Mike meets Psmith

I know that Wodehouse felt that there was a limited amount of mileage he could get out of Psmith and as far as I know there are only three full length novels for an adult market in which he features. However he turns up to great effect in one of the school stories in which Wodehouse was prolific early in his career.
In Mike and Psmith the two meet for the first time at their new school. Mike in particular is fed up as he was a cricket star at his last school and has a massive sulk once deposited at Sedleigh. Things improve greatly when Psmith turns up, his first act of friendship being to procure a study that actually belongs to another student.
He is the fully formed Psmith whom we will meet in the later books and the major reason for reading it. Of course if you like boarding school stories that may be another reason. Think about all of those adult 'Harry Potter' fans. I thought it well worth reading and enjoyed it immensely despite the cricketing jargon to which Wodehouse in a preface admits to being rather fond of.

It might be fun to know that the Mike Jackson saga started out as two serials in 1907, which were merged for the 1909 novel Mike (UK only). The second half was republished, slightly updated here and there, in the thirties as Mike and Psmith, and the first half, which doesn't include Psmith and is more of a straightforward boys' school story, eventually reappeared in a similar form in 1953 as Mike at Wrykyn. But you don't need to know any of that to enjoy the character of Psmith...

>2 thorold: That's quite a history. I feel that Mike on his own might be a bit boring and then there is that cricketing jargon!