A Wodehouse Bestiary

the long version

A peripatetic snake, three stolen cats, a rest-less hound with a yen for Gorgonzola, a fake gorilla, an aesthetic pig, and a gnu -- these are but a few of the beasts who roam the pages of this rousing collection. A Pekingese man himself (indeed, there are nine of the critters predominating here), Wodehouse was no stranger to certain less tractable members of the animal kingdom. In each of these fourteen tales, animals of varying shapes, sizes, and dispositions play prominent and often calamitous roles, while their human counterparts struggle to cope in true Wodehousian fashion. Bertie Wooster pitches bricks at a peevish swan in self-defense; a dewy-eyed parrot mistress declares her undying love for an assistant in a jellied-eel shop; the feckless Ukridge launches a grand money-making scheme to produce a world supply of highly educated canines; and Roland Morseby Artwater, rising young essayist and literary critic, learns by grim experience that "if there is one thing in this world that should be done quickly or not at all, it is the removal of one's personal snake from the bed of a complete stranger." D. R. Bensen has mined the very best of the Wodehouse œuvre to produce this densely populated bestiary. The humor is timeless; the menagerie, varied enough to satisfy the most demanding zoophile.