Love Among the Chickens -
P. G. Wodehouse
1950 - Herbert Jenkins, London - Fifteenth Printing
Giving us our first jaw-dropping encounter with Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, Love Among the Chickens, published in 1906 (and revised in 1920) to accommodate the inflation in egg prices), launched P.G. Wodehouse's career, and that of his larger-than-life-hero.
Ukridge has hit upon a foolproof plan to get rich quick: he's starting a chicken farm. Dragging his adoring wife Millie and his long-suffering friend and novelist Jeremy Garnet with him to Dorset he begins his enterprise. En route, however, Garnet has fallen in love.
Complications in classic Wodehousian style ensue, involving the taciturn Hired Man and his bumptious dog Bob, supercilious chickens, irascible professors, angry creditors and divided lovers. For the lucky reader, it is sheer hilarity... First published in UK: June 1906 by George Newnes Ltd., London
First published in US: May 11 1909 by Circle Publishing Company, New York
Rewritten edition first published in UK: May 1921 by Herbert Jenkins, London
Provenance: Berdil Wiging, with their name to front and 21/3 ‘56 to rear.
References: The Russian Wodehouse Society. Madame Eulalie. McIlvaine A7.
Small octavo (book size 19.1x12.9cm), pp. vi [2] 9-256. In publisher’s orange cloth, publisher’s logos in black to rear panel and spine, black lettering to spine and upper board. Dust jacket priced ‘5/- net’ to lower corner of front flap and listing Nothing Serious (published July 1950) as latest title to the rear panel. Condition: Fine in near fine dust jacket, with minor fading to spine and light wear to corners and spine ends. Ref: 111414 Price: HK$ 1,400
Ukridge has hit upon a foolproof plan to get rich quick: he's starting a chicken farm. Dragging his adoring wife Millie and his long-suffering friend and novelist Jeremy Garnet with him to Dorset he begins his enterprise. En route, however, Garnet has fallen in love.
Complications in classic Wodehousian style ensue, involving the taciturn Hired Man and his bumptious dog Bob, supercilious chickens, irascible professors, angry creditors and divided lovers. For the lucky reader, it is sheer hilarity... First published in UK: June 1906 by George Newnes Ltd., London
First published in US: May 11 1909 by Circle Publishing Company, New York
Rewritten edition first published in UK: May 1921 by Herbert Jenkins, London
Provenance: Berdil Wiging, with their name to front and 21/3 ‘56 to rear.
References: The Russian Wodehouse Society. Madame Eulalie. McIlvaine A7.
Small octavo (book size 19.1x12.9cm), pp. vi [2] 9-256. In publisher’s orange cloth, publisher’s logos in black to rear panel and spine, black lettering to spine and upper board. Dust jacket priced ‘5/- net’ to lower corner of front flap and listing Nothing Serious (published July 1950) as latest title to the rear panel. Condition: Fine in near fine dust jacket, with minor fading to spine and light wear to corners and spine ends. Ref: 111414 Price: HK$ 1,400