Jill the Reckless

Also titled "The Little Warrior," this Wodehouse comic romance is a fine example of what the author called a musical comedy without any music. It features the Woosterlike character Freddie Rooke, but the plot revolves around his childhood friend, Jill Mariner, whose engagement to the up-and-coming young Sir Derek Underhill, a baronet and M.P., founders after the latter's strong-willed and disapproving mother comes on the scene. It differs from the typical Wodehouse farce in that once the action shifts from London to New York, it moves away from a fanciful view of a high society that never quite existed to what seems likely a reasonably accurate look at the theater business of its period.

A fun and wonderfull story! One of best Wodehouse books I have read so far, my second favorite next to "Something New".

A lovely, rich and pleasing book - PG yet to find his final style perhaps, yet the long sequence in which Bill the parrot considers the meaning of his existence and then steps out into the open world to encounter 'erb and 'enry is one of the great comic treasures of the English language.

Quite amusing book.

Still trying to get used to peopled "ejaculating" sentences..

There had to be quite some hard work be done to keep the book humorous on this theme - and sometimes it is a bit too much...
If someone told you, he lost all your money - your fortune to be precise - would your first action be to comfort him?
Would you leave your relatives and head into New York with twenty dollars as your sole possession and no place to stay? Maybe you would - and you would end up in a lot of trouble doing so.

In the end, the story revolves around the same find-your-true-love theme as (an)other Wodehouse book(s).


I.

Along with several others of his early novels, Wodehouse clearly intends that the characters in this semi-humorous book be taken seriously. He succeeds in making us care for his characters in this absorbing drama which has some of his familiar themes of hard working youth striving to make good, the idle rich, and romance.

If you are a big Wodehouse fan, as I am, you will enjoy this book immensely. It has all the interesting characters and plot lines to hold your interest. I hope you find it as amusing as I did.