The Luck of the Bodkins

By: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil

Things on board the RMS Atlantic are terribly, terribly complicated.... Monty Bodkin loves Gertrude, who thinks he likes Lotus Blossom, a starlet who definitely adores Ambrose, who thinks that she has a thing for his brother, Reggie, who is struck by Mabel Spence, sister-in-law of Ikey Llewellyn (movie mogul, Ambrose’s prospective employer and reluctant smuggler), but hasn’t the means to marry her. With well-meaning but unhelpful ship’s steward Albert Peasemarch and a toy mouse with a screw-top head thrown in for good measure, it will, indeed, take the luck of the Bodkins to sort it all out.

©2012 The Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate (P)2012 AudioGO

Funny, witty, and fantastic narration

The author does a great job and capturing the trial of the tribulations of Gullo English Society at the turn of the century, and the narrator does a wonderful job in capturing the various tones and accents to really bring the stories and characters to life
My favorite companion for road trips and my daily commute

Heavy wordplay, disjointed plot

c1935. PGW recycles so much of his dialogue and plotting that there’s almost nothing unique here. The characters are indistinct and their motivations are inconsistent. It’s like Wodehouse is writing a screenplay and simply pulls in his most used conversational bits from prior novels.
Yet, it’s still Wodehouse and still often hilarious even if you heard it before. And there are some gems in the narration and scene-setting that you shouldn’t miss.
He wrote a sequel published 37 years later which is better and possibly was intended as a replacement or redemption(?)

One of the best non-Jeeves books by PGW

This is a great funny farce set on a transatlantic liner. Great wordsmithery as always by the master. Wonderfully read by J Cecil. Highly recommended.

Ridiculous Fun

Full of lovable characters and hilarity, this story was a roller coaster ups and downs with, of course, a happy and satisfying ending.

Wodehouse read by J. Cecil always a delight!

Wodehouse is justifiably considered one of England’s great writers, and Jonathan Cecil is one of the great narrators of those works. I have never not thoroughly enjoyed the combination.