higgye azt, hogy tudja, ki lopta el, de tudja rosszul, úgyhogy legyen egy böhöm nagy kavarodás ebből az egészből, amiből aztán a legtalpraesettebb szereplőknek hála a végén kikeveredünk, és lágy hegedűszó kíséretében belesétálunk a lemenő napba.

Egyszerű, nem? Aztán valahogy mégsem tobzódunk az ilyen humoros regényekben. Ami azt illeti, Wodehouse-on kívül talán nem is tud senki ilyet. (No jó, határesetek vannak. A Pendragon legenda pl.) Hogy lehet ez? Itt van ez a Psmith, aki szerintem van annyira jó fej, mint Jeeves és Bertie Wooster együtt. Ahogy ő megjelenik a regény lapjain, az addig konvencionális brit jóérzés-történet egyszeriben elképesztően szórakoztatóvá válik. Miért nem tudja mindenki megírni a maga Psmith-szét? (Mondjuk ÉN miért nem tudom?) Pedig hát milyen kiszámítható már maga a történet – kozmikus kavarodás ide vagy oda, de aki már a könyv felénél nem tudja, ki kivel jön össze, ki lakol meg és ki aratja le a babérokat, az alighanem elveszett ember. Olyasmi lehet ez, mint Rejtő esetében (köztudott, hogy a birkákkal ellentétben a Rejtő-regény sem klónozható): nem a sztori a lényeg, hanem a mondatok*. Hogy egy teljesen triviális kép vagy cselekménysor ezekben az egészen furán drótozott írói elmékben valami teljesen új, eddig elképzelhetetlen formában jelenik meg. Olyan, mint egy vizuális taposóakna: az olvasó gyanútlanul halad a szövegben, aztán egyszer csak beleakad a szeme, először azt sem érti mi az, aztán hirtelen megérti, és bumm. Mert erre aztán nem számított. És mivel nem számított, nyilván írni sem tudna ilyet. Ami nem baj, hisz úgyis megírta már helyette valaki. Neki csak az élvezet marad.

* „Egy Rejtő-regénynek mindig lehet előre tudni a végét, de egy Rejtő-mondatnak – soha” (Bárdos Pál)

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Psmith pronounced with a silent P is a wonderful character. Due to the loss of his wealth the resourceful Psmith like us lesser mortals must find gainful employment. Work that does not involve fish.

Psmith after leaving his Uncle’s family job which involves fish finds himself hired by Freddie the second scatterbrained son of Lord Elmsworth to steal Lady Constance Kreeble’s diamond necklace. This is for Freddie to invest in a bookies and accidentally assist Psmith’s close friends Mike and his wife Phyllis to buy a farm. Throw in a thief, Eva the woman of Psmith’s dreams and the efficient Baxter and you have an hilarious farce at Blandings Castle.

Psmith impersonates a poet and there are several people trying to steal the necklace. Ultimately, true love prevails, flower pots are broken and comedy abounds.

[Adrian Buck · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adored Fry and Laurie as Jeeves and Wooster, but this didn't do it for me. The locations were very Jeevesian: London and a country house. The plot was very Woosterish: a fake jewel heist. Even the central character, Psmith - the P is silent as in psatire - seemed like an amalgam of Jeeves and Wooster: pompous and a twit, though without coming across as a pompous twit. It seems obvious now that what is funny about Jeeves and Wooster is their dialogue, and that wasn't possible here.

[Dan Schwent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leave it to Psmith is probably the best of the best as far as P.G. Wodehouse goes. If only he'd written more than four Psmith books.

[Alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Then perhaps you will tell me your name."
"Ah! Things are beginning to move. The name is Psmith. P-smith. The p is silent."
"Psmith?"
"Psmith."
Miss Clarkson brooded over this for a moment in almost pained silence, then recovered her slipping grip of affairs.
"I think," she said, "you had better give me a few particulars about yourself."
"There is nothing I should like better," responded Psmith warmly. "I am always ready--I may say eager--to tell people the story of my life, but in this rushing age I get little encouragement."

Good Wodehousian farce. Tables get turned, and then turned again, and then turned again, and on and on for a while, until everything suddenly comes full circle in the last couple of pages.
Loved this description of Freddie Threepwood: "He sidled up, looking like a well-dressed sheep." Wodehouse can always be depended on for marvelous similes!

I will say, though, you have to be in the right mood for all of this, and although I can appreciate the deft writing and get some chuckles out of it, a whole novel's worth of farce is not my favorite thing any more.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

April 2018 reread done via the marvelous narration of Jonathan Cecil (Hoopla audiobook):
This book was so much more hilarious now that I am familiar with Psmith! I thought it was great as a Blandings book but now as a Psmith book, I love it even more (particularly the way Psmith interacts with Baxter). The only thing missing is The Empress... As a result, I am increasing my rating from the previous 4* (especially for the audiobook narration by Cecil).

[Ahtims · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a long gap of a decade or so, delving into the world of Wodehouse again. And boy, aren't I glad that I chose this book? I love PSmith, I love lord Emsworth, and seeing the two meet each other under hilarious circumstances was heavenly. Freddie too was his usual charming self. I thoroughly enjoyed this repeat read, perhaps for the third or fourth time, and I advocate this one as a pickmeup for anyone feeling a bit low.

[Elentarri · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing style is fine and amusing, but the pacing is glacial.  The good stuff only happens in the last third of the novel.  And the pretentious, serial liar main character (Psmith) is just plain boring.  I would rather have spent time with the other quirky characters than that one.

[Antonomasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like quite a few second instalments of crime series - or perhaps any type of popular series I'm less acquainted with - Leave It To Psmith has distinct similarities, in plot, in certain scenes, in paragraphs describing recurring characters, to its predecessor among the Blandings books. Sheer momentum, pithy phrases of dry wit, and the curious loveability of characters who might actually be hard work if we had to deal with them IRL carry it along regardless. However, it does occasionally pale by comparison: the high farce scene of multiple fallings over and china-smashing in the hall at night in Something Fresh has merely a whimpering echo here.

Unlike several GR friends, I'm not previously acquainted with Psmith. But his curious and vague form of what might now be called champagne socialism, narrated without a hint of critique - including redistributing other people's property, and at that only to the marginally distressed gentry - I think makes more understandable the political pickle his creator got into during the war, and especially the way that others defended him as naive. I can't recall a character about whom my feelings so often swung between affection and a level of irritation near snapping point. Some of it because, as for the last few months, I'm still set on edge by people who talk excessively without being funny. Much of the rest is Psmith's being a man of his time - more so than the surprisingly modern Ashe Marson, his counterpart in Something Fresh, whose one occasion of resenting being bested by a girl is rounded on as unreasonable by the narrative. But Psmith's over-persistence with Eve, and his feeling that she ought to be around whenever he feels like a chat, gel into a still recognisable personality type along with all that verbosity, apparently vastly demanding of attention. Yet he is kinder and more generous than plenty of those around him, and we are told he strikes everyone as being very nice. His talkativeness seems positively nerdy and boring. Clearly in a minority opinion, I feel he suffers from show-not-tell, the tell contradicting the show; yet he is believable because I've met a handful of people who had great presence and charm whilst saying too much in a way that would be tedious from most others - not to mention a leftwinger who, like Psmith, and to my mind inexplicably, amended their name in a way that made it sound posher. (Incidentally, a conversation with a friend yesterday led to agreement that too many leftwingers now, especially in local level politics, are disorganised and poorly turned out - the dapper Psmith, at least, is neither.) His apparently contradictory traits would probably fit together better on screen, given the right actor, than I felt they did on the page.

Having found via this calculator that £500 in 1923 - the sum about which Freddie is in bother at the beginning of the book - is now around £25 000, I multiplied all other amounts mentioned by 500, which makes everything far more weighty: messing about with a £20 000 necklace becomes a matter of far greater nerve if it's £10 million; I was also surprised that buying a farm cost as much as it did, and I'm afraid I uncharitably wondered if Mike and Phyllis could have managed with rather less - albeit this neglects the now barely relatable importance of fitting one's station.

Note: must read up on 'the submerged tenth', as mentioned in this & Something Fresh - seems to have been a sociopolitical buzzword of its time defining something like what we might call the underclass or the precariat; not yet clear which. Very interesting: the dilemma of being an upper middle class person fallen on hard times, and trying not to fall further (in a pre-welfare state era) - a sense of belonging to one class culturally but quite another financially - is a theme I had not expected to find in Wodehouse, one which is welcome and surprisingly pertinent (even if these stories do more or less end like fairytales).

[Kavita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leave it to Psmith is the first of the Psmith series and the second of the Blanding series. When Freddie Threepwood is at a loss for money, he doesn't do something simple like trying to borrow from his friends or family. Oh no! He concocts a plan to steal his aunt's necklace, and sets into flow a series of events over which he no longer has any control. Fate, Wodehouse's biggest ally, is in full fledged quirkiness and can no longer be trusted.

When Psmith arrives at Blandings Castle masquerading as a poet McTodd, he is merely just one of the long series of impostors that the household will host over the years. Baxter is suspicious, but can he prove anything? Are the other guests who they say they are, or someone else completely? Can Blandings ever get rid of these impostors? Will Lord Emsworth ever achieve complete peace and find time to win over McAllister?

Leave it to Psmith is hilarious and in typical Wodehouse style, everything turns out happy in the end. Romance, comedy, thriller, crime, and social critique all rolled into one book. This is Wodehouse's speciality and this is a prime example of his works.

[Jason Furman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I vividly remember buying my first Wodehouse, Pigs Have Wings, in the train station in Twickenham more than thirty years ago. Now reading this, an earlier book in the Blanding series, gives me exactly the same feeling. A comfortable delight. Occasional laugh out loud but always charmed. Madcap situations. Even the thieves in this book are charming. and Psmith, who I am encountering for the first time, was especially eccentric and paired well with the heroine Eve Halliday who had a strength and resourcefulness often missing from women in Wodehouse.

(Note I read most of this but listened to a bit in the excellent Jonathan Cecil recording. But I felt like to was worth paying close attention which was easier reading than listening.)

[Rajan]

Reading Wodehouse is pure bliss. His writing style seems simple but it is not. Wodehouse is a genius and he painstakingly creates humor out of ordinary everyday situations. It is not slap stick, satire or comic. It is pure unadulterated humor. Reading Wodehouse is the best stress buster and anti-depressant. He doesn’t claim to very highly literary writing prowess. In his own words “I believe there are two ways of writing novels. One is making a sort of musical comedy without music and ignoring real life altogether; the other is going deep down into life and not caring a damn...”.

Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way."

"For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in … splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible."

Bandings castle and its characters is one the best of his creations. All other charaters Jeevs, Ukridge, Bertram Wooster, Psimth, Mulliner, Clarence Threepwood, Sebastian Beach, Ashe Marson, Joan Valentine, J. Preston Peters, Aline Peters, Freddie Threepwood, Mrs. Twemlow, Mrs. Bell, Richard Jones, George Emerson, Lord Stockheath, Adams, Rupert J. Baxter, Thorne, George Threepwood, Ann Warblington, Merridew, James, Alfred, Mildred Mant, Horace Mant, Judson, Algernon Wooster, Bishop of Godalming, Billy, Muriel, Dr. Bird, Slingsby, Chester, Ferris, Miss Willoughby etc are highly likable.

I think there will not be a single person who cannot like Wodehouse.

[Kornela · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one does British humor better than P.G. Wodehouse. His books consistently make me laugh out loud. Best known for the Jeeves and Bertie Wooster series (which is also excellent), Wodehouse wrote over 90 books in his career as well as a few different series. One of these series were the Psmith books. In my opinion, Psmith (pronounced "Smith," with the "p" being silent but giving proper distinction)is his most eccentric, charming, and original character. Because Psmith is so original and clever and bold, trouble and chaos usually follow wherever he goes. Leave It to Psmith is the last of the Psmith books (but you don't need to read them in order)so you can be sure that there is plenty of trouble and chaos in store. There are also misunderstandings, mistaken identities, love affair troubles, and comical situations as only Wodehouse can do them. This is one of Wodehouse's best and a must for anyone appreciating wonderful use of language and comedy.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
What a relief to read something genuinely funny and enjoyable! P.G. Wodehouse is incredible.
Leave it to Smith is a rambling, interconnected story about a diamond necklace, several schemes to steal said necklace, and a man named Psmith (the P is silent) hired to assist with those schemes. Though I suppose Psmith is the main character, the novel does an incredible job narrating several plot points and providing a great, entangled romp of a story.
If I have one complaint, it would be that it could have used more development of the main couple's romance. (I love how Psmith fell in love but I'm not sure I understood how Eve did.)
Very much worth reading!