As always with Wodehouse's school stories, we get a bunch of one or two-star reviews from readers who wanted Jeeves and did not find any of that here. They might as well read one of those detective novels J. K. Rowling writes under the Robert Galbraith pseudonym and complain that there are no wizards in it. It's a completely different genre, people. If you do not want a boarding school story, then you are going to be disappointed with this novel. It's not a comedy, although there are signs of the author's dry wit.

I thought it was a very solid school novel. My favorite among the Wodehouse ones I have read, along with The White Feather (I haven't read yet his most famous one, Mike). The only problem is, it has an awful lot of cricket matches. Lovingly described. Wodehouse clearly knows his cricket very well. I know very little about cricket, but I know enough to be able to follow the description of the matches. It's not necessary to know a lot to follow the story. You are fine if you know when the players are doing well and when they are not, which mostly can be deduced by context. By I admit that if you don't enjoy sports at all it might be a bit too much. Then again, if you don't enjoy sports at all, the this genre is probably not for you. There's usually a fair amount of sports in boarding school stories, because it's important for the boys, and doing well on the sport fields gives a boy social prestige among his peers. Also, I think the purity of these totally amateur games is enjoyable. These boys train and play their hearts out for pure love of the game and, when they are playing for the school, for honour's sake.

Anyway, the reason this is one of my favorites among Wodehouse's school stories is that you see a lot of his wit in the dialogue and the descriptions, particularly in the first half of the novel (the second is more cricket-heavy).

The story is about Gethryn and Marriott, a couple of senior boys in Leicester's House, in a school called Beckford. The previous head boy of the house has departed and now it falls to Gethryn, as new head, to shape the house up with his friend's help. The task is made difficult by presence of several troublemakers in the house. Also, both senior boys receives the news from their respective families that they are expected to look after new boys. One is the son of a friend of a friend of Marriott's aunt, and the other is Gethryn's uncle. Yes, his uncle. Apparently Gethryn's grandfather, an eccentric gentleman, had a son quite late in life.

Marriott's charge is a good sort, who quickly makes himself popular and doesn't require much looking after, but Gethryn's uncle is a rebellius and extremely cheeky kid who has already been expelled from several schools.

The story takes place during a school year. It's a slice-of-life novel, so the focus is not on a single incident. At a certain point, to get his uncle out of a serious predicament, Gethryn has to leave in the middle of an important cricket match, resulting in a defeat for the school. To protect his relative he can't explain why he left, which causes some of his peers to be angry at him, while others stick by him. There's also cheating at a poetry contest, a rebellion of the members of the house cricket team against early morning practices...

( )

3.5*

While I don't like Wodehouse's school stories as much as either the Jeeves or Blandings ones (too much cricket for this American), I thought this one was better than average.

My Kindle edition is actually from Project Gutenberg:
http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/6985 ( )

Wodehouse's second novel, and his first to take a decidedly comic slant. This is still a school story, with large chunks of the second half taken up by cricket games that mean very little to me, unfortunately. In the intervening year between The Pothunters and this novel, though, Wodehouse has clearly been praised for his dry turn of phrase; the tone feels more familiar, with at least some of the dry, ironic observation that peppers his later work.

The "Prefect's Uncle" of the title is the most Wodehousian invention, in the most Wodehousian plotline—so it's a shame that it basically fizzles away right at the middle of the book. He hasn't quite learned to balance the different elements of his plot, and there are still too many characters, but...he's getting there. ( )

Before Jeeves and Wooster, there was the boy’s life, and the young Wodehouse explored the world of boys for boys in books such as this. The title refers to an absurdity that could have been the pretext for a Gilbert and Sullivan opera: a new boy arrives at a public school (English = private school, American). Unexpectedly, he turns out to be the uncle of one of the school’s shining lights, “Bishop” Gethryn, in his final year and a prefect (English = dorm monitor, American). The new boy’s distinction is that of having been sent down by three other schools. After this career, his arrival at Beckford gives the reader an indication of where this school might rank in the world of education. The new boy, Farnie, shows no inclination to mend his ways nor to show the deference that the bishop expects. Part of Farnie’s reasoning might have been that one does not defer to one’s nephew, no matter how much older or distinguished.
This soon leads to the near ruination of the bishop’s school career, forcing him to disappear during an inter-school cricket match. His school’s unexpected loss can be plausibly tied to the bishop’s disappearance. A worse form of humiliation, and the subsequent shunning he endures, can not be imagined. Not even the fate of two of his fellow pupils, caught in flagrant plagiarism, rivals it.
This book shows its author to be on his way to developing the wry humor that makes his mature (with Wodehouse, one is tempted to place that adjective in quotation marks) work so enjoyable. There are many laughs. For me, the loudest was evoked by the description of the ineffectual headmaster, whose “spirit was willing, but his will was not spirited.”
That Wodehouse had not yet fully mastered his trade is shown in his handling of characters. Another new boy, Wilson, arrives simultaneously and makes an even bigger first impression (on the eye and nose of a would-be ragger) than does Farnie, but quickly becomes tamed as the fag (English = gofer, American) of the bishop’s roommate, Marriott. Farnie, meanwhile, disappears from the book after derailing the bishop’s life. We only hear from him again at the end, when we learn that he withdraws at the end of the term. His next step on the decline of his education will be in France. It seems disjointed that the figure who serves as the title’s subject should turn out to have been no more than a plot device.
This was my first experience with an audiobook, a Librivox product that I accessed through Project Gutenberg. A worthy project, Librivox makes out-of-copyright books available in audio form. This one was created by four or five different volunteers; understandably, their skill at reading varied. Overall, this didn’t detract from my enjoyment, other than the one narrator who seems convinced that something that can’t be avoided is inexcapable.
All in all, an enjoyable way to pass a few hours of enforced immobility. ( )

While I don't like Wodehouse's school stories as much as either the Jeeves or Blandings ones (too much cricket for this American), I thought this one was better than average. ( )