Psmith in the City

The third of the month has immense significance in terms of Audiobooks - it is my Audible renewal date. Each third of the month I get two bonus Audible book credits. Generally I go for one straight away and one book a week or so into the month. Todays new book is

Psmith in the City - by PG Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

Book (4) - The Psmith line of books are early Wodehouse and he appears to have been writing for the English boarding school market rather than the more general audience that have come to love his Blandings and Jeeves books. Still they are quite enjoyable particularly since they explore a 20s world that is not all country houses and London clubs.

Primary Voice (5) - Primary voice in this book is a narrator and it is done wonderfully. Jonathan Cecil is a king of the audiobook world, particularly Wodehouse. His narrator is neither characterless nor excessively intrusive.

Secondary Voices (4) - The reader has fabricated a fitting set of characters with distinct and charactersome voices for all the major characters. Jonathan Cecil has a huge Wodehousian output and one would expect there to be some degree of crossover in the voices but no, these are superb and unique.

Atmosphere (4) - No issues here. Atmosphere is a product of the narrator and Jonathan Cecil is quite capable in this case of expressing highs and lows in the narrative.

Overall (4/5) - A reasonably good book well held up - and possibly even improved - by an excellent reading.


Trivia factoid - Wodehouse says in a preface to Something Fresh that Psmith is his only character based on a genuine person, namely Rupert D'Oyly Carte, son of the producer of the original Gilbert and Sullivan plays.