THE LUCK OF THE BODKINS

New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1975. Reprint of 1975 . Paperback. Near Fine/None as Issued. Text/NEW, showing faint margin discoloration. Softcover/VG; strong w/light surface soiling & a humidity stain to lower back. A delightful 1935 period piece from Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881 - 1975) who gave us some 70 novels and countless short stories. This novel, combining English merriment with Hollywood hilarity not long after the lifting of prohibition, chiefly takes place aboard the ocean liner Atlantic enroute to New York. The story has two plots. On the one hand, Monty Bodkin's is trying to correct relations with financee Gertude Butterwick, but is interrupted by silver-screen siren Miss Lotus Blossom, who sees in him a means of restoring relations with her idol, the novelist Ambrose Tennyson. On the other hand, Hollywood film magnate Ivor Llewellyn needs to smuggle a pearl necklace past customs officials on docking and suspects Monty might be an undercover customs agent. This main cast of characters is flushed by a bunch of twenty-somethings all with preoccupations. Year after publication of this work, in 1936, Wodehouse received the Mark Twain Prize for "having made an outstanding and lasting contribution to the happiness of the world" --- a salute to Bertie Wooster & Jeeves and to Lord Emsworth &, Empress of Blandings Castle.