Money In The Bank

Money in the Bank (1946) by P. G. Wodehouse – Herbert Jenkins – First UK Edition, First Printing

Money is a wonderfully useful thing.

It buys food, houses, clothes and, in the world of P. G. Wodehouse, provides an almost inexhaustible reason for otherwise respectable people to behave like complete idiots.

Money in the Bank, published by Herbert Jenkins in 1946, is vintage Wodehouse: a glorious mixture of misplaced fortunes, romantic complications, eccentric aristocrats, scheming relatives and people attempting elaborate plans that would be considerably easier if everybody involved simply sat down and told the truth.

Naturally, nobody does.

That would make for a very short book.

At the centre of proceedings is money which has become inconveniently difficult to locate, setting off the familiar Wodehousian machinery of misunderstanding, deception and increasingly desperate improvisation.

This is a universe in which financial problems are rarely solved by visiting a bank manager.

Instead, they involve country houses, improbable schemes, inconvenient engagements, mistaken assumptions and at least one person having to pretend to be something they are not.

Perfectly sensible.

Wodehouse was one of the great masters of turning minor social difficulties into catastrophes of almost operatic complexity.

A conversation that should last thirty seconds becomes a crisis.

A romantic misunderstanding develops strategic implications.

A harmless lie requires six more lies and possibly a change of clothes.

And money, whenever introduced into proceedings, immediately starts behaving like an unexploded device.

The joy, of course, is the language.

Wodehouse could describe embarrassment, panic and romantic despair with such effortless comic precision that even characters facing financial ruin somehow appear to be having a rather enjoyable afternoon.

Nobody merely enters a room.

Nobody merely looks surprised.

Nobody simply dislikes somebody else.

Every emotional state receives the full decorative treatment.

Published in Britain just after the Second World War, Money in the Bank also belongs to an interesting moment in Wodehouse’s publishing history, when readers were returning to the particular comfort of his comic world after years in which real life had been considerably less amusing.

And what a comforting world it is.

Country houses still stand.

Aunts remain dangerous.

Young men remain financially unreliable.

And somewhere a butler knows considerably more than everyone else.

This copy is particularly interesting because it is the First UK Edition, First Printing, published by Herbert Jenkins in 1946.

So this is not merely an old Wodehouse reading copy.

It is the first British appearance of the novel in book form, which gives it an extra bit of bibliographical charm for collectors.

Condition is Good, though there is an issue to note at the front.

The inner hinge at the first page has opened into a visible gap, although the cloth remains intact and is still holding the book together.

In other words, there is some weakness there, but the binding has not staged a complete rebellion.

Given that the book is now around eighty years old, a little structural grumbling seems understandable.

The rest remains a pleasing example of a collectible early Wodehouse edition that can still be enjoyed rather than merely placed behind glass and spoken about in hushed tones.

Ideal for Wodehouse collectors, lovers of classic British comic fiction, devotees of beautifully constructed farce or anyone who believes money would solve all their problems and would benefit from several hundred pages demonstrating otherwise.

Also useful for anyone who wants to see just how much chaos can be generated from money, romance and a group of people who should under no circumstances be trusted with a plan.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, where money is occasionally in the bank, books are generally on the shelves, and slightly tired hinges are treated with considerably more sympathy than slightly tired excuses.

ISBN: None
Condition: Good
Edition: First UK Edition, First Printing
Condition note: Inner hinge at the first page has a gap, but the cloth remains intact and is holding the binding together.

Keep browsing: See more Humour books Other books by PG Wodehouse