New in The Collector's Wodehouse: FRENCH LEAVE and THE WHITE FEATHER

Two new volumes in Overlook's beloved Collector's Wodehouse have just been published!

The White Feather tells the story of a schoolboy who takes up boxing after shaming himself by running away from a fight. This charming early novel (1907) by PGW plays a series of witty variations on the standard school story of the period, balancing the minor heroics of the action against a humorously ironic commentary.

When three sisters from Long Island leave for a holiday in Europe, complications ensue in a classic Wodehouse tale of mixed up lovers and impoverished aristocrats. Set in France, Wodehouse abandons his familiar world of English country houses and London clubs for a more sophisticated European milieu in his 1956 novel French Leave.

P.G. Wodehouse Returns with a Giveaway!

Here at Overlook, we're delighted to be adding another three volumes to our already voluminous Collector's Wodehouse series. If you're an anglophile or just a lover of good literature, these three books are sure to charm, thanks to P.G. Wodehouse's witty prose and hilariously complex plots. Wodehouse is the master of social hijinks and comedy and has the remarkable ability to bring his socialite characters and their twentieth-century England world alive. Both nostalgic and timeless, Wodehouse's many novels are certain to entertain readers for generations with his exceedingly clever and comically savvy satire.


Tales of St Austin's is a collection of sixteen school-themed early Wodehouse stories and essays. Boyish escapades like cricket, rugby, and revenge are familiar ingredients of these stories, but no one can relate them quite as well as Wodehouse, with his gentle humor and inimitable turns of phrase. St Austin's is a nostalgic look at English public-school life at the turn of the twentieth century, but readers will be pleasantly surprised at the stories' relevance to today's world.

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is the ninth of eleven novels featuring the comical Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves, who always manages to extricate Bertie from the wacky situations he lands himself in. In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, Bertie returns to Totleigh Towers—lair of former magistrate Sir Watkyn Bassett and his ghastly daughter Madeline—to assist his old friend 'Stinker' Pinker. His subsequent adventures involve a black statuette, a Brazilian explorer, an angry policeman, and all the horrors of a school treat. It takes Jeeves, posing as Chief Inspector Witherspoon of the Yard, to sort out the mess and retrieve his employer from the soup.

 Bachelors Anonymous is the story of a bachelors' support group, meant to keep members safe from roving, marriage-hungry females and out of tricky romantic entanglements. Much-married, much-divorced American movie mogul—and serial marriage proposer—Ivor Llewellyn depends on his Bachelors Anonymous friends to fend off actress Vera Dalrymple. But when Llewellyn's bodyguard begins to fall for a beautiful journalist, Bachelors Anonymous member, Ephraim Trout, attempts to intervene. Trout sets in motion a series of hilarious events which end in more than one marriage, including his own.

Whether you're a devoted Wodehousian or have only a cursory knowledge of the masterful English writer, Overlook Press would like to celebrate by giving you the chance to win these three beautiful books. Printed on Scottish cream-weave, acid-free paper, bound in a cloth cover, and protected by a beautifully illustrated dust jacket, these are truly collector's editions. Post a comment here or a retweet on Twitter and you'll automatically be entered in our giveaway.

New Additions to the Collector’s Wodehouse

Still longing for new episodes of Downton Abbey? As the Chicago Tribune suggests, give Wodehouse a try. There’s no time like the present, as today brings the two latest additions to our Collector’s Wodehouse series, The Adventures of Sally and Mike at Wrykyn. Still not convinced? Just ask British comedic actor, Stephen Fry. 

When finished, the Collector’s Wodehouse will be the first complete hardback series of Wodehouse’s work by any one publisher. In every case, our editors have gone back to the first editions of each book and corrected errors that crept into the numerous paperback volumes. Each book has been re-typeset using the classic English typeface Caslon and printed on Scottish cream-woven, acid free paper, sewn and bound in full cloth, and illustrated by Polish artist Andrzej Klimowski.

The Adventures of Sally is a transatlantic comedy set in worlds Wodehouse knew well: American theaters and English theatrical boardinghouses where young men and women dream of finding fame and fortune. Coming into a modest inheritance, one of these young women, Sally, is able to leave her boardinghouse at last, and looks forward to a quiet life in a small apartment. Instead she finds herself swept up in a series of adventures with her ambitious brother and her playwright fiancé, along with an accident-prone, dog-loving Englishman she meets on a French beach and his supercilious cousin, who pursue her across the Atlantic. 

In Mike a Wrykyn, the charming story of the Jackson cricketing dynasty at boarding school, Wodehouse evokes the peaceful prosperous world of middle-class England before the Great War, a place where rich men hire private cricket professionals to coach their sons at home, and little seems to matter at school except the publishing of team lists and the taking of tea. But such is the novelist’s skill that he can make excitement from the small-scale dramas of teenage life, and interest even the most unsporting reader in the cricket matches he describes so lovingly. A curiosity for those who know only Wodehouse of Blandings and Piccadilly, but a delightful one.

A Glance Inside a P.G. Wodehouse Fan's Bookshelf

Scott sent us this wonderful picture of his bookshelves--he has a full collection of Overlook's P.G. Wodehouse. Any other Wodehouse fans up there? We'd love to add pictures of your collections, too!

If you're unfamiliar with Wodehouse, learn more on our website. Two new titles--Service with a Smile and The Pothunters--will be in stores this week!

Happy Wodehouse reading!

Wodehouse for the Weekend!

Our beloved Collector's Wodehouse series continues to delight PGW fans all over the world. The series continues to grow with five new titles to be published by the end of 2010. Coming soon are Service with a Smile and The Pothunters, followed later in the year by A Pelican at Blandings, A Prefect's Uncle, and Eggs, Beans and Crumpets.

These Wodehouse works offer almost everything a reader could ask for: sharply drawn characters, intriguing stories, and exquisite prose. Each volume has been reset and printed on Scottish cream-wove, acid free paper, sewn and bound in cloth. They are elegant and essential additions to any Wodehouse fan's library. They are brilliant gifts for friends or family, or simply to indulge oneself!

"His novels are the very definition of British humor, bubblingly witty and dryly loony. Overlook Press continues its reissue of a handful of these absurd souffls. You can buy the work for yourself in suave hardcover volumes, the dust jackets as natty as the prose." Entertainment Weekly

"When Overlook Press repackaged a line of titles by the British humorist P.G. Wodehouse, the house devoted great attention to producing high-quality editions of the bookswhich feature full cloth covers and beautiful, striped endpapers." -Publishers Weekly

P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) was born in Surrey, educated in London, and spent much of his life in Southampton, Long Island, becoming an American citizen in 1955. In a literary career spanning more than seventy years, he published more than ninety books, twenty film scripts, and collaborated on more than thirty plays and musical comedies.

Wodehouse for the Weekend: BARMY IN WONDERLAND

New in the beloved Collector's Wodehouse series is Barmy in Wonderland. This classic plot of 1920s musical comedy, so familiar to Wodehouse from his own stage works, becomes the basis for a brilliant satire on theatrical life. The book concerns the character Cyril "Barmy" Fotheringay-Phipps, who had previously appeared in Wodehouse's Drones Club and Jeeves stories, and his adventures in the theatrical world. Featuring monstrous producers, vain film stars, impossible critics, temperamental actresses and a whole chorus of sharply drawn minor parts, this 1952 novel is Wodehouse at the top of his form.

Celebrate Twelve Days of Wodehouse with Nonsuch Book Blog

We're big fans of the Nonsuch Book blog, and are delighted with share the joy of P.G. Wodehouse this holiday season with the Twelve Days of Wodehouse. Readers of The Winged Elephant can join the fun by entering in this spectacular contest and win one of those gorgeous volumes from Overlook's Collector's Wodehouse series. The giveaway begins today and runs until December 12, with a featured Wodehouse title every day.

A FEW QUICK ONES by P.G. Wodehouse for the Labor Day Weekend

As the long weekend approaches and summer winds down, perhaps it's time for A Few Quick Ones by the great P.G. Wodehouse, the latest release in Overlook's beloved Collector's Wodehouse series. A Few Quick Ones (1959) is one of Wodehouse’s famous collections of ten stories in which many old friends reappear in deliciously absurd situations. Some of his favorite characters are here for the party—Jeeves and Wooster, Mr. Mulliner, Bingo, the tight-wad Oofy Proessor, Ukridge and, of course, the Drones are in force. The is the final appearance by Ukridge, and Ukridge, last seen, is in the soup.

P.G. Wodehouse's Golf Classic THE HEART OF A GOOF in Newsday

In honor of today's opening round of the U.S. Open, Allen Barra rounds-up classic books on golf in Long Island's Newsday. Making the cut is P.G. Wodehouse's The Heart of a Goof, available in Overlook's beautiful Collector's Wodehouse series: "You don't necessarily have to be a lover of his Jeeves and Wooster novels to enjoy Wodehouse's golf stories. In fact, you don't even have to love golf. This collection of nine stories told by "The Oldest Member" from his comfy chair on the terrace of the ninth hole, includes such laugh-making characters as Evangeline (described as a "golfing giggler"), Rollo Podmarsh (who, even though he thinks he's been poisoned, still doggedly finishes his round) and Rodney Spelvin (who finds new inspiration for his verse when he discovers "the Scottish game"). Sample quote from the opening story: "It was a morning when all nature shouted 'Fore!' The breeze, as it blew gently up from the valley, seemed to bring hope and cheer, whispering of chip shots holed and brassies landing squarely on the meat."

Washington Post on Wodehouse, Sex and the Mumps

Dennis Drabelle, writing in the Washington Post's excellent Short Stack blog, offers a unusual theory on P.G. Wodehouse: "Overlook Press has been publishing deluxe-ish editions of the works of P.G. Wodehouse, and the latest has just arrived: Aunts Aren't Gentlemen. I mean "latest" in two senses: This is the latest volume to come out, and it was the last novel the overlord of light comedy finished before his death in 1975. (He left a later manuscript, the aptly titled Sunset at Blandings, incomplete.) This rounding out of the Wodehousean oeuvre reminds me of a theory put forward by Robert McCrums in his excellent biography, Wodehouse: A Life: He traces the sexlessness of all the romances in the master's novels to the mumps.
Having come down with the mumps myself as a teenager, I recall being warned to be as listless as possible in the bed I was supposed to get out of only to go the bathroom. The danger, I was told, was that roughhousing might end my sex life before it had even started. McCrum suggests that in Wodehouse's case that dire possibility actually came to pass, reducing his sex drive to near-zero. This means that his marriage may have been unconsummated (he begat no children) and may explain why Bertie Wooster sneaks into and out of countless manor houses with ease but can't find his way into Madeline Basset's bed. McCrum may be right, may be wrong, but what's been on my mind lately is what would happen if Wodehouse's characters did have intercourse. The American novelist Jonathan Ames tried to answer that question a couple of years ago in his novel "Wake Up, Sir!," a Wodehouse pastiche in which there is plenty of humping. It's quite enjoyable, but it's not Wodehouse, partly because nobody can measure up to the master in depicting utter silliness in an inimitably facetious prose style. And partly because, well, the Wodehouse brand has to be genitals-free. Why that is, I'm not sure, but here's a guess: It's part of the Zeitgeist. During most of Wodehouse's long career, writers and readers had yet to reach an accord by which the former would knock down the bedroom walls and the latter would peer in."

P.G. Wodehouse's DOCTOR SALLY and AUNTS AREN'T GENTLEMEN On Sale Now

Two new editions to Overlook's Collector's Wodehouse are now available in fine bookstores and through online booksellers: Doctor Sally and Aunts Aren't Gentlemen. Inexplicably out-of-print for decades, Overlook is proud to bring Dr. Sally back into print. The tale of golf expert Dr. Sally Smith, and of golf addict Bill Bannister, who loves her. In Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen Bertie Wooster withdraws to the village of Maiden Eggesford on doctor's orders to “sleep the sleep of the just and lead the quiet Martini-less life.” Only the presence of the irrepressible Aunt Dahlia shatters the rustic peace. A classic—the last book written by Wodehouse featuring Bertie and Jeeves.

With each volume edited and reset and printed on Scottish cream-wove, acid-free paper, sewn and bound in cloth, Doctor Sally, Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen and the rest of the Wodehouse novels published by the Overlook Press are elegant additions to any Wodehouse fan's library.

P.G. Wodehouse's NOTHING SERIOUS On Sale Today

Wodehouse fans rejoice! Two new volumes in Overlook's Collectors Wodehouse series have been released for the holidays, P.Smith, Journalist and Nothing Serious, and two more, Aunt's Aren't Gentleman and Doctor Sally are coming in early 2009.

Nothing Serious is Wodehouse’s famous collection of ten stories in which many old friends reappear in deliciously absurd situations. Two lovers are united by their hatred of cricket. Bingo Little, editor of Wee Tots and husband of romantic novelist Rosie M. Banks, finds new solutions to his financial problems. Lord Emsworth becomes an encyclopedia salesman for a day. Rodney Spelvin, bad poet turned enthusiastic golfer, shows signs of reverting to type. And Ukridge for once emerges triumphant from the struggle with his fearsome Aunt Julia. Don't miss the latest volume of The Collector's Wodehouse, now available in bookstores and through online booksellers across the country!

P.G. Wodehouse's P SMITH, JOURNALIST in The Los Angeles Times

David Ulin, Book Editor of The Los Angeles Times, takes note of the newest addition to Overlook's Everyman Wodehouse, P Smith Journalist: "Journalism has always been a desperate business. That's the subtext of P.G. Wodehouse's 1915 novel Psmith, Journalist, which has just been reissued as part of a project meant to preserve all of the author's 90-something books. Wodehouse, of course, is best known for his novels about the butler Jeeves and his dandy, Bertie Wooster, parodies of English manor life. Psmith, though, was a recurring early character, an overstuffed British public school product who blunders in and out of extreme situations yet is actually much smarter than he looks. That personality is on full display here as Psmith comes to Manhattan and gets involved with a bland family newspaper called Cosy Moments, which, in collaboration with its fill-in editor Billy Windsor, he turns into a muckraking rag par excellence.Given the trend in contemporary news to go in a softer direction, it's refreshing to read about a pair of journalists who want to stir up trouble; the main action of the novel involves the conflict between Cosy Moments and a particularly nasty slumlord who calls in the gangs of New York in an effort to shut the paper down. This being farce, there is no real sense of risk, and Wodehouse delights in all sorts of narrative devices -- he especially loves a deus ex machina -- but the ride is so enjoyable we hardly care."

SOMETHING FISHY in The Collector's Wodehouse

The latest volume in Overlook's magnificent Collector's Wodehouse series is Something Fishy, a marvelous novel set in the Elysian suburb of Valley Fields. Something Fishy follows the romantic fortunes of Lord Uffenham's niece Jane, her unspeakable fiance, and Bill Hollister, the dashing stranger who comes to her rescue. When all the characters find themselves involved in the fate of a million-dollar fortune, the stage is set for a classic chain of comic muddles and misunderstandings which naturally result in Bill getting both the girl and the cash.