Indiscretions of Archie

By: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrated by: Arthur Vincet

"Indiscretions of Archie" is a 1921 comedic novel by the British master of the genre, P. G. Wodehouse. The novel tells the story of impoverished, embarrassment-prone Archibald "Archie" Moffam (pronounced "Moom") and his difficult relationship with his art-collecting, hotel-owning, millionaire father-in-law Daniel Brewster, who is the father of Archie's new bride Lucille. Archie's attempts to ingratiate himself with Brewster only get him further into trouble. The story takes place in New York City.©2017 Audioliterature (P)2017 Audioliterature

Marred by poor reading

What would have made Indiscretions of Archie better?

A reader who was familiar with the idioms, cadences and pronunciation of English speech, especially the upper class of the period. For instance, the intensifier, "dashed", is to be pronounced "dash'd", not "dash_ed". And the reader's habit of articulating every single syllable may be how the reader *imagines* Englishmen speak but it is at odds with actual British speech patterns. A case in point is the verbal filler "don't you know". It should come out as a flat "donchaknow" not as finely enunciated "don't you know?".

In short, the reading was painful to endure.

Would you be willing to try another book from P. G. Wodehouse? Why or why not?

Certainly. He is one of my favourite authors

How could the performance have been better?

Another, preferably British, reader.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Indiscretions of Archie?

None.

Any additional comments?

This is a decidedly minor Wodehouse work but as it is an early one so that in itself makes it worthy of note. Also, the character of Archie, a dim, feckless yet amiable member of the upper class prefigures in many ways Wodehouse's most famous creation, Bertie Wooster. Were it not for these points I could not have forced myself to endure the atrocious reading.