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If Mike had been in time for breakfast that fatal Easter morning he might have gathered from the expression on his father's face, as Mr. Jackson opened the envelope containing his school report and read the contents, that the document in question was not exactly a paean of praise from beginning to end. But he was late, as usual. Mike always was late for breakfast in the holidays. When he came down on this particular morning, the meal was nearly over. Mr. Jackson had disappeared, taking his correspondence with him; Mrs. Jackson had gone into the kitchen, and when Mike appeared the thing had resolved itself into a mere vulgar brawl between Phyllis and Ella for the jam, while Marjory, recently affecting a grown-up air, looked on in a detached sort of way, as if these juvenile gambols distressed her.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Do not be put off by the fact that this is, undeniably, a boarding school story. There is no hint of the usual 'overcoming bullies to become the pride of the school' with a bit of cricket thrown in. This is simply a very witty, slick chronicle of educational anarchy. Psmith is one of Wodehouse's best creations, and I would rank this alongside, if not above the Jeeves books.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
`Mike and Psmith' is very much a transitional story in the growth of Wodehouse as a writer. It still heavily features Mike, Wodehouse's clean cut English schoolboy cricketer, but also introduces us to Psmith re-setting his monocle in the mirror and famously announcing to the world he grows `thinner and thinner' and addressing anyone as `Comrade'; not the best way to make friends in a turn of the twentieth century English boarding school.
The story is a typical Wodehouse school affair with Mike sent to Sedleigh for not getting good marks at Wrykyn where he had been too busy gearing up to be the captain of the school cricket team to do any work. Mike's reputation had preceded him to Sedleigh and so his refusal to appear in the first eleven is taken as a snub.
Will Mike come to his senses and play for the honour of the old school tie, well who cares provided Psmith manages to make us laugh with his insolence and peculiar diction. This book is the start point for Wodehouse's assent to the heights he was later to achieve and I can only hazard a guess as to how many canings this book lead to with schoolboys referring the their Headmasters as `Comrade'.
The story is a typical Wodehouse school affair with Mike sent to Sedleigh for not getting good marks at Wrykyn where he had been too busy gearing up to be the captain of the school cricket team to do any work. Mike's reputation had preceded him to Sedleigh and so his refusal to appear in the first eleven is taken as a snub.
Will Mike come to his senses and play for the honour of the old school tie, well who cares provided Psmith manages to make us laugh with his insolence and peculiar diction. This book is the start point for Wodehouse's assent to the heights he was later to achieve and I can only hazard a guess as to how many canings this book lead to with schoolboys referring the their Headmasters as `Comrade'.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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10 reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Grounded Wodehouse
14 Nov 2000
Format:Paperback
If you pick up Mike and Psmith and expect it to be like the wacky comedies that Wodehouse composed in the 20s and 30s, you might be slighted disappointed. This is early Wodehouse, a Wodehouse concerned with school masters, ragging (an expression for creating mischief) and especially cricket. It is also a more grounded Wodehouse, a novel where the comedy is more subtle, a novel where the characters are not quite so flighty. This is also Wodehouse at his least complex. This is not the novel that shows his mastery of the convulted plot, where every word spoken and deed done entagles our heros and heroines in further trouble.
This said, I need to quickly confirm that Mike and Psmith is a wonderful novel. It still has a freshness and innocence about it that is highly appealing. In this day and age, of rampant murders and unclear elections, Mike and Psmith is as sunny and cheerful a book as you are likely to find. And just to show you that I read Mike and Psmith with my eyes wide open, I have to state that my early comments are not intended as criticism but as a compliment. The subtlety is the very reason why this novel is so great! It is his art in creating a scene or a character and putting in the interesting setting of Sedleigh that Wodehouse shows why so many refer to him as the Master.
Mike and Psmith is not the funniest book Wodehouse wrote, but it does have many incredible scenes, especially Mr. Downing's search for the paint splashed shoe. I agree with the other reviewers that this is the high point of the book. I think readers will find a lot to enjoy in this novel. It is an escape to a world not that far removed for our own but placed in a time that we will never see again. This novel truly scores a century!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Very enjoyable
21 April 2000
Format:Paperback
I have to confess that I am a Wodehouse addict. I read the predecessor to this book (Mike at Wrykyn) when I was fifteen and had always wanted to read Mike and Psmith. Re. this book, Wodehouse had me in stitches most of the time - the portions relating to Mr. Downing are hilarious. Cricket is also a focus of this novel. If you are like me and miss the game, this will bring those school time memories flooding back.
For those who haven't read a Psmith novel before, I highly recommend them. It is said that Wodehouse created the Jeeves and Wooster characters as 2 spin-offs from Psmith and you can certainly see the connections! On the whole, another Wodehouse classic.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Very humorous
7 Oct 1999
Format:Paperback
I first read this book when I was 13, and it was the third Wodehouse book I had read. Some people say Wodehouse is boring; never! Wodehouse's English is so nicely crafted, it gives his stories a vivid character. Particularly Psmith's charactre is notable, and his mannerism and ingenuity make one laugh. There are some scenes in the book that are really hilarious(to me, at least) such as where Psmith and Mike talk to the headmaster about the study and the scene with the shoes. This is a humorous romp through boarding school, and a worthwhile book to put your nose into.
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