A Man of Means

I was very pleased to find this free for my Kindle at Project Gutenberg. It's very early Wodehouse; six short stories that, apparently, appeared in magazine form. I had not realised until I started the second one that they all feature the same man - the rather hapless Roland Bleke, who appears first as a nervous 22-year-old clerk.

Bizarrely, we meet Roland when he is asking his boss for a salary decrease... he has apparently promised to marry his girlfriend when his salary reaches a certain level, so wants to ensure that it does not.

Unfortunately for perhaps the only man in England who had no desire to rich, Roland finds himself the unexpected winner of more money than he has ever had before, and thus in the clutches of his greedy show more potential in-laws...

The story ends as he makes his dramatic escape, and the second episode begins when he finds himself in a completely new location, taken in - in both senses - by a speculating and somewhat fraudulent businessman.

It's not up to the standard of the wonderful Jeeves, but I can see hints of Bertie Wooster foreshadowed. The plots are cleverly unlikely, the caricatured minor characters excellent, and the overall book very enjoyable. Particularly since it was free. show less

A fun little collection of linked stories, dealing with a young man who comes into money. As he's also both rather self-centred and quite weak, he ends up entangled with various young women and their schemes. We aren't expected to fully sympathise with him, but seeing his apparent dooms and his lucky escapes provides a fair bit of amusement. Not Wodehouse's finest work, but an enjoyable little collection.

As has been said, God watches over fools and children. This applies to Roland Bleke who happens to fall in the former category. Very entertaining. One of the better non-Jeeves efforts that I've read from Wodehouse's early days.

These six connected short stories proved to be an entertaining read.

I like how the main character starts out by not wanting much money so as to avoid getting married, only for him to unintentionally keep gaining money and potential brides with the passing of each story.

Early, early Wodehouse. This book is a collection of six short stories, each originally published individually in a magazine, about the titular character named Roland Bleke.

The young man who entered looked exactly like a second clerk in a provincial seed-merchant's office—which, strangely enough, he chanced to be. His chief characteristic was an intense ordinariness. He was a young man; and when you had said that of him you had said everything. There was nothing which you would have noticed about him, except the fact that there was nothing to notice. His age was twenty-two and his name was Roland Bleke.

From this ordinary beginning, Bleke wins a great deal of money, and spends the rest of the six stories dealing with the show more ramifications of having become a rich man. For such an ordinary man, this turns out to more difficult than one would expect, but luckily Bleke wins through. Wodehouse's gift for wit is in full evidence here. show less

These 6 short stories are all about Ronald Bleke who starts off as an unassuming clerk and ends up as a "man of means" through no fault of his own. Fun stories though not quite as good as Wodehouse's best.

3.5*
These 6 short stories are all about Ronald Bleke who starts off as an unassuming clerk and ends up as a "man of means" through no fault of his own. Fun stories though not quite as good as Wodehouse's best.