Indiscretions of Archie

First edition (UK)

Indiscretions of Archie is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 14 February 1921 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 15 July 1921 by George H. Doran, New York.[1]

The book was adapted from a series of short stories, originally serialised in the Strand in the United Kingdom between March 1920 and February 1921, and, all except one, in Cosmopolitan in the United States between May 1920 and February 1921. The stories were rewritten and reorganised to create a more flowing novel form.

The one story that was not published in Cosmopolitan, "Strange Experience of an Artist's Model", was collected in Wodehouse on Crime (1981) under the title "Indiscretions of Archie".

Contents

The original story titles and publication dates were as follows:

Plot summary

The novel tells the story of impoverished, embarrassment-prone Archibald "Archie" Moffam (pronounced "Moom") and his difficult relationship with his art-collecting, hotel-owning, millionaire father-in-law Daniel Brewster, who is the father of Archie's new bride Lucille. Archie's attempts to ingratiate himself with Brewster only get him further into trouble. The story takes place in New York City.

Plot

Archie Moffam is an Englishman in New York. Like Bertie Wooster he’s kind hearted but mentally limited, if not negligible. Unlike Bertie he has no private income. He’s a veteran of the First World War.

During a stay in New York he bitterly criticises the service at the Cosmopolis Hotel, thus making an enemy of its owner, Daniel Brewster. On a subsequent trip to Miami he meets, falls in love with and marries Brewster’s daughter Lucille. Brewster is not delighted. Archie’s attempts to make amends by finding employment and by purchasing a valuable objet d’art for Brewster end in disaster. Further indiscretions follow for Archie: he upsets Lucille by apparently paying too much attention to an actress; he bets $1000 on the Giants (then a New York baseball team), but gets into a fight with their star pitcher and injures his arm. He advises Lucille’s brother, Bill, who has a habit of getting into relationships with girls of whom his father disapproves, and lends a hand to an old comrade from the war, “The Sausage Chappie”, who’s lost his memory and forgotten his own name. He upsets Mrs Cora Bates McCall, a vegetarian and healthy food campaigner, by persuading her son to take part in a pie-eating contest. Then there’s an incident with a painting which further upsets Brewster. Eventually he pacifies the old curmudgeon by telling him he’s about to become a grandfather.

References

  1. ↑ McIlvaine, E., Sherby, L.S. and Heineman, J.H. (1990) P.G. Wodehouse: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Checklist. New York: James H. Heineman, pp. 37-38. ISBN 087008125X

External links

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