A Man of Means

By P. G. Wodehouse

If it's as well to be lucky as smart, Roland Bleke is doing everything right. From his start as a penurious clerk, Bleke adventures - and misadventures - through a life of the most startling turns of fortune in this series of six very funny stories. The plots follow on from each other, sometimes directly, and occasionally refer back to past events in Bleke's meteoric career.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Release date: Mar 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781625589187

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 A Man of Means

[shimmin_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fun little collection of linked stories, dealing with a young man who comes into money. As he's also both rather self-centred and quite weak, he ends up entangled with various young women and their schemes. We aren't expected to fully sympathise with him, but seeing his apparent dooms and his lucky escapes provides a fair bit of amusement. Not Wodehouse's finest work, but an enjoyable little collection.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

These 6 short stories are all about Ronald Bleke who starts off as an unassuming clerk and ends up as a "man of means" through no fault of his own. Fun stories though not quite as good as Wodehouse's best.

[philsyphe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

These six connected short stories proved to be an entertaining read. I like how the main character starts out by not wanting much money so as to avoid getting married, only for him to unintentionally keep gaining money and potential brides with the passing of each story.

[bradgers-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Early, early Wodehouse. This book is a collection of six short stories, each originally published individually in a magazine, about the titular character named Roland Bleke. The young man who entered looked exactly like a second clerk in a provincial seed-merchant's office—which, strangely enough, he chanced to be. His chief characteristic was an intense ordinariness. He was a young man; and when you had said that of him you had said everything. There was nothing which you would have noticed about him, except the fact that there was nothing to notice. His age was twenty-two and his name was Roland Bleke. From this ordinary beginning, Bleke wins a great deal of money, and spends the rest of the six stories dealing with the ramifications of having become a rich man. For such an ordinary man, this turns out to more difficult than one would expect, but luckily Bleke wins through. Wodehouse's gift for wit is in full evidence here.