The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

All of Wodehouse’s books are funny and will lift your spirits. This one is a collection of short stories. My favorites were “The Man Upstairs,” “Deep Waters” and “Pots O’ Money.” Most of the Wodehouse I’ve read previously has been about parasitic wealthy people (mostly the Jeeves books) and this was the first time I read some stories about starving artists and ordinary people. I slightly prefer reading about the idle rich or about golfers, because it’s so unreal. Seeing charming twists of fate happen to poor characters is in too stark contrast with real life, where that never happens.

Early short stories of Wodehouse. All follow the familiar patterns of the later works, but without quite the polish or the consistency. I miss some of the polish, but loved the little experiments he made into other directions that he seems to have eventually given up. The final story is nice in that it doesn't end all nicely tied up at the end - even though there was ample room to allow for that. I don't think any one story stood out, just good solid and enjoyable Wodehouse writing - but not his best - nor would I recommend it as someone's first journey into his writing.

Most of these 19 short stories feature some classic humour like only P.G. Wodehouse could write. The only weak effort in my view is "The Goal-Keeper and the Plutocrat". Otherwise, this collection is well worth checking out. My two favourite tales were "The Man, the Maid and the Miasma" and the title story.

This is a collection of romance stories, obviously comedic in nature -- a useful reminder that the topic is of interest to almost all members of our species.

Some of the stories in this collection quite hit the mark; others are a bit less entertaining. "The Man Upstairs", the titular story, reminded me quite a lot of O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi", published in 1905, 5 years before The Man Upstairs -- I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some influence or deliberate response there.

I also particularly enjoyed "The Goal-Keeper and the Plutocrat" (1910), and "Ruth in Exile" (1912), for no particular reason, and did not enjoy "The Man Who Disliked Cats" (1912).

I have always enjoyed Bertie and Wooster, and was not disappointed by this book of stories on other topics and characters. Lots of fun.

This is a collection of short stories written very early in P. G. Wodehouse's career, and as a collection it's hard to give a fair overall judgment. Some are good, some are less good. None is as good as the later Jeeves and Wooster stories.

I would not recommend this unless you are interested in consuming all of the authors produces literary works.

Hee!