This substantial collection of early stories displays a variety of tone, style and setting which may surprise readers familiar only with the author’s later light comedies of aristocratic life. Wodehouse’s well-known gift for satisfying plots and comic surprises is evident on every page, but there are also signs of his debt to earlier writers in the realistic tradition. Set mainly in London or New York, many of the stories concern ordinary people – shop assistants, schoolmasters, secretaries, ser...