Young Men in Spats

"Young Men in Spats" is a collection of eleven short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the UK on 3 April 1936 by Herbert Jenkins, London, then in the U.S. with a slightly different selection of stories on 23 July 1936 by Doubleday Doran, New York.

The collection, recounting the adventures of various members of the Drones Club (except for the last one), features many familiar characters from Wodehouse's other writings, including Freddie Widgeon and the irrepressible Mr Mulliner. One story, "Uncle Fred Flits By", features the first appearance of Pongo Twistleton and his Uncle Fred, who would go on to feature in four novels, including two appearances at Blandings Castle.

Contents

# "Fate" (Drone Freddie Widgeon)
#* UK: "Strand", May 1931
#* US: "Cosmopolitan", May 1931 (as "Compromised")
# "Tried in the Furnace" (Drones Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps and Pongo Twistleton)
#* UK: "Strand", September 1935
#* US: "Cosmopolitan", March 1937
# "Trouble Down at Tudsleigh" (Drone Freddie Widgeon)
#* UK: "Strand", May 1935
#* US: "Cosmopolitan", May 1939
# "The Amazing Hat Mystery" (Drones Percy Wimbolt and Nelson Cork)
#* US: "Cosmopolitan", August 1933
#* UK: "Strand", June 1934
# "Good-Bye to All Cats" (Drone Freddie Widgeon)
#* US: "Cosmopolitan", November 1934
#* UK: "Strand", December 1934
# "The Luck of the Stiffhams" (Drone Stiffy Stiffham)
#* US: "Cosmopolitan", November 1933
#* UK: "Strand", March 1934
# "Noblesse Oblige" (Drone Freddie Widgeon)
#* US: "Cosmopolitan", September 1934
#* UK: "Strand", November 1934
# "Uncle Fred Flits By" (Drone Pongo Twistleton, Uncle Fred)
#* US: "Redbook", July 1935
#* UK: "Strand", December 1935
# "Archibald and the Masses" (Drone Archibald Mulliner, told by Mr Mulliner)
#* US: "Cosmopolitan", August 1935
#* UK: "Strand", February 1936
# "The Code of the Mulliners" (Drone Archibald Mulliner, told by Mr Mulliner)
#* US: "Cosmopolitan", February 1935
#* UK: "Strand", April 1935
# "The Fiery Wooing of Mordred" (non-Drone story told by Mr Mulliner)
#* US: "Cosmopolitan", December 1934
#* UK: "Strand", February 1935

The U.S. edition contains a slightly different selection of stories from the UK version: "Tried in the Furnace" and "Trouble Down At Tudsleigh" are missing, and are replaced by three Oldest Member golf stories, "There's Always Golf", "The Letter of the Law", and "Farewell to Legs", which would all appear in the UK in "Lord Emsworth and Others" (1937). "Tried in the Furnace", meanwhile, would appear in the U.S. equivalent to "Lord Emsworth and Others", known as "Crime Wave at Blandings" (also 1937), and "Trouble Down at Tudsleigh" was included in the U.S. version of "Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets" (1940).

ee also

* List of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, categorised by series

References

; Sources consulted

* cite web
author = Midkiff, Neil
title = "The Wodehouse short stories"
work = P. G. Wodehouse pages
url = http://home.earthlink.net/~nmidkiff/pgw/story.html
accessdate = 2006-04-24

External links

* [http://wodehouse.ru/55.htm The Russian Wodehouse Society's page] , with a list of characters for each story
* [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/p-g-wodehouse/young-men-in-spats.htm Fantastic Fiction's page] , with details of published editions, photos of book covers and links to used copies