Rating: 
Summary: The First Potty Doings at Blandings Castle
Review: Leave It to Psmith (pronounced "Smith") is the first P.G. Wodehouse novel about Blandings Castle and its inmates, Clarence, ninth earl of Emsworth, his daunting sister, Lady Constance Keeble and Beach, the butler. Fans of later Blandings Castle tales will be a little puzzled by this one. Clarence is obsessed with flowers and gardening rather than pigs. The Empress of Blandings is nowhere in sight. And the main plot catalyst is Psmith, that remarkable public school character from the early Wodehouse novels, rather than Galahad Threepwood or Uncle Fred.
Although this is not the best of the Blandings Castle tales, it has one of the best plots and does an effective job of introducing the ongoing characters and jokes. The interrelationships of the characters in the past and present are remarkable for their complexity and present lots of deja vu scenes.
Psmith and Clarence are two of Wodehouse's finest creations and the central joy of this book is found in their extended interactions.
As usual, love and money are at the bottom of the plot. Psmith cannot bear to be in the fish business any longer and advertises that he will do anything -- even commit a crime -- to get a change of pace. Clarence's son, Freddie Threepwood, contacts Psmith and asks him to help with an inside-the-family theft of his aunt's necklace. Although his uncle is rolling in the stuff, Lady Constance keeps him on a short leash. Freddie's uncle will give her another necklace like the one that's "stolen" and use the money to help Freddie and his uncle's step-daughter Phyllis. Freddie needs the money to attract a bride and Phyllis needs to help her new husband get a start on life.
Like the other Blandings Castle stories, the castle is full of imposters. Psmith himself is posing as a poet, but is constantly being unmasked by those who choose to keep his secret for a time.
Complications come when Psmith finds himself falling in love with a young woman whom he spies outside the Drones Club needing an umbrella. The young woman turns out to be on her way to Blandings Castle as well. It also turns out that Freddie has been proposing to her, but hasn't worn her down yet. Who will win the fair maiden?
The book has some of the funniest scenes in it that you can imagine involving flower pots. It's an inspired beginning to the many jokes that follow in later books about potty people residing at Blandings Castle.
Capital. Capital. Capital.
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Summary: PRINT TOO SMALL
Review: Leave it to Psmith is one of my favorite Wodehouse books. It's a book that can be read over again and always find something new to laugh about. I do wish however that the most popular edition published by Random House had a larger print. Why it has been published with such a small and difficult print? I have been searching Amazon to try a find a used version in large print and to no avail. Even if it could be in a regular pica size print would help. But we have to put up with a bit size print version that is smaller than elite and really very hard on the eyes. Wodehouse certainly would not approve if he could see it today. However, I do like the vintage cover that depicts Psmith perfectly.
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Summary: Wodehouse at his very Best
Review: Psmith and Lord Emsworth together. What more can a Wodehouse fan want? The novel has everything that a Wodehouse lover yearns for. Lots of hilarious impersonations, the antics of the absent minded Lord Emsworth, the suavely nonpareil Psmith with his unique way of speaking, multiple impersonators wanting to steal the same thing from Blandings castle, the plight of Baxter....everything is there. This must be the most enthralling Wodehouse book I have ever read, though it is very difficult to choose the best. I read it for the first time when I was sixteen and through the years that have followed I have reread it a dozen times cover to cover and have enjoyed it as much or even more with every reading.
And even if I don't read the whole book, whenever I hold the volume in my hand in a book shop or in a library or in someone's house, I read and re-read the place where Psmith proposes to Eve Halliday. That is simply sublime.
Rating:
Summary: Leave it to Psmith
Review: Psmith was one of Wodehouse's most popular characters. Wodehouse's last finished book was published in 1974...but he had retired Psmith by 1923, with the publication of Leave it to Psmith. Hard to believe, and a bit of a shame.On the plus side, resoundingly, this swan song for R. Psmith is pure gold. What a terrific idea to finish up with Psmith at Blandings! Psmith is at his unpredictable best; his quest at Blandings involves a dual aim...pinching Constance Keeble's necklace in a good cause (several people would benefit from this unspeakable felony, including Psmith's old friend, Mike Jackson who, alas, never appears in this story where his name is so bandied about), and pitching woo to Eve Halliday, sorter and filer of Lord Emsworth's books. The plot really explodes once we finally get to Blandings, but the lengthy lead-in to this, which introduces the extensive roster of characters, provides many amusing moments as well, chiefly due to Lord Emsworth's ability to misinterpret anything said to him, and his inability to detect Psmith substituting for an irate poet whom Lord Emsworth only just parted company with, temporarily, a few minutes previously. As for the frosting: the Efficient One, Baxter, is humiliated once again, this time via fifteen flower pots (not counting a sixteenth flower pot, the one he was really after, but moves around quite a bit, as flower pots containing valuable necklaces are apt to do), Freddy Threepwood is in the wrong place at the right time. And of course, Blandings Castle still collects imposters like some gigantic net built for this purpose. In fact, in this book it is as if a vast conveyor belt is dispensing imposters at the castle on some kind of regular schedule; once Psmith finagles his way into the castle as the poet McTodd, others with the same intention have taken a number and are merely a step behind. There is no avoiding a bittersweet taste to this wonderful romp which sees Psmith fading into the sunset, but what a joyous way to go. Thankfully, my favourite Wodehouse character, the Ninth Earl of Emsworth, was not going anywhere just yet (a man losing his spectacles this often is, naturally, not so mobile).
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Summary: Wodehouse's Antihero! Bertie with a criminal mind.
Review: PSMITH! The darker side of Wodehouse which is, if anything, even more hilarious than the sunny side of the street.
Psmith (said to be modeled after Rupert D'Oly Carte who was known to Wodehouse in their earliest years) has a ginger beer wire monocle, a silent "P" in his name, an optimistic and energetic approach to life, including practical socialism (what's yours is mine) and big broad flexible outlook as well as ears that stick out like windmills.
One of the great Wodehouse lines that comes to mind often is from this book. Psmith explains to the long-suffering narrator friend that the most recent creditor seeking vengeance after yet another great Psmithian disaster will be unlikely to find him, since Psmith gave him a false name. When the narrator, aghast, asks why, Psmith insouciantly explains, "Ordinary business precaution". If you've loved Bertie and Jeeves, meet Psmith!
I wish Mr. Wodehouse had steered him in the direction of the Wooster household just so we could see just how elaborate a scrape he could draw Bertie into, and how Jeeves would have prestidigitated his way out of it
Rating:
Summary: Wodehouse's Antihero! Bertie with a criminal mind.
Review: PSMITH! The darker side of Wodehouse which is, if anything, even more hilarious than the sunny side of the street.Psmith (said to be modeled after Rupert D'Oly Carte who was known to Wodehouse in their earliest years) has a ginger beer wire monocle, a silent "P" in his name, an optimistic and energetic approach to life, including practical socialism (what's yours is mine) and big broad flexible outlook as well as ears that stick out like windmills.One of the great Wodehouse lines that comes to mind often is from this book. Psmith explains to the long-suffering narrator friend that the most recent creditor seeking vengeance after yet another great Psmithian disaster will be unlikely to find him, since Psmith gave him a false name. When the narrator, aghast, asks why, Psmith insouciantly explains, "Ordinary business precaution". If you've loved Bertie and Jeeves, meet Psmith!I wish Mr. Wodehouse had steered him in the direction of the Wooster household just so we could see just how elaborate a scrape he could draw Bertie into, and how Jeeves would have prestidigitated his way out of it
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Summary: The Classic Wodehouse....
Review: This is a masterpiece of truly colossal dimensions, not because of any weighty literary merit, but because of the simple comic genius of the author----starting with the beautiful umbrella stealing episode till the last page, there is not a moment to be missed. This book will live forever.
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Summary: There is a flaw in this book
Review: This is one flaw in this otherwise flawless masterpiece. First, it is not the best Wodehouse book, but its up there. I doubt I'm the first to recognize or point out this flaw, but its worth going over it again, I think, since I just read this for the first time. Anyway, the scene when the Efficient Baxter is throwing flower-pots up at Lord Emsworth's window contains a couple of passages that are factually inconsistent with the story. After Lord Emsworth wakes Psmith up at 4 a.m. to help him deal with Baxter's apparent madness, the narrator explains to us that this is the first time Psmith has seen 4 a.m. in several years. Yet, a hundred pages or so earlier, Psmith told us how he used to rise every morning at 4 a.m. for his fish job, which he only very recently quit. Even geniuses like Wodehouse can make mistakes - this is the first one I've come across. Or have I overlooked something?
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Summary: The P is silent
Review: Unquestionably Wodehouse in peak form. Any visit to Blandings Castle is a delight. Throw in Psmith and it's pure rapture. If you've never read Wodehouse before, it's a great introduction to the master. (If you're already a fan, then what are you waiting for?)
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Summary: A Wonder Among Wodehouse
Review: Where to begin trying to explain the comic genius of Pelham Grenville? Leave it to Psmith is a perfect example of the humor genre. It is light, bright, clean, unobjectionable (unless you adore fish), and even more importantly- hysterically, bone achingly funny. The tale covers of the triumphs and travails of genial, bemonocled, and decidedly socialistic Psmith. (The P is silent as in ptarmigan, psoriasis, and psychiatrist.) Laugh as Psmith woos the young herione, lobs flowerpots at his host, and generally runs nonchalantly amok until he heroically saves the day. A must read for anyone who loves to laugh!
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