A Few Quick Ones
 First UK Edition | |
| Author | P.G. Wodehouse |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | short stories |
| Published | 13 April 1959 by Simon & Schuster in the US and 26 June 1959 by Herbert Jenkins in the UK |
A Few Quick Ones is a collection of ten short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United States on 13 April 1959 by Simon & Schuster, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 26 June 1959 by Herbert Jenkins, London.[1]
All the stories in the collection feature recurring Wodehouse characters and themes: four Drones Club members (two Freddie Widgeon and two Bingo Little), two golf stories (with the Oldest Member), two Mr Mulliner, one Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, and one Ukridge.
The book's title comes from the informal phrase "a quick one", which is British slang for an alcoholic drink consumed quickly.
Contents
- "The Fat of the Land" (Drone Freddie Widgeon)
- US; This Week, 2 November 1958 (a shorter and somewhat altered version)
- "Scratch Man" (Oldest Member golf)
- US: Saturday Evening Post, 20 January 1940 (as "Tee for Two") (with American setting and names; mostly followed in American edition of book)
- UK: Strand, September 1940 (as "Tee for Two") (with British setting and names; mostly followed in British edition of book)
- "The Right Approach" (Mr Mulliner)
- "Jeeves Makes an Omelette" — Aunt Dahlia tells Bertie to steal and destroy a painting.
- Canada: Toronto Star, 22 August 1958 (a shorter version)
- UK: Lilliput, February 1959 (a shorter version)
- US: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 1959 (as "Jeeves and the Stolen Venus")
- "The Word in Season" (Drone Bingo Little)
- UK: Punch, 21 August 1940
- US: Harper's Bazaar, 15 September 1940
- US: This Week, 18 May 1958 (as "Bingo Little's Wild Night Out")
- "Big Business" (Mr Mulliner)
- "Leave it to Algy" (Drone Bingo Little)
- "Joy Bells for Walter" (Oldest Member golf) (a simplified reworking of Excelsior from Nothing Serious)
- US: This Week, 17 October 1956 (as "Keep Your Temper, Walter")
- UK: John Bull, 16 February 1957 (as "Keep Your Temper, Walter")
- "A Tithe for Charity" (Ukridge)
- US: Playboy, April 1955
- "Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust" (Drone Freddie Widgeon)
- First published in the 1949 omnibus Best of Wodehouse,[2] as "Freddie, Oofy and the Beef Trust"
"A Tithe for Charity" did not appear in the original U.S. edition, which instead featured a 1958 "exclusive" pseudo-Drones story entitled "Unpleasantness at Kozy Kot" (actually a rewritten version[3] of the 1928 Jeeves story "Fixing it for Freddie" collected in Carry On, Jeeves). "Jeeves Makes an Omelette" was a rewritten version of the 1913 Reggie Pepper story "Doing Clarence a Bit of Good", which appeared in the UK collection My Man Jeeves.
See also
- List of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, categorised by series
References and sources
- References
- ^ McIlvaine, E., Sherby, L.S. and Heineman, J.H. (1990) P.G. Wodehouse: A comprehensive bibliography and checklist. New York: James H. Heineman, pp. 93-94. ISBN 087008125X
- ^ In the Omnibus it is preceded by a page headed "Introducing a new story"
- ^
Reggie (2007-07-08). ""Wodehouse stories: Unpleasantness at Kosy Kot" (sic)". Blandings, a Companion to the Works of P. G. Wodehouse. Archived from the original on 2007-07-23.
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- Sources
- Kuzmenko, Michel (The Russian Wodehouse Society) (2007-08-05). "A Few Quick Ones". Bibliography. Archived from the original on 2007-08-11.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Midkiff, Neil (2016-01-01). "The Wodehouse short stories". P. G. Wodehouse pages. Archived from the original on 2015-03-02. With first publications and appearances in collections.
- Netherlands, The P. G. Wodehouse Society (2005-03-01). "Short Stories by P. G. Wodehouse". Bibliography. Archived from the original on 2007-05-01.