Review: Love Among the Chickens

Love Among the Chickens by P.G. Wodehouse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While it's not at the level of his later books, this first adult novel from P.G. Wodehouse, written when he was 25, holds the germs of what was to become his signature style. The scheming is less convoluted than that of Jeeves and Wooster, but there is scheming, and it's somewhat convoluted, and it leads first to disaster and then to triumph. The character of Ukridge was later developed in what are effectively prequel short stories, and he became even more of a confidence trickster and sponger (and added a catchphrase, "Upon my Sam!", which doesn't appear in this novel). But already here, he's given to ordering things on credit with no real intention of paying for them, and his money-making schemes are wildly optimistic and impractical. When confronted with his bad behaviour, even indirectly, he somehow makes himself out to be the victim, with his other catchphrases: "It's hard, old horse!" He's married, to a young woman with minimal personality; Wodehouse eventually learned to write women with personalities, but it took him a little while.

Like most of Wodehouse's early work - before he hit on the brainy scheme of writing anti-romances, where the hero must extract himself from an engagement and so is available to go through similar shenanigans in the next book or story - this has a strong romance subplot. The narrator, who's more honest about his failings and less of an outright idiot than most Wodehouse characters, sets out to win a young woman (with minimal personality) who lives in the area, while helping out his hopeless friend Ukridge with his ill-considered scheme to make a fortune chicken farming. There's a small golfing subplot as well. The narrator is a young writer, and Wodehouse hints strongly that he's based on himself (as is usually the case with young writers).

It's an enjoyable ride, with the emotional and social stakes that Wodehouse later became such a master of, providing some ups and downs and tension and resolution. There are well-written comic moments, and more than a hint of the zany hijinks to come in future Wodehouse stories.

The Project Gutenberg edition is copyedited well.

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