This novel was originally published in serial form and has since been republished in a variety of forms, including as two novels: Mike at Wrykyn and Mike and Psmith. It is an example of the very early work of P G Wodehouse and shows him transitioning from the school-based story genre to the comic novel based around eccentric aristocrats. Psmith, who makes his first appearance in the second half of this novel, was, perhaps, his first 'Woosterish' character (though Psmith has brains), although the character of Wyatt, who appears in the first half of this novel, is very much Psmith in embryo.
The book divides into two very separate halves:
- In the first half, Michael Jackson, the eponymous hero, is a keen cricketer (he has three brothers who play first-class cricket) who goes to public school Wrykyn with the ambition of making the First Eleven in his first term.
- In the second half, Mike has been taken from Wrykyn just before becoming captain of Cricket and, because of bad reports, is sent to Sedleigh, a much smaller school with a much smaller reputation in cricket. Sulking, he decides he won't play cricket for Sedleigh.
The style shows clear indications of what PGW will become. His authorial voice is already there:
- There are the authorial reflections, with a twist of wryness:
- "And here, I regret to say, Mike acted from the best motives, which is always fatal." (C 2)
- "Influential relations are a help in every stage of life." (C 4)
- "No man of spirit can bear to be pelted with over-ripe tomatoes for any length of time without feeling that if the thing goes on much longer he will be reluctantly compelled to take steps." (C 8)
- "The true philosopher is the man who says “All right,” and goes to sleep in his arm-chair." (C 22)
- There are the reinterpreted metaphors:
- "Rather like crushing a thingummy with a what-d’you-call-it." (C 14)
- "He paced up and down the room like a hungry lion, adjusting his pince-nez (a thing, by the way, which lions seldom do)" (C 19)
- "With a strong hand she had shaken the cat out of the bag, and exhibited it plainly to all whom it might concern." (C 21)
- There are utterly original descriptions:
- "The whole business had some of the dignity of the old-fashioned minuet, subtly blended with the careless vigour of a cake-walk." (C 40)
There are even hints of characters in later novels. For example, Mike says that before Wrykyn he was at a private school "at Emsworth" which foreshadows Lord Emsworth, the hero of the Blandings Castle saga.
Both halves resonate with the public school ethos of the age. On the one hand, it reeks of privilege. The boys live in a protected bubble; the lower classes are subservient. Even when the village policeman is thrown into the pond, the headmaster is fundamentally complacent.
On the other hand, it is fascinating to see how things have developed. This is a time before toothpaste: "Push us over a pinch of that tooth-powder of yours. I’ve used all mine.” (C 23) The googly is still new and unnamed: "my friend said he had one very dangerous ball, of the Bosanquet type. Looks as if it were going away, and comes in instead.” (C 27)
Some words are in early stages of their development:
- There is an interesting use of the word 'stereo' (unacknowledged in my Chambers) as a shortening of stereotyped to describe the conventional conversation around the breakfast table in the Jackson household.
- One doesn't 'oversleep', one 'oversleeps oneself'.
- “I simply sha’n’t go to school.” (C 9)
- “Nothing that happens in this luny-bin,” said Psmith, “has power to surprise me" (C 46)
Selected quotes:
- "Except during the cricket season they were in the habit of devoting their powerful minds at breakfast almost exclusively to the task of victualling against the labours of the day." (C 1)
- "He had the same feeling for Mike that most boys of eighteen have for their fifteen-year-old brothers. He was fond of him in the abstract, but preferred him at a distance." (C 1)
- "An entirely modest person seldom makes a good batsman. Batting is one of those things which demand first and foremost a thorough belief in oneself. It need not be aggressive, but it must be there." (C 4)
- "There is nothing more heady than success, and if it comes before we are prepared for it, it is apt to throw us off our balance. As a rule, at school, years of wholesome obscurity make us ready for any small triumphs we may achieve at the end of our time there." (C 5)
- "when Mike was pleased with life he always found a difficulty in obeying Authority and its rules." (C 5)
- "I often say to people, ’Good chap, Trevor, but can’t think of Life. Give him a tea-pot and half a pound of butter to mess about with,’ I say, ’and he’s all right. But when it comes to deep thought, where is he? Among the also-rans.’ That’s what I say.” (C 17)
- "The first duty of a captain is to have no friends." (C 20)
- "There are many kinds of walk. Mike’s was the walk of the Overwrought Soul." (C 20)
- "Marjory meant well, but she had put her foot right in it. Girls oughtn’t to meddle with these things. No girl ought to be taught to write till she came of age. And Uncle John had behaved in many respects like the Complete Rotter. If he was going to let out things like that, he might at least have whispered them, or looked behind the curtains to see that the place wasn’t chock-full of female kids." (C 21)
- “if I cannot compel circumstances to my will, I can at least adapt my will to circumstances." (C 22)
- "it’s awful rot for a chap like Wyatt to have to go and froust in a bank for the rest of his life.” (C 26)
- "I’ve just become a Socialist. It’s a great scheme. You ought to be one. You work for the equal distribution of property, and start by collaring all you can and sitting on it." (C 32)
- “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,” said he, “the saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’" (C 33)
- "The advice I give to every young man starting life is: ‘Never confuse the unusual and the impossible.’" (C 33)
- "He walked well, as if he were used to running." (C 36)
- "He positively ached for a game. Any sort of a game. An innings for a Kindergarten v. the Second Eleven of a Home of Rest for Centenarians would have soothed him." (C 37)
- "The ball, when delivered, was billed to break from leg, but the programme was subject to alterations." (C 40)
- "Of all masters, the most unpopular is he who by the silent tribunal of a school is convicted of favouritism." (C 40)
- "Jellicoe, for the latter carolled in a gay undertone as he dressed, till Psmith, who had a sensitive ear, asked as a favour that these farm-yard imitations might cease until he was out of the room." (C 42)
- "Mr. Downing was in a sarcastic mood when he met Mike. That is to say, he began in a sarcastic strain. But this sort of thing is difficult to keep up. By the time he had reached his peroration, the rapier had given place to the bludgeon." (C 42)
- “One of the Georges,” said Psmith, “I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours’ sleep a day—I cannot recall for the moment how many—made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory. However, there you are. I’ve given you the main idea of the thing" (C 44)
- "There had been a time in his hot youth when he had sprinted like an untamed mustang in pursuit of volatile Pathans in Indian hill wars, but Time, increasing his girth, had taken from him the taste for such exercise." (C 45)
- "it was this that made him feel that somebody, in the words of an American author, had played a mean trick on him, and substituted for his brain a side-order of cauliflower." (C 58)
A fascinating glimpse of early Wodehouse, already funny.
The next book in the series is Psmith in the City.
Other books by P G Wodehouse reviewed in this blog can be found here.
November 2021
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