I am rejoined by Gwen Sheldon to peruse the first collection of Wodehouse short stories for a general audience, The Man Upstairs and Other Stories (1914), a bumper crop of nineteen stories and a favourite of both of us. Because there is so much to discuss, we have split it into two parts. In the second part we look at the remaining eleven stories, including the two stories whose success persuaded Wodehouse to move to America, "Archibald's Benefit" (his first golf short story) and "The Good Angel" (the first Keggs story, and first mention of a Lord Emsworth). Also in this batch we have a rare football-themed story, a Knights of the Round Table parody, and a highly autobiographical love story. We also each list our ten favourite stories. There will be spoilers.

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Stories covered in this instalment, with start times:

"Archibald's Benefit" / "Reginald's Record Knock" 2m 09s

"The Man, The Maid, and the Miasma" 10m 44s

"The Good Angel" 17m 12s

"Pots o' Money" 30m 08s

"Out of School" 38m 46s

"Three from Dunsterville" 43m 53s

"The Tuppenny Millionaire" 51m 26s

"Ahead of Schedule" 55m 22s

"Sir Agravaine" ih 05m 50s

"The Goal-Keeper and the Plutocrat" 1h 06m 40s

"In Alcala" 1h 16m 16s

Other works by Wodehouse mentioned

Love Among the Chickens

"The Truth about Webster"

A Damsel in Distress

"Mr Punch's Spectral Analyses. IV - An Official Muddle"

"Love Me, Love My Dog"

The Coming of Bill

Over Seventy

Something Fishy

"The Crime Wave at Blandings"

"Creatures of Impulse"

"Jeeves in the Springtime"

William Tell Told Again

"The Idle King"

"At Geisenheimers"

Reference works consulted

Richard Usborne, Wodehouse at Work to the End, notes to Sunset at Blandings 

Sophie Ratcliffe, P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters

Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life

Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook

Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website

Also mentioned

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Robert Browning

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King

Gene (band)

Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet

Flanders and Swann, At The Drop of Another Hat (stage patter)

"Purity" Statue, Times Square, New York City, 1909

Thomas Mallory, Le Morte D'Arthur

Shrek

James Thurber, The 13 Clocks and The White Deer

Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur

J B Priestley, The 31st of June

Ted Lasso

André Messager, Mirette

Alice Dovey

Leslie Bradshaw

William Townend

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