P.G. Wodehouse: Piccadilly Jim

PICADILLY JIM by P.G. Wodehouse is one of my all-time favourite novels and I have troubles to believe that it was actually released in 1917 because it is so very timeless.

In a nutshell:
New York. Five years ago Ann Chester’s very mawkish love poems were published and torn to pieces in a news paper article by Jimmy Crocker. Since then Anne became a very matter-of-fact and modern young lady, who hates Jimmy Crocker with all her might – though she did not meet him since. Now she wants to help her uncle whose 14 year old plump stepson Ogden does what he likes with him. So, of course, Ogden has to be kidnapped – and brought to a dog nursing home, where overfed pet dogs are got into shape. (No question, isn’t it?)

Then Ann’s “accomplice” – her uncle’s personal trainer – is fired by Ann’s aunt. What now? But Ann talks a young man – a chance acquaintance – round into pose as her aunt’s long-time-no-see nephew. This nephew is no other than Jimmy Crocker, who because of his dissolute lifestyle in London, is by now dubbed “Piccadilly Jim”. But: this young man, who immediately fells for Ann, is not that strange:

It is (of course) Jimmy Crocker, who now has to dial with the kidnapping, the girl of his dreams, a fake butler and a spy..

This book is so enormous funny and very turbulent – there are some story parts which I did not even mention, and this book is full of marvelous characters - my favourite one is Miss Trimble – a female detective/ socialist/ suffragette- who adds even more confusion.

I like the German cover very much – it is using “The Gourmands” (1924) by George Barbier (1882 – 1932). ->

I did not (yet) watch the 2004 film with Sam Rockwell as Piccadilly Jim – did you?