"A gentle early comedy which should delight Wodehouse addicts and new readers alike."

So says the back cover blurb, and one could not say it better.

Set at a school where students encounter challenges, games of cricket and rugby, the loss of emblems (the Gold Bat in question) and a rush to recover it before it is missed by the authorities in question.

Delightful

Big Ship

12 June 2024 ( )

Most reviewers have read this book because it's written by P.G. Wodehouse, and they judge it by comparing with latter books of that author. I have read it because I'm interested in Victorian/Edwardian British boarding school fiction, and I'm judging it in the context of that genre.

This novel, originally serialized in a magazine for boys, is set in a school called Wrykyn. It was published before the novel The White Feather, also set in that school a year later. The stories are independent, and in fact feature different characters, for most of the main characters here are Sixth Form boys (i.e. seniors) who have already graduated in The White Feather. Still, some of them made cameos in the latter novel, and it was nice seeing them here.

The story follows Trevor, the Captain of the first fifteen (the rugby team of the school), as he tries to organize the team and beat their arch-rivals from Ripton School. There is a lot of focus on sports, but also on many other things and characters. There's a plot involving a small golden ornament (the gold cricket bat of the title), awarded to Trevor as captain of the cricket team of his school house, for winning the school cup last year. It's due to be returned this year, but Trevor lent it to a colorful but good-hearted slacker called O'Hara, who lost it in the "crime scene" when he was tarring and feathering the statue of a local politician who had offended Irish people. This situation has the potential to land them in serious trouble. There's also a mystery involving a secret student organization that seems to be sabotaging Trevor's efforts to build a winning rugby team. There's sport injuries, boxing, school studies being vandalized, a couple of younger boys secretly caring for baby ferrets, rivalries between the different houses of the school...

I enjoyed this story, but I enjoyed The White Feather more because it had a more focused plot and it was more dramatic as an underdog story. The plot here is enjoyable but a bit all over the place. It does have a few more witty moments than The White Feather, but don't expect the witticism that later Wodehouse books are famous for. ( )

The third of Wodehouse's first three novels, all school stories, following The Pothunters (a light mystery with sequences of boxing and running) and A Prefect's Uncle (more overtly comic, built around cricket). Surprisingly, despite the central MacGuffin, this one isn't about cricket - it's mostly about rugby.

The plot, in general, is much tighter than either of the first two volumes, with a mystery that actually intrigues for most of the book. It falls apart right at the end, though, and the solution feels toothless and inconsequential. There are still a few too many characters, and it isn't nearly as openly funny as A Prefect's Uncle, so like the earlier two, this book is mostly interesting for showing the development of Wodehouse as a writer. ( )

Starting to see more of Wodehouse's humor, but still very heavy on boys school and their sports. ( )

Another school story from early in Wodehouse's career. This one is set at the school Wrykyn. A lot of the action (such as it is) is around Barry, who is a good egg, and Rand-Brown, who is not, and who is going to play on the football team. Trevor is the captain of the football (rugby) team and must make these difficult and weighty decisions. Clowes is his sidekick. O'Hara's "right enough," for an Irishman, but unfortunately has lost the tiny gold bat entrusted to Trevor, while tar and feathering the mayor's statue in town, vandalism which was well deserved given the mayor's unseemly comments about the Irish. There are many more characters and subplots in the drama of school life and everything, of course, turns out ok. ( )