Big Money

Wodehouse's novels are variable in quality. None fall below a fairly high bar; but it must be admitted not all achieve the intoxicating brilliance of Right Ho, Jeeves. I do find that some of them, though using every comic device he knew, leave me thinking, as Wodehouse himself did on rereading one of his books, "Fairly good, I think, but what does it prove?" In my mind, I classed Big Money (1931) as one of these "what does it prove?" titles - until I re-read it.

It's a non-series novel, featuring dud mine shares which turn out to be worth a fortune, financiers, conmen, and aristocrats on their uppers. The main situation is rather interesting: two old school pals, Berry Conway and Lord Biskerton ("the Biscuit"). Berry has no money and holds down a job as secretary to mogul T. Paterson Frisby to pay back a moral debt. The Biscuit is also penniless but is content to scrounge a living as best he can, getting a job being of course out of the question. Both characters are likeable and there is no disapproval expressed towards the Biscuit for his frankly amoral attitude. And both characters are equally willing to flog dud shares to a mug for profit, when the opportunity arises.

Money is seen as morally neutral. Anything can be done to gain it; its worth is entirely practical.

The book has a feel of being unusually close to reality. (Of course, in Wodehouse this is a very relative concept.) The London portrayed is not quite the usual fantasy land. It portrays not a Bertie Wooster effortlessly living on untold and unmentioned riches, but a noble family scraping a living by ignoble means in ways not very far from what must have been often the case at the time. The plot itself is nonsense, of course; but the journey is a lot of fun.

Here's the Ionicus cover:

The scene shows a country inn, where the Biscuit, in disguise to escape his creditors, has his false beard pulled off by the barmaid just as Berry walks in. The barmaid is described as "a robust lady in black satin with... a large brooch athwart her bosom with the word 'Baby' written across it in silver letters", but Ionicus has exercised artistic licence on this occasion, probably to get the colour balance right. As always, the décor is faultless. This is one of the covers that recall fond memories of reading Wodehouse in the 1980s; I would stare at a cover like this and drink the atmosphere intensely.

The text is in Linotype Times and it looks like this:

It is a low key beginning to a tale very much worth reading.