New Releases by P. G. Wodehouse

The Coming of Bill (1920) is the nearest Wodehouse ever came to a serious novel, although the influence of the musical comedies he was writing at the time is never far away. Bill is the child of Ruth, a spoilt heiress, and Kirk, an impecunious artist of perfect physique. Their marriage has been arranged by Ruth''s aunt, a believer in eugenics who then takes charge of the baby. The story, set entirely in New York and Connecticut, concerns the young couple''s campaign to retrieve their child from the overbearing Mrs Porter and establish a normal family life. They are eventually successful, but only after a series of comic mishaps in a story which features a galaxyof vintage Wodehouse characters, including the bossy aunt, a tetchy millionaire, a good-natured ex-boxer and an orotund English butler.

And then I saw Him. Not distinctly, for he was rowing a dinghy in my direction, and consequently had his back to me. In the stress of my emotions and an aggravation of modesty, I dived again. With an intensity like that of a captured conger I yearned to be hidden by the water. I could watch him as I swam, for, strictly speaking, he was in my way, though a little farther out to sea than I intended to go. As I drew near, I noticed that he wore an odd garment like a dressing gown. He had stopped rowing. I turned upon my back for a moment''s rest, and, as I did so, heard a cry. I resumed my former attitude, and brushed the salt water from my eyes. The dinghy was wobbling unsteadily. . . .

"You were just going to ask me if I had ever been in love, weren''t you?" "I wasn''t, because I know you haven''t. You have no soul. You don''t know what love is." "Have it your own way," said Mifflin, resignedly. Jimmy bumped back on the sofa. "I don''t either," he said. "That''s the trouble."

When Jimmy Crocker -- a bit of a troublemaker, frankly -- finds the papers calling him "Piccadilly Jim" in his native England, and in a world of trouble otherwise, he decides to go to New York. En route, he meets a beautiful young woman and hears her talking to her family about what an awful person "that James Crocker" is. He decides to meet her by pretending to be someone else -- he makes a name up on the spur of the moment: Algernon Bayliss. But he''s constantly running into people who recognize him as Crocker, and, worse still, the girl plans to pass "Algernon" off as Crocker to their shared aunt. (They aren''t really related, but step-cousins through a second marriage.) And Jimmy finds himself pretending to be Algernon pretending to be Jimmy -- while trying to get this girl to fall in love with him. A classic tale of false identity; like much of Wodehouse, a classic of a very peculiar kind.

A collection of stories in which familiar characters and places are reintroduced in unfamiliar circumstances, reminding us - if we need reminding - of their author''s limitless powers of comic invention. In the title story - one of Wodehouse''s longest and best shorter fictions - Lord Emsworth takes his revenge on his ghastly secretary, the Efficient Baxter, setting off a wave of similar reprisals at Blandings Castle with amazing results. In other tales we meet several members of the Drones Club, while the final three reunite us with the ineffable Ukridge, more of whose ever-optimistic schemes for making easy money come to grief. A delightful meeting with old friends for some readers, a superb introduction to the world of Wodehouse for others.