‘Meet Mr. Mulliner’ introduces the eponymous Mr. Mulliner, one of the most beloved creations of British literature’s legendary comic genius, P.G. Wodehouse. Author of the Jeeves series of comic novels and stories, Wodehouse here presents Mr. Mulliner, an effusive and high-spirited regular at the Anglers’ Rest pub. No matter the subject at hand, Mr. Mulliner will be reminded of a story and in this book, readers are treated to nine tales of hilarity and high jinks, as Mulliner the raconteur spins his various yarns about life, love and boiled eggs.
An immediate sensation when it was first published, ‘Meet Mr. Mulliner’ is the first of three books of short stories featuring the charming and loquacious Mulliner. This collection is presented here in its original and unabridged format.
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SIR PELHAM GRENVILLE WODEHOUSE was born on October 16, 1881, the third son of British magistrate Henry Ernest Wodehouse and his wife Eleanor. Young Wodehouse was not fond of his given names and shortened it to ‘P.G.’ in his written works.Educated and Dulwich College, Wodehouse began as a banker — a career he actively loathed — before turning to writing. His earliest stories were based on his life as a student (including his first novel, ‘The Pothunters’ (1902)) and were often serialized to great success, but it wasn’t until he turned full-time to comic fiction that his career took off.Wodehouse was a prolific and tireless writer, churning out short stories, plays and novels at an astonishing rate for his entire life, in a career that lasted a breathtaking seventy-five years. His stable of literary characters included the sly, smooth Psmith, the charming and affable ‘Uncle Fred’ Ickenham, Lord Emsworth, Pongo Twistleton and the rest of the habitués of Blandings Castle (the plot-lines of which often involved very large pigs), Madeleine Bassett, Bingo Little, Catsmeat Potter-Purbright, Mr. Mulliner and many, many others, none more beloved than the foppish gentleman of leisure Bertie Wooster and his unflappable and brainy manservant Jeeves.In addition to his literary fiction, Wodehouse was also a contributor to or writer of both plays and musicals, working with such Broadway luminaries as Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern.In the early 30’s, Wodehouse fled England for France to avoid burdensome British taxes and was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940. Released after a one-year’s imprisonment, Wodehouse was forced to remain in Germany during the war and was persuaded by his captors to make radio broadcasts — innocuous and comical, he believed — for the German government. These broadcasts were widely viewed in England as traitorous and after the war ended, Wodehouse lived the rest of his life as an exile.Wodehouse died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, New York, leaving behind an astonishing ninety books, forty plays and over two hundred short stories.