The Man Upstairs and Other Stories.

Young men fall improbably in love, schemes go delightfully awry, and everything is set right by the last page — all delivered in prose so light and precise it seems to sparkle on its own.

What it's about

The Man Upstairs and Other Stories gathers a set of P. G. Wodehouse's early short stories, ranging across gentle romance, comic misadventure and social comedy. The tales follow hopeful lovers, artists, clerks and assorted good-natured strivers through the small crises and lucky turns of everyday life, each resolved with the sunny optimism that would become the author's trademark. It is Wodehouse before his most famous characters, already unmistakably himself.

Themes

Love, luck and the comedy of misunderstanding drive the collection, along with a fond eye for human vanity and self-delusion. Beneath the froth is a consistent generosity — a world in which good humour and good hearts are eventually rewarded.

Why it still matters

Wodehouse became one of the supreme comic prose stylists in the English language, and these early stories show the machinery already humming: the impeccable timing, the affectionate satire, the sentences engineered for delight. They are a charming introduction to a writer whose great gift was to make readers happy.

Who it's for

For anyone who loves comic fiction and elegant prose, for admirers of Wodehouse curious about his beginnings, and for readers seeking short, cheering stories that ask nothing but to entertain — and always do.