The Politeness of Princes & Other School Stories - From the Manor Wodehouse Collection, a Selection from the Early Works of P. G. Wodehouse Paperback – 20 Jan. 2008

This volume is an excellent taster for anyone who wishes to sample PGW's school stories; and if you enjoyed 'The Pothunters', 'The Prefect's Uncle' or 'Mike', you will love these seven stories which are not available elsewhere. If you only connect 'Plum' with Blandings Castle, Jeeves, or the Drones Club, the school stories will open up another horizon for you. Thoroughly recommended. The Politeness of Princes & Other School Stories - from the Manor Wodehouse Collection: A Selection from the Early Works of P. G. Wodehouse

Here's a slim volume of seven early "school" stories, which originally appeared in 1905, 1908, and 1910. Some were likely in The Captain or some other school rag to which the youthful Wodehouse contributed. Up until now, the only readily available collections of school stories were Tales of St. Austin's, The Pothunters and Other Stories, and The Gold Bat and Other Stories, all of them corkers, but even these from time to time slip out of print. These tales are worthy efforts in that vein, which those who enjoy Plum's early period will readily devour. Or maybe I mean peruse, as it doesn't take long to get through eighty pages.The avalanche of Wodehousania suddenly engulfing us indicates, I think, that at least some of his vast output has slipped into the realm of public domain. The Manor Wodehouse Collection, from which this volume hails, would seem to be the most ambitious attempt to fill the resulting vacuum. Arc Manor has stopped at nothing to bring out the entirety of the Master's output in affordable paperbacks, including some rare works like this one. So, if one can take this as a representative volume, how do they stand up?Inwardly, the books are beautifully designed and laid out. This book also has the distinction of the fewest errors of any PGW volume I've read. The Most Errors award goes to Jeeves Takes Charge by Vintage Books, UK. That said, the cover art seems to be clip art. Stack that up to the ambitious Penguin covers with classic art by Ionicus (which I nonetheless don't like; he draws everything well except people), or the later Penguin cover art by David Hitch (which I do very much like), or the American paperbacks with art by Steven Guarnaccia (which I really like), and it seems that Arc could do better. In fact, if readers don't choose their editions over others, it will be solely due to the covers, as in every other way this edition seems flawless. It's too much to hope they will redo their covers, as if these are POD (print on demand) books, that means withdrawing and resubmitting the entire line, but if in future they do so, at least among readers like myself who prefer paperbacks, theirs may well prove the editions of choice.