Plum Pie by P.G. Wodehouse

Plum Pie is a short story collection from late in Wodehouse's career, published in 1966 and containing nine stories written in the previous decade, plus two bits of poetry, an afterword on comedy, and a selection of snippets from the American newspapers of the day (probably originally for some British media outlet, either radio or periodical, though the book doesn't explain them), under the collective title "Our Man in America."

The "Our Man in America" bits -- each about four pages long and containing four to six amusing news stories from the mysterious land of America -- come in between the nine stories.

There's one Jeeves -- which leads off the book, as would be expected -- one Ukridge, one Mr. Mulliner, one Blandings tale and one long novella about Freddie Threepwood (Lord Emsworth's son), and a handful of assorted stories about other Drones, Beans, Crumpets, Gin & Tonics, or what-have-you.

No Oldest Member stories, unfortunately -- I've come to believe that Wodehouse is at his funniest when he's writing about golf -- and the rest are all fairly minor entries in their respective series. None of the stories are bad, though the long Threepwood novella, "Life With Freddie," is a bit bland and overstays its welcome a tad.

But this collection was published when Wodehouse was eighty-five, so, if it's not up to his very highest standard, I think we can make allowances. And even minor late Wodehouse is better than most of what has passed for humorous prose for the last several hundred years.

The edition I read was in the ongoing Collector's Wodehouse series from the Overlook Press, which I recommend highly. They've published at least 52 of Wodehouse's roughly hundred books -- that's how many I have, and I think I've missed the most recent batch -- and each one is a fine little monument to the bookmaker's art. (Not that kind of bookmaker.) If you're going to read Wodehouse -- and I do strongly urge you to -- these are the editions to buy.