Listen free for 30 days
-
The Small Bachelor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
People who bought this also bought...
-
Summer Moonshine
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Walsingford Hall belongs to Sir Buckstone, who is in a little financial difficulty. So for a little monetary help he puts a roof over the heads of an odd assortment of people.
-
-
Timeless classic!
- By John on 18-01-15
-
The Adventures of Sally
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pretty, impecunious Sally never dreamed a fortune could prove a disadvantage. Until she became an heiress and watched in bewilderment as her orderly existence went haywire.
-
-
P G Wodehouse, Sally and Jonathan Cecil -- Perfect
- By Earth Man on 08-09-14
-
Hot Water
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The house-party at Chateau Blissac, Brittany features a rather odd array of guests this year. Mr. J. Wellington Gedge is hoping for some peace and quiet while his wife takes herself off for a while. She, however, has invited numerous visitors to the chateau, to whom he will have to play reluctant host. Senator Opal and his daughter are expected, and so is the chateau's handsome owner Vicomte de Blissac.
-
-
One of my favourite Wodehouse stories, but not great performance
- By Devon reader on 11-02-19
-
Piccadilly Jim
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life of Jimmy Crocker has been little more than one drunken brawl after another. His formidable Aunt Nesta has had enough of his antics and decrees that the young Crocker must be reformed. However, Jimmy has fallen in love and decided to reform himself. Unfortunately, to win the heart of his intended, Jimmy must pretend to be someone else and take part in the kidnapping of Aunt Netsa's loathsome offspring Ogden. The reformation of oneself can be a decidedly tricky business.
-
-
Charming and cheerful
- By Alex on 21-05-07
-
Mr Mulliner Speaking
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the bar-parlour of the Angler’s Rest, Mr Mulliner tells his amazing tales, which hold the assembled company of Pints of Stout and Whiskies and Splash in the palm of his expressive hand. Here you can discover what happened to The Man Who Gave Up Smoking, share a frisson when the butler delivers Something Squishy on a silver salver (‘your serpent, Sir,’ said the voice of Simmons) – and experience the dreadful Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court.
-
-
Wodehouse on Top Form
- By M on 13-04-13
-
Big Money
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
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 schoolfriend Berry Conway, who is working for Frisby, himself falls for Ann – just as Biscuit falls for her friend Kitchie Valentine.
-
-
Classic Wodehouse and very enjoyableI
- By Maureen Bennell on 26-07-14
-
Summer Moonshine
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Walsingford Hall belongs to Sir Buckstone, who is in a little financial difficulty. So for a little monetary help he puts a roof over the heads of an odd assortment of people.
-
-
Timeless classic!
- By John on 18-01-15
-
The Adventures of Sally
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pretty, impecunious Sally never dreamed a fortune could prove a disadvantage. Until she became an heiress and watched in bewilderment as her orderly existence went haywire.
-
-
P G Wodehouse, Sally and Jonathan Cecil -- Perfect
- By Earth Man on 08-09-14
-
Hot Water
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The house-party at Chateau Blissac, Brittany features a rather odd array of guests this year. Mr. J. Wellington Gedge is hoping for some peace and quiet while his wife takes herself off for a while. She, however, has invited numerous visitors to the chateau, to whom he will have to play reluctant host. Senator Opal and his daughter are expected, and so is the chateau's handsome owner Vicomte de Blissac.
-
-
One of my favourite Wodehouse stories, but not great performance
- By Devon reader on 11-02-19
-
Piccadilly Jim
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life of Jimmy Crocker has been little more than one drunken brawl after another. His formidable Aunt Nesta has had enough of his antics and decrees that the young Crocker must be reformed. However, Jimmy has fallen in love and decided to reform himself. Unfortunately, to win the heart of his intended, Jimmy must pretend to be someone else and take part in the kidnapping of Aunt Netsa's loathsome offspring Ogden. The reformation of oneself can be a decidedly tricky business.
-
-
Charming and cheerful
- By Alex on 21-05-07
-
Mr Mulliner Speaking
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the bar-parlour of the Angler’s Rest, Mr Mulliner tells his amazing tales, which hold the assembled company of Pints of Stout and Whiskies and Splash in the palm of his expressive hand. Here you can discover what happened to The Man Who Gave Up Smoking, share a frisson when the butler delivers Something Squishy on a silver salver (‘your serpent, Sir,’ said the voice of Simmons) – and experience the dreadful Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court.
-
-
Wodehouse on Top Form
- By M on 13-04-13
-
Big Money
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
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 schoolfriend Berry Conway, who is working for Frisby, himself falls for Ann – just as Biscuit falls for her friend Kitchie Valentine.
-
-
Classic Wodehouse and very enjoyableI
- By Maureen Bennell on 26-07-14
-
Uncle Fred in the Springtime
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Uncle Fred, or to give him his full title: Fredrick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, is considered by some as a "splendid gentleman, a sportsman to his fingertips". Mr Twistleton, nephew to Earl, and otherwise known as "Pongo" to his friends, has a differing view. He simply describes his uncle as "being loopy to the tonsils".
-
-
Had me laughing out loud!
- By Susan on 13-04-13
-
The Luck of the Bodkins
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Things on board the R.M.S. Atlantic are terribly, terribly complicated... Monty Bodkin loves Gertrude, who thinks he likes Lotus Blossom, a starlet, who definitely adores Ambrose, who thinks that she has a thing for his brother, Reggie, who is struck by Mabel Spence, sister-in-law of Ikey Llewellyn (movie mogul, Ambrose's prospective employer and reluctant smuggler), but hasn't the means to marry her.
-
-
Well written - well read
- By George on 08-04-13
-
A Damsel in Distress
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Maud Marsh flings herself into George Bevan's cab in Piccadilly, he starts believing in damsels in distress. George traces his mysterious traveling companion to Belpher Castle, home of Lord Marshmoreton, where things become severely muddled. Maud's aunt, Lady Caroline Byng, wants Maud to marry Reggie, her stepson. Maud, meanwhile, is known to be in love with an unknown American she met in Wales. So when George turns up speaking American, a nasty case of mistaken identity breaks out.
-
-
Superb reading of a brilliant story.
- By Mrs H. on 18-12-20
-
Meet Mr Mulliner
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the Angler’s Rest, drinking hot scotch and lemon, sits one of Wodehouse’s greatest raconteurs. Mr Mulliner, his vivid imagination lubricated by Miss Postlethwaite the barmaid, has fabulous stories to tell of the extraordinary behaviour of his far-flung family... One of them concerns Wilfred, who lights on the formula for Buck-U-Uppo, a tonic given to elephants to enable them to face tigers with the necessary nonchalance. Its explosive effects on a shy young curate and then the higher clergy is gravely revealed.
-
-
Meet Mr. Mulliner
- By Frank on 01-04-19
-
The Inimitable Jeeves and My Man Jeeves - Unabridged
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Kevin Theis
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here, the master of 20th century English humor, P. G. Wodehouse, presents two of his most beloved classics: The Inimitable Jeeves and My Man Jeeves. The perpetually befuddled Bertie Wooster and his knight-in-shining-tuxedo Jeeves have long been hailed as the greatest literary creations of P. G. Wodehouse, the most popular English humorist in history. Here are two complete novels, the latter containing a handful of short stories featuring Reggie Pepper, an early prototype for Bertie.
-
-
American Accent very annoying
- By Anonymous User on 02-04-20
-
Something New
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here, we have a glorious ensemble of Woodhousian characters knocking elbows to foreheads in the elegant and grand Blandings Castle. Meet Freddy Threepwood, the vagrant son of doddering old Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle. Freddy has recently become engaged to Aline Peters, the American heiress of an irascible father. The snag is that Freddy seems to have at one point become enamored of a struggling actress, Joan Valentine, and written some impetuous and imprudent letters to her.
-
-
I was robbed!
- By Steve on 31-08-18
-
The Clicking of Cuthbert and Other Golf Stories
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Golf, like measles, should be caught young. P. G. Wodehouse leads the listener out on to another round of golf stories that always avoid the rough.
-
-
Cecil shines
- By PeterH on 02-05-17
-
The Girl in Blue
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Graham Seed
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Jerry West has a few problems. His uncle Crispin is broke and employs a butler who isn't all he seems. His other uncle, Willoughby, is rich but won't hand over any of his inheritance. And to cap it all, although already engaged, Jerry has just fallen in love with the wonderful Jane Hunnicutt, whom he's just met on jury service. But she's an heiress, and that's a problem too - because even if he can extricate himself from his grasping fiancée, Jerry can't be seen to be a gold-digger.
-
-
Left me anything but blue!
- By Val on 08-04-13
-
Service with a Smile
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The debonair Uncle Fred makes a welcome return to Blandings, where plotting and confusion is rife. Blackmail, sabotage, jilted lovers and pigs under threat of kidnap all feature largely, making this hilarious instalment in the Blandings series irresistible to fans and newcomers alike. The story sees lovely debutante Myra Schoonmaker unhappily ensconced in Blandings at the insistence of Lady Constance Keeble, who objects to Myra’s entanglement with curate Bill Bailey.
-
-
Wonderful escape book!
- By J M BATE on 05-01-14
-
Love Among the Chickens
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written when he was 25, Love Among the Chickens launched P.G. Wodehouse's career as a novelist and introduced the world to Ukridge, one of his most extraordinary inventions. Robert McCrum's introduction shows how this fascinating early book holds within it so many of the themes which Wodehouse was to make his own. This edition uses Wodehouse's 1920 revised edition of the 1906 original.
-
-
So so enjoyable
- By Fiona on 23-06-20
-
Mike and Psmith
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Graham Seed
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was a preference for cricket over schoolwork that united Mike and Psmith in their reluctance to attend their new school, Sedleigh. The school insists that its attendees be keen, but it is sorely unprepared for boys of such foresight and resources as Mike and Psmith who have decided to indulge in all manner of high-jinks and adventures.
-
-
Mike and Psmith
- By julia on 05-07-13
-
The Heart of a Goof
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was a morning when all nature shouted "Fore!" P.G. Wodehouse leads the listener out on to this little nine-hole course with a collection of nine Golf stories, as observed by the Oldest Member. The stories included are: "The Heart of a Goof", "High Stakes", "Keeping in with Vosper", "Chester Forgets Himself", "The Magic Plus Fours", "The Awakening of Rollo Podmarsh", "Rodney Fails to Qualify", "Jane Gets Off the Fairway" and "The Purification of Rodney Spelvin".
-
-
Golfing from a bygone era
- By Ben on 03-07-20
Summary
Would-be painter, George Finch, with lots of money and no talent, falls for lovely Molly Waddington who falls for him. Unfortunately, Molly’s snobbish stepmother, Mrs Sigsbee H. Waddington, New York society queen, has grander ideas for Molly, not least because George comes from Idaho, which is in every sense beyond the pale. Based on a 1917 musical comedy script by Wodehouse and his friend, Guy Bolton, The Small Bachelor tells the story of George’s struggle to win his girl, with the willing help of Hamilton Beamish, author of self-improvement pamphlets, and the unwitting assistance of a poetic policeman, Molly’s henpecked father, and New York’s premier female pickpocket.
What listeners say about The Small Bachelor
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ali
- 07-02-20
Great comic turns of phrase
A silly comic love story with some fresh and excellent Wodehousian lines, new characters, and enough zingy plot twists to keep it from sagging.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Hilary
- 22-01-12
Pure joy and laughter
To me the wonderful stories of P G Wodehouse are the ultimate in "comfort" fiction and always leave me smiling. This particular book is one of my firm favourites.
The concept of a little studio flat on the roof of the apartment block, with a fire escape running down to a convenient speak-easy called "The Purple Chicken", has to abound with comedy complications.
Among the characters are Officer Garroway the policeman poet, Mullett the Butler, George Finch the artist with no talent, kindly J Hamilton Beamish, who makes a successful living by writing all those "How to become...." books and, of course, the beautiful love interest Molly Waddington, with her ghastly mother and downtrodden father, and many other lovely incidental characters that pop in and out at times.
This is a non stop joyful romp of a book and I recommend it gladly.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- John
- 25-03-15
Small Bachelor, Large Laughs
If there hadn’t been a P. G. Wodehouse, where would we be? I’m assuming there were authors like P. G. Wodehouse who wrote books that resembled the ones P. G. Wodehouse wrote—the closest one being, perhaps, Thorne Smith. I’ve tried reading Topper, but was put off by a sort of simmering cynicism that I sensed lurking at the root of that book. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I just pined for the deft, affable, humane hand of P. G. Wodehouse. Which gets back to my original question: where would we be if there had never been a P. G. Wodehouse?
He is funny without ever being nasty or bitter (even the gentle swipes at A. A. Milne, who attacked Wodehouse for his World War II broadcasts, can raise a benign smile as you leaf through The Mating Season). Certain of his women are horrible, but their creator stands clear of the popular and over-used charge of misogyny. He is romantic without being erotic. And for all the screwball comedy, he can turn around and touch the heart in the most poignant ways (just look at the last sentence of Summer Moonshine).
If there had never been a P. G. Wodehouse, we wouldn’t have books like Summer Moonshine. Or The Mating Season. Or The Small Bachelor. I’ll use a word I often use when discussing Wodehouse: romp. Small Bachelor is definitely that, made even more enjoyable by Jonathan Cecil’s wonderful performance. Of course, he has plenty to work with here.
J Hamilton Beamish, efficiency expert and author of a seemingly endless series of helpful booklets, is pompous but essentially likeable.
George Finch, his friend and the eponymous bachelor of the title, is a talentless artist and a shy lover with whom you sympathize from page one.
Mullet, his man, is an ex-con who has given up his former ways and given his heart to Fanny Welch, his pickpocket fiancée.
Molly Waddington is “cuddly”, which is all we can reasonably ask of any heroine.
Her father, Sigsbee H., is a downtrodden middle-aged married male, a stock Wodehouse character whom he always manages to make fresh in every new incarnation (this time by giving him a mania for the fiction and films of the Great American West).
Molly’s stepmother is also a standard Wodehouse type, the domineering, social climbing female who gets her long overdue comeuppance. But even when she does, Sigsbee H’s triumph is more about raising himself up than putting his wife down. He doesn’t leave her. Rather, he insists on her accompanying him out to the great open spaces “where men are men”. Having turned some worthless stock into a major fortune, he feels entitled. Beneath this plot twist lurks the brutal truth that, in most marriages, the one who has the money welds the power. But the fact that chinless, feckless Sigsbee H. is doing the wielding makes that truth a lot less brutal. Certainly his regime will be scads more benevolent than that of his wife.
Having also just finished Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, a book about a man who loathes the ordinariness, the “everydayness” of life, I think I have a new line on Wodehouse’s charm. Molly Waddington is, as we have seen, “cuddly”. George Finch is unremarkable. Sigsbee H. is, until the end of the book, a cypher in the home. All these characters are just as “everyday” as the “everyday” world Binx Bolling abhors. But what Binx flees from Wodehouse dives into. Much of his humor derives from the attempts of these unremarkable people to do remarkable things. Officer Garraway wants to write poetry. Sigsbee H. wants to ride the open range. His wife wants to mix with only the best people. George Finch wants to be an artist. Only Sigsbee H. succeeds—but the failure of the other characters is not a cause for bitterness or existential angst on their part. Nor do we mock them for their failures. Rather, we delight in the story Wodehouse has penned and see our own “ordinary” lives by the gently humorous light it casts.
If there had never been a P. G. Wodehouse, where would we be indeed?
1 person found this helpful