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A Gentleman of Leisure
  
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A Gentleman of Leisure (Hardcover)

by P.G. Wodehouse (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Price: CDN$ 17.62 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Product Description

From AudioFile

Having joyfully awarded the coveted Earphones Award to two of Wodehouse's comedies (Jeeves Takes Charge and Heavy Weather), I must say that Davidson is not a masterful Wodehouse narrator like Edward Duke or Jeremy Sinden. Davidson has a urbane, British intonation, but his voice is just a shade too sardonic and bored to carry off Wodehouse. His light characterizations of the British male uppercrust come off well, but he's not successful with the women, who seem lifeless. However, the story is hilarious, and those who have not heard Wodehouse by the other narrators will enjoy it. D.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.


About the Author

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. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

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3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3.0 out of 5 stars Early Wodehouse - Good but not great, April 3 2004
By Dave_42 "Dave_42" (Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Ce commentaire est de: Gentleman Of Leisure (Hardcover)
"A Gentleman of Leisure" was first published in 1910, which makes it one of his earlier works. In the United States it was originally published under the title "The Intrusion of Jimmy." This particular printing 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, but it does develop in a familiar way to readers of Wodehouse, with many twists and turns. Still, there is something missing in the telling of this story. It lacks the easy flow that his later stories. Still, one can see the early elements of what would eventually make P. G. Wodehouse one of the great humorists of all time.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Overlooked Early Wodehouse Gem., Oct 10 2001
Ce commentaire est de: Gentleman Of Leisure (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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4.0 out of 5 stars Yet another great piece of comic writing, Dec 1 2000
By Alexander Stroup (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
Ce commentaire est de: Gentleman Of Leisure (Paperback)
A Gentleman of Leisure is the first Wodehouse novel I have read which is not in the series which includes Jeeves. My initials misgivings were quickly overcome, however, when within the first chapters our main hero has not only made a bet that "any man of ordinary intelligence could break into a house," but is also attempting to win the bet. Sounds like a silly setup but the style with which Wodehouse leads the reader into it more than assured me I was going to enjoy the rest of the book.

Wodehouse's characters almost never work, rarely know what is going on, and are incredibly prone to misunderstandings. In other words, P.G. would have been a great writer for such sit-coms as Friends or Three's Company (with the caveat that Wodehouse is too consistently funny for either of these shows).

Wodehouse has a style of prose that makes everything he writes incredibly easy to read, even 90 years later as with A Gentleman of Leisure. His sense of comic dialogue is always right on and somehow the shear unlikeliness of every coincidental encounter goes unnoticed.

As always the plot (Jimmy Pitt, our lovable hero, is trying to woo his true love, Molly McEachern) is simpler than the characters. Fortunately it is upon the characters, and not the plot, that this novel relies.

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