A Prefect's Uncle

School Stories

by P.G. Wodehouse

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Classics, Comedy, British Literature, School, School Stories

115 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 11, 1903

About the author

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE, was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read over 40 years after his death. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained that of prewar English upper-class society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career.

An acknowledged master of English prose, Wodehouse has been admired both by contemporaries such as Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by more recent writers such as Douglas Adams, Salman Rushdie and Terry Pratchett. Sean O'Casey famously called him "English literature's performing flea", a description that Wodehouse used as the title of a collection of his letters to a friend, Bill Townend.

Best known today for the Jeeves and Blandings Castle novels and short stories, Wodehouse was also a talented playwright and lyricist who was part author and writer of fifteen plays and of 250 lyrics for some thirty musical comedies. He worked with Cole Porter on the musical Anything Goes (1934) and frequently collaborated with Jerome Kern and Guy Bolton. He wrote the lyrics for the hit song Bill in Kern's Show Boat (1927), wrote the lyrics for the Gershwin/Romberg musical Rosalie (1928), and collaborated with Rudolf Friml on a musical version of The Three Musketeers (1928).

Reviews

[Evan Leach · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Prefect’s Uncle is Wodehouse’s second book, first published in 1903. Like Wodehouse’s other early work, this is a “school story” – a tale set at an English boarding school, probably written with younger readers in mind. Gethryn has a pretty great thing going at Beckford College: he’s a good athlete, popular, and a school prefect. But his world turns upside down when his uncle, a younger boy named Reginald Farnie, shows up at school and promptly causes all kinds of problems.

I was impressed by how much funnier this book was than Wodehouse’s first effort, The Pothunters. That story had some clever moments but was still finding its way a bit. Wodehouse made great strides between his debut novel and this one. The humor is more liberally applied in A Prefect’s Uncle, which is most welcome.

“If four plutocrats with four sovereigns were to combine, Farnie, by their united efforts, would be saved. And he rather liked the notion of being turned into a sort of limited liability company, like the Duke of Plaza Toro, at a pound a share. It seemed to add a certain dignity to his position.”

Wodehouse is a master at using understatement and overstatement to make an otherwise ordinary paragraph shine, and there are countless examples on display in this book:

“The worst had happened. The bitter cup was full, the iron neatly inserted in Gethryn's soul.”

“Gethryn nobly refrained from rending the speaker limb from limb.”

I was thoroughly entertained by this book’s humor, and if I were judging it on that aspect alone it would be a 4-star read easily. What weighs it down a bit, and where the book shows its age, are the sections focused on cricket. Sporting stories about youngsters reaching the heights of glory on the field/pitch/diamond/track/whatever are still read by young readers today, but in the early 20th century they were much more popular. In the U.S. kids couldn’t get enough baseball stories, while across the pond cricket, rugby, and soccer were in demand. So the long sections dedicated to cricket matches were probably riveting stuff for Wodehouse’s target audience 110 years ago, but they felt a little dated to me.

But even those sections are rescued by Wodehouse’s quick wit, and overall this was a very fun read. 3.5 stars, recommended!

[Rachel Hyland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wodehouse’s second novel, and second school book, brings up a very modern family issue in an old world context. A senior schoolboy at a select boarding school is told that his uncle is coming to visit — but that uncle, it transpires, is a cheeky young thing newly enrolled in the school, several years behind his nephew, as the product of a late marriage.

Gethryn’s troubles with his uncle, the rapscallion Farnie, are legion, and the book is often hilarious, much funnier than The Pothunters and showing even more of the dexterity with dialogue for which Wodehouse would become justly famous. Of course, I still didn’t get all of it — especially not the callousness of these schoolboys, not to mention the casual violence — but it was a highly enjoyable read, nonetheless.

[Illiterate · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only silly fanboys read Wodehouse’s school stories. I’m reading them for the second time.

[Gavin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very early work. plenty of hollow charm but not yet godlike lightness, the contempt for gravity that lofts the reader.

"Wilson, who seems to be a professional pugilist in disguise, landed what my informant describes as three corkers on his opponent’s proboscis. Skinner’s reply was to sit down heavily on the floor, and give him to understand that the fight was over, and that for the next day or two his face would be closed for alterations and repairs."

Also about a hundred pages of impenetrable cricket play-by-plays.

[Shannon (That's So Poe) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another great school boy story filled with all kinds of antics and, of course, a ton of sports. The cricket for sure put me to sleep, but I enjoyed seeing how the boys dealt with all their issues.

Content Warnings:
bullying

[Mariangel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the situations in which the students get themselves into, and how they managed to get out.
But I couldn’t follow the cricket and football matches.

[Nente · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not only humor and the turn-of-phrases that are trademark Wodehouse in this book. Wodehouse always projects the feeling that nothing really bad can happen in his world; more than that, nothing really bad can even be imagined. That's what makes all his books so restful and worth reading even if they don't yet have the many-layered plot and subtle brilliance of the best in Jeeves or Blandings series. The outlook of a happy schoolboy that he managed to retain through his entire literary career.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An early novel by Woudhouse, belonging to his boarding school stories.
They center around school life, students amongst each other, versus teacher, family and the general public.
Sports, mostly cricket and a bit of rugny feature prominently.
This story starts when the main character receives notice that his uncle will be visiting the school. As it happens, this uncle who he has up to now never met, is a very young brother from his mother. So young that the uncle is younger than his nephew, as a matter of fact, the uncle will join his nephew at school in a lower grade. The rest of the book is on sports, petty theft, bullying, blackballing, uncovering the truth, restoring friendshihps and showing a manly behavious (through the eyes of schoolboys). Enough possibilities for Wodehouse to build upon this series of books that he started before and add a very funny book that allows for easy reading.
To fully enjoy the story some knowleddge of cricket helps, since it is very well known that only (some) of the English understand this mysterious game, the rest of the world falls asleep very confused.
As said, an early work that shows already the promise of his later masterpieces and fits quite well in with the rest of the School Stories.

[Gláucia Renata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publicado em 1903 é segundo livro do autor, também o segundo da série "School Stories".
Ambientado numa escola britânica dividida em várias casas, cada uma liderada por um aluno (the prefect) com suas rivalidades e picuinhas o que nos faz lembrar Hogwarts.
O críquete é o esporte mais popular, e os torneios são eventos super importantes e aguardados por todos. Gethryn é um líder muito popular e querido por todos, inteligente e ótimo esportista mas vê sua popularidade ameaçada com a chegada de seu tio, Reginald Farnie à escola, devido às confusões causadas por ele.
Gostei mais desse que do primeiro, mas grande parte do livro é tomado por descrições dos jogos.



Histórico de leitura
16/09/2019

"Marriott walked into the senior day-room, and, finding no one there, hurled his portmanteau down on the table with a bang. The noise brought Williams into the room."

[Kerri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Has some funny stuff, with a lot of cricket and rugby talk. I like watching rugby here and there but have NO idea on the rules. And cricket is a complete unknown all around. So those parts just kind of got skimmed. But it is easy to tell when some mysterious aspect of the sports is good or not, even if I didn't know why or how, which is the important part. The names of students were easy to muddle and I have no idea if they were the same characters from the first book or a different set altogether, but they were a fun lot. All in all an ok read, nothing spectacular but a quick lighthearted book.

[Shrewbie Spitzmaus · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Plum's earliest novels and, while enjoyable, far from one of his best. I loved the element of cricket in the story and the character of Farnie (the Uncle of the title) was really good (though not in the story as much as he should have been). The technical (and likely antiquated) verbiage of cricket (and rugby) was a bit excessive in this one and would likely turn most readers off. Definitely NOT one to start with if someone was wanting to discover the utter magic that is Wodehouse...

[CJ Bowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

School story, appealing only to devotees of Wodehouse or cricket. The story is amusing enough, and some slow-burn plot points are well executed (the poetry prize), but the Wodehouse genius only appears in full force at the very end.

I do feel a sort of deep kinship with the estimable Reece, somehow.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

While I don't like Wodehouse's school stories as much as either the Jeeves or Blandings ones (too much cricket for this American), I thought this one was better than average.

My Kindle edition is actually from Project Gutenberg:
http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/6985

[Sanjana · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favourites from Wodehouse.

[alexander · Rating 2 out of 5]

After an engaging start thanks to the memorably foppish boy’s school language and codes, and the intriguing comedic premise, the story veers very quickly and irrevocably into detailed sports writing, basically unintelligible without knowing the rules of cricket, as so few of us do(!), never to return to the original brillance or interest despite the promising threads laid out.

Had to slog past the House match at the halfway point, only to find nothing of note on the other side, but still finished it anyway.

[Carson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s hard to dislike Wodehouse, but this book just has Too Much Cricket.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much of a plot in this one. I hope you're a cricket fan if you read it! It looks like from many of the reviews that this is nowhere near what Wodehouse's popular works are like, so I won't write him off completely. Plus, you have to give someone a second chance when Douglas Adams has called him the greatest comic writer ever.

Some bits of this book here and there were delightful to read, but most was "beastly". (That would be one of the delights of the book for me, whenever someone called something "beastly".) I'm glad it was short.

On a stupid American note, as this was a British school story, I learned that some of the things about Hogwarts were not original; they are just standard in the British school system (or the old system? I don't know how much has changed and what percentage of kids go away to school since this book was written) - the school is divided into different houses, and they compete against each other for a cricket cup. And then there are prefects of course. Up until now Harry Potter has been my only glimpse into British schooling.

And I just realized there are no female characters in this book, but that is kind of to be expected in a boys' school story.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very early Wodehouse, his second book. Only really of value when he gives a hint of the greatness that was to come. A public school novel with fairly uninteresting characters. The "prefects uncle" by the way is younger than his nephew and unaccountably is dropped from the narrative in the second half of the book. The book opens with one of the characters talking to the school caretaker, the pupil is a bit of what Wodehouse would come to call a "buzzer." It makes a charming and hopeful first page but soon the book descends into seemingly endless cricket matches and contains very little humour or for that matter excitement, thankfully it's rather short my copy was only around 150 pages. Wodehouse's school novel "Mike" is a great book by any standards, this sadly isn't, just keep in mind there is better to come from PGW.

[Phil Syphe · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A Prefect's Uncle” was P. G. Wodehouse’s second publication and was first released in 1903. This isn’t a novel with a single plot featuring a hero and a heroine – in fact no female characters appear – but is rather a series of events, featuring several characters, held together with a stream of continuity.

This is nothing like the tales Wodehouse would become famous for writing but his unique style is apparent nonetheless. The story is set in an all-boys’ college. Most characters are aged 17-18, except for the prefect’s uncle, who is 14. Lengthy descriptions of cricket and football matches feature here and there, all of which I skipped with me not being a fan of either sport.

Having not been keen on Wodehouse’s first publication – “The Pothunters” – I expected this book to be on par with that one, however, this tale was more appealing to my tastes.

[Scot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wodehouse's second novel, published in 1903. The hilarious tone he is loved for hasn't developed much yet--this is a predictable public school tale of adolescent boys' virtues and proper manners, sort of along the lines of Tom Brown's Schooldays. The setting is Beckford, a public school. A harbinger of the conniving lad that will become a staple in many later Wodehouse tales can be found in the character Farnie. There is quite a lot of slang discussion of cricket matches in the dialogue here as well as cricket matches themselves in the plot of this book, which can become quite bewildering for those unfamiliar with the sport, and tedious even if you do understand it some.

[Mailis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Putting aside the full-length cricket extravaganza the dynamics of happenings an human vices are full of humor and Wodehouses trademark happy ending will put you in a good mood every time...being a person of zero knowledge of cricket it is hard to follow the thread of thought sometimes sadly in this one...one cant help feeling thats shes missing something of the story...

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is basically all right. Wodehouse is still writing school stories. I don't really go for descriptions of fictional sporting events, of which there is a lot. Wodehouse is still an apprentice and hasn't discovered the things that will make him great. Though, the beginning about the uncle is quarky and fun. It is a solid piece of writing.

[Lee Belbin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad English public school yarn. Bishop has younger uncle arrive at Beckford and steal money forcing hero to chase at cost of cricket match. Bit of ok: Much language of the period (1903), spiffing, ragged etc. Typical Wodehouse. Nice to have no sex, violence etc.

[matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book largely consists of descriptions of sporting events (and not even ones i might understand!), and still manages to be very funny. for me, that's saying a great deal.

[Erin M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still do not understand cricket.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of his early school boy stories, before he found his distinctive voice. Still, there were glimmers here and there of what was to come.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

So sometimes an uncle
Might cause one some trouble
By stealing some cash and creating a mess.

But poetry writing
Is getting quite tiring
So just read the story to find out the rest.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was definitely early Wodehouse. It included a lot of detailed accounts and discussion of the game of cricket, which may or may not appeal to the reader. It was a struggle for me to complete.

[Farseer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always with Wodehouse's school stories, we get a bunch of one or two-star reviews from readers who wanted Jeeves and did not find any of that here. They might as well read one of those detective novels J. K. Rowling writes under the Robert Galbraith pseudonym and complain that there are no wizards in it. It's a completely different genre, people. If you do not want a boarding school story, then you are going to be disappointed with this novel. It's not a comedy, although there are signs of the author's dry wit.

I thought it was a very solid school novel. My favorite among the Wodehouse ones I have read, along with The White Feather (I haven't read yet his most famous one, Mike). The only problem is, it has an awful lot of cricket matches. Lovingly described. Wodehouse clearly knows his cricket very well. I know very little about cricket, but I know enough to be able to follow the description of the matches. It's not necessary to know a lot to follow the story. You are fine if you know when the players are doing well and when they are not, which mostly can be deduced by context. By I admit that if you don't enjoy sports at all it might be a bit too much. Then again, if you don't enjoy sports at all, the this genre is probably not for you. There's usually a fair amount of sports in boarding school stories, because it's important for the boys, and doing well on the sport fields gives a boy social prestige among his peers. Also, I think the purity of these totally amateur games is enjoyable. These boys train and play their hearts out for pure love of the game and, when they are playing for the school, for honour's sake.

Anyway, the reason this is one of my favorites among Wodehouse's school stories is that you see a lot of his wit in the dialogue and the descriptions, particularly in the first half of the novel (the second is more cricket-heavy).

The story is about Gethryn and Marriott, a couple of senior boys in Leicester's House, in a school called Beckford. The previous head boy of the house has departed and now it falls to Gethryn, as new head, to shape the house up with his friend's help. The task is made difficult by presence of several troublemakers in the house. Also, both senior boys receives the news from their respective families that they are expected to look after new boys. One is the son of a friend of a friend of Marriott's aunt, and the other is Gethryn's uncle. Yes, his uncle. Apparently Gethryn's grandfather, an eccentric gentleman, had a son quite late in life.

Marriott's charge is a good sort, who quickly makes himself popular and doesn't require much looking after, but Gethryn's uncle is a rebellius and extremely cheeky kid who has already been expelled from several schools.

The story takes place during a school year. It's a slice-of-life novel, so the focus is not on a single incident. At a certain point, to get his uncle out of a serious predicament, Gethryn has to leave in the middle of an important cricket match, resulting in a defeat for the school. To protect his relative he can't explain why he left, which causes some of his peers to be angry at him, while others stick by him. There's also cheating at a poetry contest, a rebellion of the members of the house cricket team against early morning practices...

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before Jeeves and Wooster, there was the boy’s life, and the young Wodehouse explored the world of boys for boys in books such as this. The title refers to an absurdity that could have been the pretext for a Gilbert and Sullivan opera: a new boy arrives at a public school (English = private school, American). Unexpectedly, he turns out to be the uncle of one of the school’s shining lights, “Bishop” Gethryn, in his final year and a prefect (English = dorm monitor, American). The new boy’s distinction is that of having been sent down by three other schools. After this career, his arrival at Beckford gives the reader an indication of where this school might rank in the world of education. The new boy, Farnie, shows no inclination to mend his ways nor to show the deference that the bishop expects. Part of Farnie’s reasoning might have been that one does not defer to one’s nephew, no matter how much older or distinguished.
This soon leads to the near ruination of the bishop’s school career, forcing him to disappear during an inter-school cricket match. His school’s unexpected loss can be plausibly tied to the bishop’s disappearance. A worse form of humiliation, and the subsequent shunning he endures, can not be imagined. Not even the fate of two of his fellow pupils, caught in flagrant plagiarism, rivals it.
This book shows its author to be on his way to developing the wry humor that makes his mature (with Wodehouse, one is tempted to place that adjective in quotation marks) work so enjoyable. There are many laughs. For me, the loudest was evoked by the description of the ineffectual headmaster, whose “spirit was willing, but his will was not spirited.”
That Wodehouse had not yet fully mastered his trade is shown in his handling of characters. Another new boy, Wilson, arrives simultaneously and makes an even bigger first impression (on the eye and nose of a would-be ragger) than does Farnie, but quickly becomes tamed as the fag (English = gofer, American) of the bishop’s roommate, Marriott. Farnie, meanwhile, disappears from the book after derailing the bishop’s life. We only hear from him again at the end, when we learn that he withdraws at the end of the term. His next step on the decline of his education will be in France. It seems disjointed that the figure who serves as the title’s subject should turn out to have been no more than a plot device.
This was my first experience with an audiobook, a Librivox product that I accessed through Project Gutenberg. A worthy project, Librivox makes out-of-copyright books available in audio form. This one was created by four or five different volunteers; understandably, their skill at reading varied. Overall, this didn’t detract from my enjoyment, other than the one narrator who seems convinced that something that can’t be avoided is inexcapable.
All in all, an enjoyable way to pass a few hours of enforced immobility.