A lovely edition and a great help for people like myself who've come to elements of Wodehouse (in my case Jeeves and Bertie) but need to gradually get into the vast bulk of his work.

Still, many of these stories are probably better told in the context of their original novels and collections. Blissful but only a small slice of the bliss that awaits. ( )

Great collection of Wodehouse. Includes Jeeves and Wooster, Blandings, Mulliner, and other favorites. ( )

I love PG Wodehouse, and this book does sum up everything about Wodehouse.

The introduction by Stephen Fry is superb, and really does a very good job of summing up not only what is the best of Wodehouse, but what Wodehouse means to all of us.

The only gripe that I have, if you can call it that, is that there are times when I miss the context of the passages that I read. This is one of the problems of reading an excerpt.

However, the wide range of selections also does give us an extremely good idea of the range of PG Wodehouse's writing styles.

A really good book, all in all. ( )

Despite the advancing years I had up until receiving this book for Christmas never read any Wodehouse, though I had been read excerpts in my younger years. Of course, the problem with Wodehouse is that being such a prolific author, it's difficult to know where to start. And since most Wodehouse readers have their favourites, asking for advice on what to read is a bit like asking which football team you should support.

All of which is precisely why this compendium fits the bill nicely. There's a little bit of everything here to give the newcomer a real taste of Wodehouse's world, with stories from Jeeves, Blandings, Ukridge, Mr Mulliner, The Drones, Psmith and Uncle Fred. There's also a section of golfing stories, and at the back, as a sort of appendix, a collection of letters and sundry other writings. As for the prose itself, well if you really need more convincing, you could always start by perusing the introduction by Stephen Fry.

The only other review of this book to date criticised the quality of the book, and to some extent I must agree. Whilst I found nothing lacking in the book's manufacture, there were a surprising number of typographical errors to be seen, albeit only small niggly things. Nevertheless, for the price this volume is an absolute steal, a definite must for anyone looking for a glimpse into Wodehouse.

(And having read the lot, I can now say that my jersey is emblazoned with the Blandings crest.) ( )

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was a prolific author with 'about 100' titles to his name, very few of which are unworthy of consideration. This anthology, selected by Wodehouse societies from around the globe, collects canonical gems for the neophyte alongside more recondite material for the more seasoned Wodehousian. Thus considered it is a complete success. Unfortunately Wodehouse's writing thrives when it is read intensely rather than in the form of excerpts, and so I would advise the Wodehouse neophyte to invest in The Inimitable Jeeves or Something Fresh. Although this problem is not at all the fault of the selection, it's still enough to lose it a star (in my opinion). However... the utterly brilliant, perceptive and witty introduction by Stephen Fry is more than enough to restore a 5-star rating. ( )