WODEHOUSE, P.G. Mike and Psmith.

School as ‘Cheerless Prison’

WODEHOUSE, P.G. Mike and Psmith. London: Herbert Jenkins. 1953.

8vo. Publisher’s red cloth, spine lettered in black, in the price-clipped first-impression dust-jacket illustrated by W. Spence; pp. 190, [2]; extremities lightly nicked, small crease to lower right corner of front cover, some spotting to top-edge; lightly toned at head, slight spotting to first few ff.; otherwise very good.

First edition, first printing of this school novel, reissuing under a new title the second part of Mike (1909).

In this story, Mike is removed from the fictional public school of Wrykyn and Psmith from Eton (due to a ‘rooted dislike of school-work’, jacket), and they find themselves at Sedleigh, comparatively a ‘dismal institution’; they come to realise, however, that ‘Sedleigh was not the cheerless prison they had at first believed and characteristically they set about making amends’.

The story was first issued as a separate novel in 1935, under the title Enter Psmith. The first part was reissued separately in 1953 as Mike at Wrykyn.

Mcllvaine A12c3.

SKU: 2126242