The coming of Bill
The Coming of Bill (1920) is the nearest Wodehouse ever came to a serious novel, although the influence of the musical comedies he was writing at the time is never far away. Bill is the child of Ruth, a spoilt heiress, and Kirk, an impecunious artist of perfect physique. Their marriage has been arranged by Ruth's aunt, a believer in eugenics who then takes charge of the baby. The story, set entirely in New York and Connecticut, concerns the young couple's campaign to retrieve their child from the overbearing Mrs Porter and establish a normal family life. They are eventually successful, but only after a series of comic mishaps in a story which features a galaxyof vintage Wodehouse characters, including the bossy aunt, a tetchy millionaire, a good-natured ex-boxer and an orotund English butler
Print Book, English, 2004
First edition View all formats and editions
1st World Library, Fairfiled, IA, 2004
Fiction
393 pages ; 23 cm.
9781421807935, 9781595403438, 1421807939, 1595403434
1276806793
Book 1: A pawn of fate
Ruth states her intentions
The mates meet
Troubled waters
Wherein opposites agree
Breaking the news
Sufficient unto themselves
Suspense
The white hope is turned down
An interlude of peace
Stung to action
A climax
Book 2: Empty-handed
An unknown path
The misadventure of Steve
The widening gap
The real thing
The outcasts
Cutting the tangled knot
Steve to the rescue
At one in the morning
Accepting the gifts of the gods
Mr Penway on the grill
Dolls with souls
Pastures new
The Sixty-first Street cyclone
Mrs Porter's waterloo
The white-hope link