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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

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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."

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.

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.

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!

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.

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."