The Girl on the Boat

"The Girl on the Boat" is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse. The story first appeared as a serial in "Woman's Home Companion" in the U.S., under the title "Three Men and a Maid", from October to December 1921. It was first published as a book in the U.S. on April 26 1922 by George H. Doran, New York, and as " The Girl on the Boat" in the U.K. by Herbert Jenkins, London, on June 15 1922.

The maid of the title is red-haired, dog-loving Wilhelmina "Billie" Bennet, and the three men are Bream Mortimer, a long-time friend and admirer of Billie, Eustace Hignett, a lily-livered poet who is engaged to Billie at the opening of the tale, and Sam Marlowe, Eustace's dashing cousin, who falls for Billie at first sight. All four find themselves on an ocean liner headed for England together, along with a capable young woman called Jane Hubbard who is smitten with Eustace, and typically Wodehousian romantic shenanigans ensue

Film adaptation

A film adaptation was made in 1963, starring Norman Wisdom as Marlowe, Richard Briers as Eustace, Philip Locke as Bream Mortimer and Millicent Martin as Billie. Richard Briers later portrayed another Wodehouse character, Galahad Threepwood, in a BBC adaptation of Heavy Weather.

Directed by Henry Kaplan the screenplay was adapted from Wodehouse's original novel by Reuben Ship. Some scenes from the novel, such as Sam Marlowe's performance at the ship's concert, are not included in the film. The romance between Eustace and Jane Hubbard (played by Sheila Hancock is also altered; Eustace stands up to his domineering mother in the film, but not in the book.

External links

* [http://wodehouse.ru/29.htm The Russian Wodehouse Society's page] , with numerous book covers and a list of characters
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6836 Free eBook of "Three Men and a Maid"] at Project Gutenberg
*imdb title|id=0056022|title= The Girl on the Boat
* [http://www.archive.org/details/three_men_maid_0809_librivox/ Free audiobook] of "Three Men and a Maid/The Girl on the Boat" (1922) at LibriVox (5h 40m, Ogg-Vorbis or MP3 formats, ZIP of whole book MP3 164 MB)