Mulliner Nights

Every respectable home should have a copy of MULLINER NIGHTS. For consistent charm and endless effortless goofy phrases, this beats, page-per-page, anything else PGW ever published. This is the collection in which -- for reasons too bizarre to detail -- corpuscles in the bloodstream are described as calling to other corpsucles lingering on the bank, "Come on in -- the blood's fine!". And a dark giant about the belabour his hapless neighbour is compared to the high priest of one of the rougher religions who runs his eye over the human sacrifice prior to asking his caddy for the niblick. And so on. It is a matter of record that in an earlier, perhaps happier day, Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories were so popular that there were show more Drones Clubs all over the civilized world, even in Budapest. Who would like to organize a latter-day Angler's Rest? I will be more than willing to play the raconteur Mulliner; I might even develop a taste for for Scotch, if that's what it takes to capture the role. show less

This is a bit of an odd book. Mr Mulliner is one of those characters who i would avoid like the plague if I were ever to meet him in the pub. However, meeting him through the covers of a book he's less irritating. The pub acts to frame a set of stories about Mr Mulliners many and varied younger relatives. There is a slightly self satisfied air about these, laughing asides at the follies of youth an all that, but they're amusing enough. Good, enjoyable Wodehouse.

Wodehouse stories are always delightful and when they are an audio edition narrated by Jonathan Cecil they’re even better.

This is another collection of short stories featuring Mr. Mulliner. He spends much of his time with friends and strangers in the Bar Parlour of the Angler’s Rest Pub. Patrons are usually only identified by their drink order. (Mr. Mulliner’s favorite is hot scotch and lemon.)

Every story begins with setting the stage at the pub and as the conversation gets going the subject sets Mr. Mulliner off on a story about one of his many relatives that may or may not actually be related to the subject of the conversation.

There were two stories in this collection that featured cats, and I particularly liked those. Usually show more there’s some sort of romance that has met an obstacle or gone wrong in some way but they’re always lightly amusing and feature plenty of witty wordplay. show less

Delicious. The anticipatory glee I felt reading these stories was only matched by the irrepressible peals of laughter they produced. My personal favorites were "The Smile That Wins", "Strychnine in the Soup" (not to be missed by mystery lovers), and "Gala Night". Pip-pip for the Mulliner clan! (*** 1/2)

On a side note: I love the Collector's Wodehouse bindings!

This is Wodehouse close to his best. The best of the stories are actually funnier than anything else of his I've read. I'd give it 5 stars, but a few of the stories fell a bit flat, so overall it's not quite as perfect as the best of the Jeeves and Wooster books.

Time has not been kind to Mr Wodehouse's work. No who am I kidding this book is dreaadful! True it has some period charm, but it is very difficult now to imagine a time when Mr Mulliner could have held sway in the bar parlour of the Anglers rest as described in the book. It is now not clear if the books are satires or not. The only thing the charachters seem to do or even want to do is get married. My only conclusion is that the books actually were satires on upper class mores when they were written, became tame by 1960s standards and then when rediscovered in the 1970s by television were played as straight comedies of manners. I hated them, which is a pity because I liked the books in my childhood.

Of the three short-story collections about the Mulliners, this is the one I rate the highest.

Webster the cat, who appears is two tales, is my favourite character.

Not sure which story I liked best, as they were pretty much on par with each other.