
The Coming of Bill
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Narrated by:
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Frederick Davidson
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By:
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P. G. Wodehouse
About this listen
The nearest Wodehouse ever came to a serious story,
The Coming of Bill is a fascinating blend of social commentary and light comedy.
Kirk, an impecunious artist of perfect physique, and Ruth, a spoilt heiress, were blissfully happy through their early days of marriage and the birth of their first son. But when Kirk returns from a trip to Columbia to find Ruth under the thumb of her Aunt Laura, an advocate of eugenics, parenting philosophies divide them. It takes a series of comic mishaps, featuring a galaxy of vintage Wodehouse characters, to retrieve the family’s happiness from the overbearing aunt.
Public Domain (P)1997 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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"I think the Cosmopolis is a bally rotten hotel!" Having made a bitter enemy of Daniel Brewster, owner of New York's Hotel Cosmopolis, Archie Moffam (fresh from England) checks out and heads south, where he woos and weds one Lucille Brewster...little thinking. Back at the Hotel Cosmopolis, Archie once again finds himself confronted by Mr. Brewster, who resembles nothing so much as a "man-eating fish." And then the fun begins...
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Brilliant quintessential Wodehouse
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The Intrusion of Jimmy
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Overall
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A book published in 1910 by a master of humor P. G. Wodehouse. The action begins with bachelor Jimmy Pitt in New York; having fallen in love on a transatlantic liner, he befriends a small-time burglar and breaks into a police captain's house as a result of a bet. The cast of characters head to England, and from there on it is a typically Wodehousean romantic story, set at the stately Dreever Castle, overflowing with imposters, detectives, crooks, scheming lovers and conniving aunts... A pure comedic joy, as always!
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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Big Money
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- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Most of the big money belongs to Torquil Paterson Frisby, the dyspeptic American millionaire--but that doesn't stop him wanting more out of it. His niece, the beautiful Ann Moon, is engaged to "Biscuit", Lord Biskerton, who doesn't have very much of the stuff and so he has to escape to Valley Fields to hide from his creditors. Meanwhile, his old school friend Berry Conway, who is working for Frisby, himself falls for Ann--just as Biscuit falls for her friend Kitchie Valentine. Life in the world of Wodehouse can sometimes become a little complicated.
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Another Dry Martini. Another Perfect Souffle.
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By: P. G. Wodehouse
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Indiscretions of Archie
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- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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"I think the Cosmopolis is a bally rotten hotel!" Having made a bitter enemy of Daniel Brewster, owner of New York's Hotel Cosmopolis, Archie Moffam (fresh from England) checks out and heads south, where he woos and weds one Lucille Brewster...little thinking. Back at the Hotel Cosmopolis, Archie once again finds himself confronted by Mr. Brewster, who resembles nothing so much as a "man-eating fish." And then the fun begins...
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Brilliant quintessential Wodehouse
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By: P. G. Wodehouse
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A Gentleman of Leisure
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
When Jimmy Pitt bets an actor friend that any fool could burgle a house, a feat which he offers to demonstrate that very night, he puts his reputation on the line. Although he hires the services of a professional burglar, the difficulty is increased when he has the misfortune to select Police Captain McEachern's house.
-
-
Another Musical Comedy Without Music
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By: P. G. Wodehouse
-
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- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The one thing that could be expected to disturb the peace of life at Blandings is the incursion of imposters. Blandings has imposters like other houses have mice. On this occasion there are two of them--both intent on a dangerous enterprise.
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Webster's Dictionary gives the meaning of the word "miasma" as "an infection floating in the air; a deadly exhalation". And in the opinion of Mr. Robert Ferguson, that description, though perhaps a little too flattering, on the whole summed up Master Roland Bean pretty satisfactorily. Until the previous day, Master Bean had served Mr. Ferguson in the capacity of office-boy. But there was that about Master Bean which made it practically impossible for anyone to employ him for long.
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Love the stories and the narrorator
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By: P. G. Wodehouse
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A Damsel in Distress
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Strange things are happening at Belpher Castle. For starters, the Earl's sister is intent on pairing off her stepson, Reggie, and niece, Lady Patricia (known as Maud). Maud, however, is in hot pursuit of Geoffrey Raymond, and she is also being pursued by the unacceptable composer, George Bevan.
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Splendid all around
- By Susan C. on 03-18-04
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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The Best of Jeeves and Wooster
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- Unabridged
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Story
Collected here are eleven of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster short stories (comprising all of the Jeeves tales from "Carry On, Jeeves" and "My Man Jeeves") as well as the complete novels Right Ho, Jeeves and The Inimitable Jeeves. Along with Jeeves and Bertie, we are introduced to an entire cast of beloved Wodehouse characters: Gussie Fink-Nottle, Madeline Bassett, Bingo Little, James "Corky" Corcoran, Tuppy and Honoria Glossop, Rockmetteller Todd, and the terrifying and bombastic Aunt Agatha.
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Icky, Icky, Icky Pooh
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By: P. G. Wodehouse
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Piccadilly Jim
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
He was a gossip columnist’s dream. Piccadilly Jim’s life was a collage of broken promises and drunken brawls. And his straight-laced Victorian aunt was not amused. So, she decided to reform him. Unfortunately, her reform project started at a time when Jim had fallen in love and had already decided to reform himself. Thus, life became complicated. Jim pretends to be himself - a beautiful display of Wodehousean logic; hilarious indeed!
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Glad to Finally Have Frederick Davidson’s Version
- By John on 11-09-22
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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The Clicking of Cuthbert
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Graham Scott
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In his first collection of golfing stories, presided over benignly by the Oldest Member, Wodehouse extracts high comedy from the noble and mysterious game. Including the clash of literature and golf that impedes the romantic progress of Cuthbert Banks; the horror of golfing garrulity; two cases of ordeal by golf between romantic rivals of sharply varying skill; the advantages of encouraging women to take up golf; and the remarkable golfing career of American multi-millionaire Vincent Jopp, whose overwhelming confidence seems certain to make him amateur champion in his first season.
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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The P.G. Wodehouse Collection
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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This title includes not only the entire audiobook of Right Ho, Jeeves, but also all of the P.G. Wodehouse titles in the current Classic Tales library. It also includes a Jeeves short story only available in the collection: "Extricating Young Gussie". The complete running time is over 15 hours. All titles have been remastered, and have never sounded better!
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Don't buy this version of the wonderful Wodehouse stories
- By K Bell on 11-05-16
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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Summer Moonshine
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
The hideous Walsingford Hall is home to an odd assortment of coves…The vile premises belong to Sir Buckstone, who is in a little financial difficulty. So for a little monetary help he puts a roof over the heads of people like (among others) Tubby Vanringham, the adoring slave of cold-hearted Miss Whittaker. His brother Joe has fallen head over heels for Sir Buck’s daughter, Jane. She, however, only has eyes for Adrian Peake, who has already formed a liaison with the terrifying - but superbly wealthy - Princess Dwornitzchek. Is there no end to the confusion?
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All the Wodehouse regulars, but lacking in charm.
- By NK Turoff on 08-07-12
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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Jeeves & Wooster
- The Collected Radio Dramas
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: full cast, Michael Hordern, Richard Briers
- Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins
- Original Recording
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A rollicking collection of six acclaimed dramatisations of P.G Wodehouse's Jeeves & Wooster novels, starring Michael Hordern and Richard Briers as Jeeves and Wooster. Also featuring Maurice Denham, Paul Eddington, David Jason, John Le Mesurier, Miriam Margolyes, Jonathan Cecil, Liza Goddard and Patrick Cargill.
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tracks out of order
- By Justin Sluyter on 06-02-19
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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Heavy Weather
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Abridged
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Galahad Threepwood is causing scandal again...this time by deciding to NOT publish his potentially humiliating high-society memoirs. His decision causes rifts in the ranks at castle Blandings and all involved split into three camps: those who want the book suppressed, those who want it published, and those, who for some reason or another, that have been sent to steal it.
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Hilarious - and this is a really good reading, too
- By SGW555 on 01-30-09
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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The Idiot
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
- Length: 24 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Prince Lyov Nikolayevitch Myshkin is one of the great characters in Russian literature. Is he a saint or just naïve? Is he an idealist or, as many in General Epanchin's society feel, an "idiot"? Certainly his return to St. Petersburg after years in a Swiss clinic has a dramatic effect on the beautiful Aglaia, youngest of the Epanchin daughters, and on the charismatic but willful Nastasya Filippovna. As he paints a vivid picture of Russian society, Dostoyevsky shows how principles conflict with emotions - with tragic results.
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Moments of surprise.
- By Theo on 05-02-18
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The Turmoil
- By: Booth Tarkington
- Narrated by: Harry Shaw
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Bigger, newer, faster. Demolish and rebuild, then demolish and rebuild again. Smoke, soot, and noise are the badges of prosperity, and growth is for growth's sake.
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Fast and heartwarming
- By dfjord on 08-06-24
By: Booth Tarkington
What listeners say about The Coming of Bill
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Katherine
- 09-18-22
Racist Trope
This book repeatedly uses the term “Great White Hope” which came to prominence after the great Jack Johnson (black) began dominating boxing in the early 1900s. It is hard to listen to this story with the ~100 racist references to a term generated because of the success of a black man in what had been a white man’s sport. I recognize this was the norm at the time of publication, 1920. To be clear, the story is not about race at all.
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- Open Container
- 09-13-18
Great story and narration.
I love almost everything by Wodehouse I'v ever read, and Frederick Davidson is the perfect narrator for his comic romps, especially those set in the US. Davidson effortlessly switches between a posh Brit accent and a Bowery judder. Really beautiful.
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- John
- 06-18-12
Don't Pluck This Lemon in the Garden of Literature
Not, that is, if you've reveled in the adventures of Jeeves and Wooster, the schemes of Ukridge and the insanity of Blandings Castle. Not, in other words, if you're looking for more of the same fast-paced, incisively-written, ludicrous hilarity these works dish our with such a lavish hand.
Things start out in the normal way. We have a fine portrait of the kind of character who always ends up snootered by the better sort in Wodehouse's world: a female writer of theosophical tracts, a confirmed spinster who is somehow an expert on raising children and a rabid eugenicist armed with all the latest, up-to-date, sterilized thinking and gadgetry that go with that particular branch of lunacy. Holding herself so high above the common run of human kind (especially men, whom she views almost purely in the light of breeding stock) that she disdains to accept any blame when she runs over a pedestrian with her car, the seasoned Wodehouse reader will snuggle a few inches deeper into the old arm chair and await with relish the inevitable downfall.
It comes, but in the most unsatisfactory (for the Wodehouse devotee) way--only after strained family relations (usually such a gold mine of humor for Wodehouse) sudden deaths, an unhappy marriage, expeditions to the South American jungle, another tragic death by fever, a headlong plunge into financial ruin, an all-too-real portrait of marital separation and a well-meant kidnapping. Kidnapping is a theme Wodehouse has a lot of fun with from time to time--see The Little Nugget, Piccadilly Jim or The Mating Season where Jeeves lures Aunt Agatha's son, young Thos, away from his school to play chess with Cora Star, the film actress. Here it's the desperate last move of a desperate father. At times it almost seems like Wodehouse should be writing under a pseudonym: Rosie M. Banks.
It all turns out, of course, Love triumphs. But the way there isn't the usual Wodehousian romp.
There must be a back-story to this book, a reason why it can't make up it's mind to be a comedy or a tragedy, a serious examination of human life or a farce. The publication date, 1920, lands it squarely in the Jeeves-and-Wooster zone, (My Man Jeeves, 1919 and The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923), the first glimmerings of Blandings Castle (Something Fresh, 1915 and A Damsel in Distress, 1919) and the teeing-off of the great golf sagas (The Clicking of Cuthbert, 1922). As Wodehouse entered his early 40's he truly hit his stride, embarking on those story lines that would make his books essential to those of us who like their literature bright and light. Maybe someone bet him he couldn't write something serious. Maybe he had the sudden urge to be taken seriously (when Cary Grant was seized with this misguided urge he made films like Penny Serenade and An Affair to Remember). Perhaps Wodehouse was simply still looking for his groove.
"I believe there are two ways of writing novels" Wodehouse once said. "One is mine, making a sort of musical comedy without music and ignoring real life altogether; the other is going right deep down into life and not caring a damn …" Fortunately for all of us, more often than not P. G. Wodehouse cared a damn.
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6 people found this helpful