Jill the Reckless

Written by P. G. Wodehouse

Narrated by LibriVox Community

Jill had money, Jill was engaged to be married to Sir Derek Underhill. Suddenly Jill becomes penniless, and she is no longer engaged. With a smile, in which there is just a tinge of recklessness, she refuses to be beaten and turns to face the world. Instead she went to New York and became a member of the chorus of "The Rose of America," and Mr. Wodehouse is enabled to lift the curtain of the musical comedy world.

There is laughter and drama in _Jill the Reckless_, and the action never flags from the moment that Freddie Rooke confesses that he has had a hectic night, down to the point where Wally says briefly "Let 'em," which is page 313. The heroine here, Jill Mariner, is a young woman from the lower end of the upper class. We follow her through financial disaster, a broken engagement, an awkward stay with some grasping relatives, employment as a chorus girl, and of course, the finding of true love. Other characters include wealthy Drone Freddie Rooke and writer Wally Mason, her childhood friends; her financially inept uncle Major Christopher Selby; her fiancée at the beginning of the book, the M.P Derek Underhill, and his domineering mother, Lady Underhill; Jill's unpleasant relatives, Elmer and Julia Mariner; more Drones Club members, various chorus girls, composers and other theatrical types, and, of course, miscellaneous servants. (Introduction from Gutenberg and Wikipedia)

• Language: English
• Publisher: LibriVox
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975) was an English author. Though he was named after his godfather, the author was not a fan of his name and more commonly went by P.G Wodehouse. Known for his comedic work, Wodehouse created reoccurring characters that became a beloved staple of his literature. Though most of his work was set in London, Wodehouse also spent a fair amount of time in the United States. Much of his work was converted into an “American” version, and he wrote a series of Broadway musicals that helped lead to the development of the American musical. P.G Wodehouse’s eclectic and prolific canon of work both in Europe and America developed him to be one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century.

Reviews for Jill the Reckless

[Maria Jette · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I love the book— early Wodehouse, and one of the better ones from that period. Unfortunately, this Librivox recording is not up to the task. Wodehouse just doesn’t sound right in broad American accents, and this reader’s is particularly Western US. It’s also an utterly untheatrical reading. If you’re a slavish fan of Jonathan Cecil’s perfection as a PGW narrator, you won’t be able to endure this, and should just bite the bullet and read it the old fashioned way: with your eyeballs.

It’s hard to rate an audiobook star-wise in a case like this. I’d give the book a 5, and the performance a 1, so I guess that makes the average a 3, but I would definitely steer clear of this one. Cecil did not get to it, and we must accept it, and move on…alas!

[Karen Adams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book made me laugh out loud. It is possibly my favorite of Wodehouse’s novels. The narrator was a little high pitched at first, but I just set the speed at .8 and that fixed it.