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The globetrotting adventures and hilarious hijinks of bon vivant and force of nature Psmith continue in Psmith, Journalist. Psmith and his best friend, a cricket player by the name of Mike Jackson, travel to New York for a series of cricket matches. In his usual manner, Psmith soon finds himself sucked into several extraordinary situations, including a criminal enterprise spawned by several seedy underworld impresarios and a top role in the New York publishing industry..
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Psmith, Wodehouse's quintessentially English aesthete, is unleashed in New York City; fish-out-of-water shenanigans in the style of 1980s cinema do not ensue. The fit is awkward and never satisfies as much as Bertie Wooster's later antics in the Big Apple. One feels that Wodehouse wanted a change of scene from the London/country house circuit, but his vision of New York reads somewhat like lesser Damon Runyon. This is still Wodehouse, so it is still excellent, but even Homer nods.
In the Preface, Wodehouse explains, "Most of the incidents in this story are based on actual happenings." The story is about gangs of New York City, corrupt politicians, slums---in particular one tenement in terrible condition owned by an unknown landlord, attempted murders, attempted bribery, muckraking journalists risking their lives, a boxer, a cowboy, a cat-loving gang leader and some of the usual Wodehouse style.
On the plus side, there is an interracial group of people that work well together; on the negative side, the group is a gang and one of its members is called by the N word, although not usually to his face. Italians also are referred to derogatorily by other characters. These ethnic slurs are now jarring at best; I like to show more think that Wodehouse was merely trying to show how gang members talk. Certainly he doesn't make them cute and cuddly; well, maybe, except for Bat Jarvis, the cat-loving head of the major gang. show less
On the plus side, there is an interracial group of people that work well together; on the negative side, the group is a gang and one of its members is called by the N word, although not usually to his face. Italians also are referred to derogatorily by other characters. These ethnic slurs are now jarring at best; I like to show more think that Wodehouse was merely trying to show how gang members talk. Certainly he doesn't make them cute and cuddly; well, maybe, except for Bat Jarvis, the cat-loving head of the major gang. show less
Psmith journalist is an odd item in the Wodehouse canon. During a summer in New York, Psmith becomes a temporary employee of a New York weekly and he becomes involved in trying to right social ills in the face of resistance from New York's criminal element. Because it's Wodehouse, the story is mostly played for laughs and Wodehouse has fun creating a cat-loving tough and some other varied bad guys, but it's somewhat odd finding a social conscience in the midst of Wodehouse's usual foolery.
While visiting New York, Englishman Psmith meets young Billy Windsor, who has just been left in charge of Cosy Moments, a sentimental little paper with a small readership. With both the owner and editor away for weeks, Psmith steps in and persuades Billy to give the paper a complete overhaul, doing away with the coziness and instead focusing on investigative journalism and boxing stories. By publishing a series of articles about the conditions of a particular tenement slum, the two writers bring themselves into a gang war and are targets for multiple murder attempts, but Psmith never loses his cheerful manner and verbosity.
Psmith, Action Hero!: Readers of Psmith's previous adventures (Mike and Psmith, Psmith in the City) will appreciate Psmith's adventures in darkest New York. Wodehouse limbers up his dese, dems, and doses as he introduces us to "Bat" Jarvis and his gang of lowlifes, with whom Psmith interacts in an amusing manner-- even, at times, becoming strenuous in his defense of justice and his own corpus! Psmith bonking miscreants over the head with a stick? Yes! Psmith disarming pistol-wielding evil-doers? Yes! And along the way, much of the artful and absurdly witty banter that Psmith and Wodehouse specialize in is served up in heaping dollops. Enjoy!
This third installment of Psmith’s life and times takes him to America, where he takes up the
temporary job of “Cosy Moments’” subeditor whilst dodging bullets from members of various gangs,
who dislike certain articles printed in said newspaper.
Must say, this isn’t one of PG Wodehouse’s finest tomes, but was still worth checking out. Like with
the second book featuring Psmith (“Psmith in the City”), this third one doesn’t live up to the
entertainment value as displayed in the first novel (“Mike”).
While in “Mike” Psmith was by far the most amusing character, in the two subsequent works he
becomes less funny and more annoying, mainly through too many overlong monologues. These
elongated speeches lose some of the sharp show more wit apparent in “Mike”.
That said, he’s still the best character in the tale, just not up the high standard of his first appearance. show less
temporary job of “Cosy Moments’” subeditor whilst dodging bullets from members of various gangs,
who dislike certain articles printed in said newspaper.
Must say, this isn’t one of PG Wodehouse’s finest tomes, but was still worth checking out. Like with
the second book featuring Psmith (“Psmith in the City”), this third one doesn’t live up to the
entertainment value as displayed in the first novel (“Mike”).
While in “Mike” Psmith was by far the most amusing character, in the two subsequent works he
becomes less funny and more annoying, mainly through too many overlong monologues. These
elongated speeches lose some of the sharp show more wit apparent in “Mike”.
That said, he’s still the best character in the tale, just not up the high standard of his first appearance. show less
Humorous story of the continued adventures of Psmith. This installment sees him in New York, getting accidentally involved in the world of newspaper publishing, prizefighting and gangs. Fun story featuring the always droll Psmith.
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Author Information
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P. G. Wodehouse was born in Guildford, United Kingdom on October 15, 1881. After completing school, he spent two years as a banker at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in London and then took a job as a sports reporter and columnist for the Globe newspaper. His first novel, The Pothunters, was published in 1902. He wrote over 100 novels and short show more story collections during his lifetime including A Perfect Uncle, Love Among the Chickens, The Swoop, P. Smith in the City, Meet Mr. Milliner, Doctor Sally, Quick Service, The Old Reliable, Uneasy Money, A Damsel in Distress, Jill the Reckless, The Adventures of Sally, A Pelican at Blandings, The Girl in Blue, and Aunts Aren't Gentlemen. His most famous characters, Bertie Wooster and his manservant, Jeeves, appeared in books such as Much Obliged, Jeeves. He also wrote lyrics for musical comedies and worked as screenwriter in Hollywood in the 1930s. In 1939, he bought a villa in Le Touquet on the coast of France. He remained there when World War II started in 1939. The following year, the Germans appropriated the villa, confiscated property, and arrested him. He was detained in various German camps for almost one year before being released in 1941. He went to Berlin and spoke of his experience in five radio talks to be broadcast to America and England. The talks themselves were completely innocuous, but he was charged with treason in England. He was cleared, but settled permanently in the United States. He became a citizen in 1955. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1975. He died from a heart attack after a long illness on February 14, 1975 at the age of 93. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Psmith periodista
- Original title
- Psmith Journalist
- Alternate titles
- Psmith USA
- Original publication date
- 1915
- People/Characters
- Ronald Psmith; Psmith; Mike Jackson; Billy Windsor; Kid Brady; Pugsy Maloney (show all 7); Bat Jarvis
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA
- First words
- The man in the street would not have known it, but a great crisis was imminent in New York journalism.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The man behind Cosy Moments slept.
- Disambiguation notice
- Psmith USA was the provisional title of this work prior to publication.
"The Prince and Betty is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse. [...] It was published in book form, in the United Kingdom by Mills & Boon... (show all) on 1 May 1912. A substantially different version, which incorporated the plot of Psmith, Journalist, was published in the US by W.J. Watt & Company, New York on 14 February 1912." The Prince and Betty in Wikipedia
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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