- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (31 Jan 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140124527
- ISBN-13: 978-0140124521
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.7 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 654,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Jimmy Pitt, rich, generous, popular American bachelor, has fallen in love with an unknown girl on a transatlantic liner. He bets a friend at the Strollers Club in New York that he can break into a house. Unfortunately he selects the house of Police Captain McEachern.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Excellent early Wodehouse romp later distilled to form the template for `A Damsel in Distress' and the Blanding's saga. Jimmy Pitt falls in love with the daughter of a Corrupt New York Policeman before befriending a house breaker and by the sort of coincidence only Wodehouse could get away with breaks into the said Chief of Police's house to win a bet off a friend.
Some time later everyone is re-united at Dreever Castle where everyone except the hostess is under an assumed name or is an imposter. A sort of über Blanding's were everyone is acting out a misapprehension. It sounds allot more complicated than it is, Wodehouse manages to bring it all home with necklaces returned to rightful owners, card sharps exposed, thief's caught and detectives found out.
This novel runs at a breakneck speed and in later Castle farces Wodehouse would only employ some of the devises used in this book allowing the beauty of the language and the dialogue to be the star of the show. Even without the expansive wordplay the mechanics of the story should still entertain.
Some time later everyone is re-united at Dreever Castle where everyone except the hostess is under an assumed name or is an imposter. A sort of über Blanding's were everyone is acting out a misapprehension. It sounds allot more complicated than it is, Wodehouse manages to bring it all home with necklaces returned to rightful owners, card sharps exposed, thief's caught and detectives found out.
This novel runs at a breakneck speed and in later Castle farces Wodehouse would only employ some of the devises used in this book allowing the beauty of the language and the dialogue to be the star of the show. Even without the expansive wordplay the mechanics of the story should still entertain.
Format:Hardcover
In 'A Gentleman of Leisure', we meet Jimmy Pitt a young man who feels himself unable to settle. While on a boat to America, he had seen and fallen in love with a young woman, but had never had the opportunity of speaking to her. Later, for a bet, he breaks into a house which turns out to be the home of said young woman, who lives with her father. This father, Mr McEachern, was English originally, but moved to New York and became a Police Captain. Unknown to his beloved daughter he has made a great deal of money through corruption. He has now made enough money to return to England, and his rightful place in society.
Sometime later, back in England, Jimmy meets the Earl of Dreever, and is invited to stay at the county house which is nominally his, but which is ruled over by his uncle, Sir Thomas Blunt who, in true Wodehouse fashion, keeps a tight hold on the purse-strings. Here, he once again runs into Mr McEachern, and his daughter, who he now learns is named Molly. However, her father, with an eye on the title, expects her to marry the Earl of Dreever, as does Dreever's uncle. Naturally, Jimmy cannot stand for this, and Dreever himself isn't too keen, being interested in a young woman he met in London, but who is a less attractive proposition for his uncle, as she hasn't a penny.
Jimmy has taken on American burglar Spike Mullins as his valet in a way very reminiscent of Mr Pickwick taking on Sam Weller, but is distressed to find that all the jewels in the house are tempting the youth back into his old line, particularly as members of two separate detective agencies have been called in to keep an eye on Jimmy and Spike. Cue the usual Wodehouse imbroglios.
People speak of Wodehouse as being a humourist, which he was to a supreme degree, but in fact most of his novels are romances. Watching how he unravels his labyrinthine plots and ensures all the right people end-up together is always part of the enjoyment of reading one of his stories. The novel is set in the typical Wodehouse country house idyll basking in an endless Summer. This is an early novel, Wodehouse's twelfth, written in 1910 just after his series of school stories. There may be a few too many coincidences, and the practiced ear for sparkling dialogue hasn't yet asserted itself, but the performing flea has already found his niche. The setting is very like a proto-Blandings, Jimmy is in the mould of classic Wodehouse buzzers, Lord Dreever is a typical spineless youth under the thumb of the older relative who insists on keeping a tight hold of the purse-strings, and Molly is one of a line of charming heroines whose love is worth winning. All that is really lacking is the formidable aunt. This isn't meant to suggest any lack of originality on Wodehouse's part; rather, it shows his boundless invention and creativity over the course of his ninety-plus books.
Sometime later, back in England, Jimmy meets the Earl of Dreever, and is invited to stay at the county house which is nominally his, but which is ruled over by his uncle, Sir Thomas Blunt who, in true Wodehouse fashion, keeps a tight hold on the purse-strings. Here, he once again runs into Mr McEachern, and his daughter, who he now learns is named Molly. However, her father, with an eye on the title, expects her to marry the Earl of Dreever, as does Dreever's uncle. Naturally, Jimmy cannot stand for this, and Dreever himself isn't too keen, being interested in a young woman he met in London, but who is a less attractive proposition for his uncle, as she hasn't a penny.
Jimmy has taken on American burglar Spike Mullins as his valet in a way very reminiscent of Mr Pickwick taking on Sam Weller, but is distressed to find that all the jewels in the house are tempting the youth back into his old line, particularly as members of two separate detective agencies have been called in to keep an eye on Jimmy and Spike. Cue the usual Wodehouse imbroglios.
People speak of Wodehouse as being a humourist, which he was to a supreme degree, but in fact most of his novels are romances. Watching how he unravels his labyrinthine plots and ensures all the right people end-up together is always part of the enjoyment of reading one of his stories. The novel is set in the typical Wodehouse country house idyll basking in an endless Summer. This is an early novel, Wodehouse's twelfth, written in 1910 just after his series of school stories. There may be a few too many coincidences, and the practiced ear for sparkling dialogue hasn't yet asserted itself, but the performing flea has already found his niche. The setting is very like a proto-Blandings, Jimmy is in the mould of classic Wodehouse buzzers, Lord Dreever is a typical spineless youth under the thumb of the older relative who insists on keeping a tight hold of the purse-strings, and Molly is one of a line of charming heroines whose love is worth winning. All that is really lacking is the formidable aunt. This isn't meant to suggest any lack of originality on Wodehouse's part; rather, it shows his boundless invention and creativity over the course of his ninety-plus books.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Early Wodehouse - Good but not great
3 April 2004
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
"A Gentleman of Leisure" was first published under the title "The Intrusion of Jimmy" in the U.S. on May 11, 1910 by W. J. Watt and Co., and in the U.K. it was published under this title on November 15, 1910 by Alston Rivers, Ltd., which makes it one of Wodehouse's earlier works. The edition I am reviewoing is from The Collector's Wodehouse series being released by The Overlook Press (in the U.K. it is The Everyman's Wodehouse series from Everyman's 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 because there are many twists and turns which are undoubtedly familiar to readers of Wodehouse. Still, there is something missing in the telling of this story. It lacks the easy flow that many of his later stories have. However, one can see the early elements of what would eventually make P. G. Wodehouse one of the great humorists of all time.
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 because there are many twists and turns which are undoubtedly familiar to readers of Wodehouse. Still, there is something missing in the telling of this story. It lacks the easy flow that many of his later stories have. However, one can see the early elements of what would eventually make P. G. Wodehouse one of the great humorists of all time.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
OK Comic Novel Foreshadows Better Stories
2 Sep 2002
Format:Paperback
First published in 1910, this is one of Wodehouse's earliest adult novels, and it shows. Wodehouse's 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 Dreever's unwanted betrothal would be relived by Bertie countless times;
· Jimmy is mistaken for a professional thief;
· and in the contrast between Jimmy's standard English and Spike's 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 Master's development as a writer.
Also published under the title 'The Intrusion of Jimmy'.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Overlooked Early Wodehouse Gem.
11 Oct 2001
Format:Paperback
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 it's 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 you've read Leave It To Psmith then on no account miss this one, it's not the best of his early books(probably Pmith in the City) but it's the most prophetic.
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