A Gentleman of Leisure
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A Gentleman of Leisure
by Authors:
P. G. Wodehouse
Released: 31 March, 2003
ISBN: 1585673919
Hardcover
Sales Rank: 190078
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List price:
$17.95
Our price:
$12.21
(You save: $5.74)
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| Book > A Gentleman of Leisure > Customer Reviews: |
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Average Customer Rating: 
A Gentleman of Leisure >
Customer Review #1:
 Early Wodehouse - Good but not great
"A Gentleman of Leisure" was first published in 1910, which makes it one of his earlier works. In the United States it was originally published under the title "The Intrusion of Jimmy." This particular printing is from The Collectors Wodehouse series being released by The Overlook Press (in the U.K. it is The Everymans Wodehouse series from Everymans Library). The series is very nicely produced, the bindings are excellent, and the paper quality is high.This particular story is about Jimmy Pitt, who makes a bet that "any man of ordinary intelligence could break into a house." There is some pre-history to the characters, which the reader is given in a hurry, and it feels a bit more forced than other Wodehouse books that I have read. I do not want to go into much detail about the plot, but it does develop in a familiar way to readers of Wodehouse, with many twists and turns. Still, there is something missing in the telling of this story. It lacks the easy flow that his later stories. Still, one can see the early elements of what would eventually make P. G. Wodehouse one of the great humorists of all time.
A Gentleman of Leisure >
Customer Review #2:
OK Comic Novel Foreshadows Better Stories
First published in 1910, this is one of Wodehouses earliest adult novels, and it shows. Wodehouses fine comic prose is very much in evidence and makes it readable enough; the trouble is the blandly flawless straight-arrow protagonist and the soppy generic romance plot. There are some more successful comical secondary characters, including a New York burglar (whose colourful New York criminal dialect begins to grate after a while), and a jelly-spined hard-up-for-cash English Lord tyrannised by his overbearing Uncle.Having read and loved some later Wodehouse, especially the Jeeves and Bertie stories, I soon found the more interesting elements of the book to be the foreshadowings of what was to come, viz: · Lord Dreever is rather like Bertie Wooster might be if he was dependent on Aunt Agatha;
· Lord Dreevers unwanted betrothal would be relived by Bertie countless times;
· Jimmy is mistaken for a professional thief;
· and in the contrast between Jimmys standard English and Spikes New York dialect lies the seeds of the juxtaposed Jeeves-speak and Bertie-speak that is one of the joys of those stories. In brief, this is chiefly for the Wodehouse fan interested in following the Masters development as a writer. Also published under the title The Intrusion of Jimmy.
A Gentleman of Leisure >
Customer Review #3:
 Overlooked Early Wodehouse Gem.
Very interesting one this. While obviously not of the quality of his later work(i.e. from Leave It To Psmith onwards) this is a key early Wodehouse text. It almost reads like an early prototype for the aforementioned Psmith book, with its country estate setting complete with valuable jewellery and potential thieves. Add in a very Threepwood-like peer with the backbone of a jellyfish having to contend with a formidable Uncle and Aunt and you have all the key ingredients for a classic Wodehouse.If youve read Leave It To Psmith then on no account miss this one, its not the best of his early books(probably Pmith in the City) but its the most prophetic.
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A Gentleman of Leisure >
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