Perhaps 2½ stars... I have loved [a:P.G. Wodehouse|7963|P.G. Wodehouse|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1198684105p2/7963.jpg]'s books since I first was introduced to Jeeves and Bertie in my teen years, but this collection of early short stories was a little disappointing. These stories are all set in an English boys' school and therefore some aspects of them were very British; I am an Anglophile but at least one of these stories was too English even for me! (Shields and The Cricket Cup) ( )

{School stories, collection, includes Wrykyn} (1902/ 2012)

1-The Politeness of Princes

G. Chapple of Seymour’s house (Wrykyn) is always late, no matter what he tries. I can empathise. Classic Wodehouse, funny.
5*****

2-Shields' and the Cricket Cup

Hilarious (but you do have to translate turn of C20th English school humour) Shields’ house (Wrykyn) is a non-entity not just in sports but also in academics and in fact, unusually, across the board. But - one year they won the house cricket cup.
5*****

3-An International Affair

A Samson & Goliath story; a Wrykyn schoolboy takes on Rings of NY, a chain of department stores.
4.5-5*****

4-The Guardian

Thomas Beauchamp Algernon, was being launched by the combined strength of the family on his public-school career. It was a solemn moment. The landscape was dotted with relatives ...

The youngest of the Shearnes is being sent off to Eckleton. His mother has taken the precaution of asking a friend's son to look out for him while his oldest brother is worried that he'll be too cheeky. But all ends well.
5*****

5-A Corner in Lines

At Locksley school, two boys hit upon the money making scheme of selling lines ('write out one hundred lines of x...' being a popular punishment set by masters).

Dunstable went on to translate. As he had not prepared the lesson and was not an adept at construing unseen, his performance was poor.

After a minute and a half, the form-master wearied.

"Have you looked at this, Dunstable?" he asked.

There was a time-honoured answer to this question.

"Yes, sir," he said.

Public-school ethics do not demand that you should reply truthfully to the spirit of a question. The letter of it is all that requires attention. Dunstable had looked at the lesson. He was looking at it then. Masters should practise exactness of speech.

(and, later:)

As has been pointed out before, there was practically one handwriting common to the whole school when it came to writing lines. It resembled the movements of a fly that had fallen into an ink-pot, and subsequently taken a little brisk exercise on a sheet of foolscap by way of restoring the circulation.

5*****

6-The Autograph Hunters

If a (more or less) direct approach doesn’t net you the autograph of a famous author there are other methods to resort to.

"Come here!" shrilled the novelist.

The stranger receded coyly.

Mr. Watson advanced at the double.

His quarry dodged behind a tree.

For five minutes the great man devoted his powerful mind solely to the task of catching his visitor.

The latter, however, proved as elusive as the point of a half-formed epigram, and at the end of the five minutes he was no longer within sight.

4.5*****

7-Pillingshot, Detective

At St. Austin’s when Pillingshot tells Scott, the prefect, that one of the junior boys has lost some money, Scott decides that Pillingshot should become a detective which entails him doing the legwork (ie questioning everyone from his fellow classmates, the boot boy and a prefect; even the headmaster comes under suspicion) while Scott supplies the theories.

4****

I love Wodehouse's turn of phrase and (probably contrary to popular opinion) I think it shows best in his school stories most of which, I believe, were written early in his career.

March 2021
Averaging: 4.5-5 stars ( )

The stories are OK with a couple of them better than the rest. They show the development of Wodehouse's style and humor so interesting from that viewpoint. Just really don't care for all the school stories from early in his writing career. ( )

Five of the seven stories in this collection were written in 1905 and, having read longer stories by P. G. Wodehouse from this period, I didn't have high expectations. Thus I was pleasantly surprised to find six out of seven stories to be good entertainment, featuring lots of witty dialogue that the author is so good at.

The one story that failed to interest me was "Shield's and the Cricket Cup", owing to the amount of focus on cricket and my dislike of this sport. Otherwise this collection was a worthwhile read. ( )

Generally enjoyable, although the first story ended in rather an abrupt manner, as though finished at a later date. ( )