The Girl on the Boat

By: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrated by: Taylor Pepper

"The Girl on the Boat" (1922) is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse. The girl from the title is the red-haired, dog-loving Wilhelmina "Billie" Bennett, and the three men are: Bream Mortimer, a long-time and long-suffering suitor of Billie's; Eustace Hignett, a shy poet who is cowed by his domineering mother but secretly engaged to Billie at the opening of the tale; Sam Marlowe, Eustace's dashing cousin, who falls in love with Billie "at first sight". The four of them find themselves together on an ocean liner sailing for England. Also on board is a capable young woman, Jane Hubbard, who is in love with Eustace. Wodehousian funny stuff ensues, with happy endings for all except Bream Mortimer.

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century.©2018 Audioliterature (P)2018 Audioliterature

Gentle and sweet

This early 1920s work by P.G. Wodehouse bounces happily from New York City to an ocean liner to London to a country house, all in good fun.

The tale strains credulity from time to time, not that Wodehouse ever cared so dashed much for credulity, strained or unstrained.

The narrator, endearing in his homey twang, doesn’t have the Oxbridge gloss one comes to expect for telling a Wodehousian tale, and perhaps defensibly but occasionally confusingly makes no attempt to distinguish between characters, accents or even male and female voices.

In between, however, there are plenty of laughs and crazed catastrophes to bring a smile to the face, and at the end at least a contented sigh.