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![]() First edition | |
Author | P. G. Wodehouse |
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Language | English |
Genre | Comic novel |
Publisher | Barrie & Jenkins (UK) Simon & Schuster, Inc. (US) |
Publication date | 15 October 1973 (UK) 28 August 1974 (US) |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
Pages | 191 pp |
ISBN | 0-214-66889-4 |
OCLC | 764103 |
823/.9/12 | |
LC Class | PZ3.W817 Bac PR6045.O53 |
Bachelors Anonymous is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 15 October 1973 (Wodehouse's 92nd birthday) by Barrie & Jenkins, London and in the United States on 28 August 1974 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York. [1]
In the novel, movie mogul Ivor Llewellyn, who has divorced five times, is interested to learn from his lawyer Ephraim Trout about a support group for bachelors who help keep each other from making impulsive marriage proposals.
Ivor Llewellyn previously appeared in The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), Frozen Assets (1964), and Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin (1972). Another character, lawyer Jerry Nichols, appeared in Uneasy Money (1916).
Bachelors Anonymous was the second last novel completed by Wodehouse, with the last being Aunts Aren't Gentlemen .
Ephraim Trout of Trout, Wapshott and Edelstein, a legal firm employed by Ivor Llewellyn, head of the Superba-Llewellyn studio of Hollywood, has handled Llewellyn's five divorces. Llewellyn is on his way to London on business, and Trout sees Llewellyn off at the Los Angeles airport. Trout warns him against any more impulsive proposals. Trout has managed to stay single since he belongs to a California group called Bachelors Anonymous, inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous. When one member feels the impulse to take a woman out to dinner, he seeks out the other members and they reason with him. He advises Llewellyn to consult the legal firm of Nichols, Erridge and Trubshaw in London, as they can find someone to act as a similar advisor for Llewellyn. Other members of Bachelors Anonymous convince Trout to follow Llewellyn to London to help. In London, Llewellyn meets Vera Dalrymple, the star of the Regal Theatre's stage comedy Cousin Angela, written by Joseph "Joe" Pickering (who makes his living working for the solicitors Shoesmith, Shoesmith, Shoesmith, and Shoesmith, mentioned in other stories such as Ice in the Bedroom ). Joe is interviewed by Sally Fitch (from Much Middlefold) for a women's paper, and they get along well.
Vera monopolizes the show and Cousin Angela closes after only 16 performances. The Regal Theatre's stage-doorkeeper Mac (who appeared in A Damsel in Distress and Summer Lightning ) gives his sympathy to Joe. While waiting to see Vera, a drunk man threatens Mac, so Joe throws him out. Joe learns from his friend Jerry Nichols, of the Nichols, Erridge and Trubshaw law firm, that he can earn a lucrative salary working for Llewellyn. Joe falls in love with Sally and makes plans to have lunch with her at Barribault's. Jerry tells Sally that she has inherited a legacy from a former employer, Letitia Carberry, supporter of the Anti-Tobacco League. Carberry left most of her money to the League but left Sally twenty-five thousand pounds on the condition that she not smoke for two years. Sally is to live in a posh Park Lane apartment with a private detective, Daphne Dolby, the owner of the Eagle Eye detective agency, who will know if Sally smokes. Daphne is engaged to Sir Jaklyn Warner, Baronet, because she is interested in his title and he in her money. Jaklyn, who is Sally's ex-fiancé, hears about Sally's inheritance. Sally accidentally falls asleep and misses lunch with Joe.
Llewellyn explains the Bachelors Anonymous idea to Joe, and recognizes him as the man who threw him out at the theatre and kept him from having dinner with Vera. Impressed, Llewellyn hires him. Sally apologizes to Joe for missing lunch and agrees to dinner. Trout sees Llewellyn, who is concerned that Joe has fallen for Sally. This worries Trout, and to keep Joe from going to dinner, he slips Joe a Mickey Finn. Sally is disappointed when Joe fails to appear, believing it to be petty revenge for her missing lunch. Jaklyn proposes to her (for her money) and she accepts, not knowing he is engaged to Daphne. She mentions her engagement to Daphne, and Daphne realizes what occurred. With one of her operatives, the intimidating Cyril Pemberton, she makes Jaklyn join her at the registry office to get married.
Sally refuses to listen to Joe and goes to Valley Fields to see her former nanny Jane Priestley, who turns Joe and Trout away. Trout's hand is bitten by a dog named Percy, and the dog's owner, Amelia Bingham, bandages his hand. She is a hospital nurse. Trout falls for her, and now approves of marriage. Llewellyn is astonished when Trout accepts dinner with Vera on Llewellyn's behalf. Joe suggests that Llewellyn get a check-up at a hospital to hide from Vera. Trout, who has resigned from Bachelors Anonymous, admits to slipping Joe a Mickey Finn and apologizes to him. Trout tells Sally everything, and she reconciles with Joe. Unaware that Jaklyn is now married, Trout pays him off with fifty pounds to prevent a breach of promise case. Daphne catches Sally smoking, and Joe is fired by Llewellyn, who impulsively proposed to his nurse at the hospital, Amelia. However, all ends well when Llewellyn learns Trout has got engaged to Amelia. Llewellyn decides to make Joe's play into a movie and pays him two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and will become a member of Bachelors Anonymous when he returns to California with a letter of introduction from Trout.
The illustration on the first UK edition dust jacket of Amelia Bingham bandaging Ephraim Trout's hand was drawn by Osbert Lancaster. The back of the dust jacket features a photograph of Wodehouse looking out a window, taken by Tom Blau, Camera Press. The same illustration and photograph were used for the first US edition for the front and back of the dust jacket respectively. [1]
The US edition of the book is dedicated: "To Peter Schwed, as always". [1] Peter Schwed was Wodehouse's editor at Simon & Schuster. Wodehouse had also dedicated the US editions of Bertie Wooster Sees It Through , Author! Author! , and The Purloined Paperweight to Schwed.
Wodehouse biographer Richard Usborne called the book "a most benign, autumnal novel, formulaic but much simpler in plot than Wodehouse in his long summer would have thought fair to his cash customers." [2]
Much Obliged, Jeeves is a comic novel by P. G. Wodehouse, published in the United Kingdom by Barrie & Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York under the name Jeeves and the Tie That Binds. Both editions were published on the same day, 15 October 1971, which was Wodehouse's 90th birthday.
Plum Pie is a collection of nine short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 22 September 1966 by Barrie & Jenkins, and in the United States on 1 December 1967 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York. The collection's title is derived from P. G. Wodehouse's nickname, Plum.
Eggs, Beans and Crumpets is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on April 26, 1940 by Herbert Jenkins, London, then with a slightly different content in the United States on May 10, 1940 by Doubleday, Doran, New York.
Rosie M. Banks is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves and Drones Club stories of British author P. G. Wodehouse, being a romance novelist and the wife of Bingo Little.
Uneasy Money is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 17 March 1916 by D. Appleton & Company, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 4 October 1917 by Methuen & Co., London. The story had earlier been serialised in the U.S in the Saturday Evening Post from December 1915, and in the UK in the Strand Magazine starting December 1916.
Doctor Sally is a short novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 7 April 1932 by Methuen & Co., London. In the United States, it was serialised in Collier's Weekly from 4 July to 1 August 1931 under the title The Medicine Girl, and was included under that name in the US collection The Crime Wave at Blandings (1937).
The Luck of the Bodkins is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 11 October 1935 by Herbert Jenkins, and in the United States on 3 January 1936 by Little, Brown and Company. The two editions are significantly different, though the plot remains the same. The novel was serialised in The Passing Show magazine (UK) from 21 September to 23 November 1935, and this version was published as the UK edition. For its US magazine appearance, in the Red Book between August 1935 and January 1936, Wodehouse re-wrote the story, reducing its length, and this became the US book edition.
Summer Moonshine is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 8 October 1937 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 11 February 1938 by Herbert Jenkins, London. It was serialised in The Saturday Evening Post (US) from 24 July to 11 September 1937 and in Pearson's Magazine (UK) between September 1937 and April 1938.
Quick Service is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 4 October 1940 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 27 December 1940 by Doubleday, Doran, New York.
Money in the Bank is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 9 January 1942 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 27 May 1946 by Herbert Jenkins, London. The UK publication was delayed while Wodehouse was under suspicion of collaboration during the Second World War.
Joy in the Morning is a novel by English humorist P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 22 August 1946 by Doubleday & Co., New York and in the United Kingdom on 2 June 1947 by Herbert Jenkins, London. Some later American paperback editions bore the title Jeeves in the Morning.
The Old Reliable is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 18 April 1951 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 11 October 1951 by Doubleday & Co, New York. The novel was serialised in Collier's magazine from 24 June to 22 July 1950, under the title Phipps to the Rescue.
Ice in the Bedroom is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published as a book in the United States on February 2, 1961 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, and in the United Kingdom on October 15, 1961 by Herbert Jenkins, London.
Frozen Assets is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 14 July 1964 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York under the title Biffen's Millions, and in the United Kingdom on 14 August 1964 by Herbert Jenkins, London.
Company For Henry is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 12 May 1967 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, under the title The Purloined Paperweight, and in the United Kingdom on 26 October 1967 by Barrie & Jenkins, London.
Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin is a comic novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 12 October 1972 by Barrie & Jenkins, and in the United States on 6 August 1973 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. under the title The Plot That Thickened. Although written towards the end of the Wodehouse's life, and published 37 years after The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), the events of the book follow on directly from those recounted in the earlier novel.
Reginald "Reggie" Pepper is a fictional character who appears in seven short stories by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Reggie is a young man-about-town who gets drawn into trouble trying to help his pals. He is considered to be an early prototype for Bertie Wooster, who, along with his valet Jeeves, is one of Wodehouse's most famous creations.
The Small Bachelor is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and written by John B. Clymer, Rex Taylor and Walter Anthony. It is based on the 1927 novel The Small Bachelor by P. G. Wodehouse. The film stars Barbara Kent, George Beranger, and William Austin. The film was released on November 6, 1927, by Universal Pictures. Carl Laemmle was the film's presenter.
Good Morning, Bill is a comedic play by P. G. Wodehouse, adapted from the Hungarian play Doktor Juci Szabo by playwright Ladislaus Fodor. It premiered in London at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1927.