Kirkus-Style Review: Leave it to Psmith

The last book in the Psmith series takes the inimitable and unflappable Psmith to Blandings Castle in pursuit of a profession which will enable Psmith to continue his leisurely and impeccable journey through life, with as little to do with fish as possible.

            Psmith (the P is silent, as in pshrimp) is down on his luck and has tried his hand at an uncle’s fish business, which is definitely a no-go. By placing an ad in the papers for “Any job you need doing, CRIME NOT OBJECTED TO” he soon attracts the attention of Freddie, son of Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle. Freddie has just been commissioned by his uncle to steal his aunt’s necklace, thus providing Freddie and uncle with cash needed for the wooing of Eve Halliday (by Freddie) and to set up Uncle’s step-daughter Phyllis’s husband Mike in business which will support Phyllis in the manner which she deserves. Since Mike is a good friend of Psmith and he has no other plans for the day, Psmith agrees to go to Blandings and steal the necklace for Freddie. However, a mix-up occurs in London with a very near-sighted Lord Emworth and a poet named Ralston McTodd, which results in Psmith going to Blandings in the guise of the poet McTodd as a guest of the castle. Soon the lovely Eve arrives (whom Psmith became enamored of in London and who believes Psmith to be McTodd, husband of her friend Cynthia who has just run off and left his wife in a poet’s rage). A crook named Cootes, also posing as McTodd and attempting to steal the necklace soon arrives on the scene as well. The necklace does get stolen and hidden in a flowerpot, and the events which transpire to recover the necklace, uncover the thief, win the heart of Eve and have everyone live happily ever after (with the possible exception of Lord Emsworth’s suspicious secretary Baxter, whom his employer believes is mad because he cannot resist the urge to throw flowerpots) are hilarious in true Wodehousian form.

Another delightful tome by P.G. Wodehouse, Leave it to Psmith takes the reader into the world of the eccentric British upper-class in the pre-WWII era, providing many intertwining plot twists and hysterical side-trips which all get resolved in the end, as no one but Wodehouse can do.