Finished A Gentleman of Leisure a couple days ago, the first book I’ve finished in the New Year. It was okay, for a Wodehouse novel. Which is to say, better than many books, but not quite up to his best. It does have the standard Wodehouse plot, wherein a young man falls in love, the girl ends up engaged to someone else, several people are hard up for cash and various hijinks involving stealing an item of great value (in this case a diamond necklace) ensue before it all works out in the end to everyone’s satisfaction.
This book strays a little from the formula by not ending with the hero and his beloved actually in each other’s presence in the closing scene, but other than that stays close to the form-book. Another unusual feature is the including of a very crooked cop; crooks of various sorts abound in Wodehouse novels though the men in blue are usually firmly on the side of law and order.
A last note, and a purely trivial one, is that the book is dedicated to Douglas Fairbanks who starred in the theatrical version of the book.
Neh 