This much is uncontested by all but the most irretrievably insane. Fact number two: with the Jeeves stories, Wodehouse created the best of the best. The world of Jeeves is complete and integral; every bit as structured, layered, ordered, complex and self-contained as King Lear and considerably funnier."Bertie is embroiled in plot and counterplot in these three glorious Jeeves and Wooster novels. In The Mating Season, Bertie pretends he is his old pal Gussie Fink-Nottle to ensure Gussie's engagement to the soppy Madeline Bassett comes to no harm. The Code of the Woosters finds Bertie in an even worse mess. His fearsome Aunt Dahlia has blackmailed him into purloining a particularly hideous cow-creamer from the home of Sir Watkyn Bassett. Unfortunately, other parties have their own plans for the unsavoury item, and for Bertie too. In Right Ho, Jeeves, Bertie takes matters in hand when Jeeves suggests Bertie's friend Gussie Fink-Nottle puts on scarlet tights and a false beard to achieve the object of his desire. As usual, only Jeeves can sort out the ensuing chaos. 'The funniest writer ever to put words on paper.' Hugh Laurie

    Wodehouse (1881-1975) was perhaps the most widely acclaimed British humorist of the twentieth century. Throughout his career, he brilliantly examined the complex and idiosyncratic nature of English upper-crust society with hilarious insight and wit. The works in this volume provide a wonderful introduction to Wodehouse’s work and his unique talent for joining fantastic plots with authentic emotion. In The Code of the Woosters, Wodehouse’s most famous duo, Bertie Wooster and his unflappable valet Jeeves, risks all to steal a cream jug. Uncle Fred in the Springtime, part of the famous Blandings Castle series, follows Uncle Fred as he attempts to ruin the Duke of Blandings while he is preoccupied with his favorite pig. Fourteen stories feature some of Wodehouse’s most memorable characters, and three autobiographical pieces provide a revealing look into Wodehouse’s life. With his gift for hilarity and his ever-human tone, Wodehouse and his work have never felt more lively. With a New Introduction by John Mortimer (Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

    The kind of writing included in this collection clearly shows the reasons for Damon Runyon's world-wide reputation.

    This edition contains only the text of the play.

    

    That gentleman, a crook, has just passed out of the picture and the undertaker, who has led a quiet and honest life to date, sees no reason why he should not get a well paying job. So the undertaker and doctor enter the home of the deceased and proceed to take his body back to the shop. The undertaker and his friend picture a rosy future until the corpse comes to life and regains consciousness. The old gentleman is left on the sofa in the undertaker's office, where he proceeds to reveal the fact that he will die penniless, leaving his affairs in such condition as to make legal trouble for his successors. The undertaker, who has bought an option on the only bronze casket west of New York, sees himself stuck for a goodly sum, and is not unwilling to allow the job of attending to the deceased financier (he has since actually died) to go to a rival. When he is on the point of unloading the casket on his rival, he gets a temporary case of conscience and agrees to sell the casket for what he paid for it. His rival evidently thinks he is deceiving him when he reports that the millionaire has died penniless. So he hangs up the phone with the parting shot: "It's your funeral!" A pleasant romantic interest is sustained by the undertaker's daughter and a young dancer, who have become engaged and plan to carve out a career for themselves as professionals."