Five Figure Fanwork Exchange

Title: Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse

Media: Books

Approx Length: There are four short novels. You only need the first two books in order to write most of the Psmith/Mike requests that people make. I promise.

Where to Find It: The books are all free on Gutenberg HERE.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Pretty much every request ever is for Psmith/Mike shipfic. It's not just me.

Series Overview: The official order is:
1) Mike & Psmith – classic boarding school hijinks | meet-cute | devoted roommates | so much loyalty porn, gah
2) Psmith In the City – living and working in London | devoted roommates | even more loyalty porn
3) Psmith, Journalist – Psmith vs NYC gangsters | gun fights | running a newspaper | a ridiculously shippy Ch2 & Epilogue
4) Leave It to Psmith – country estate hijinks | identity porn | jewelry heist | comedy of errors

Jump in with whichever one has a setting or trope that you like! They each work as standalones. All that said, I'd read 'Psmith, Journalist' last.

What It's About: A hilarious, eccentric, badass, dandy hero in early 20th century England. Think 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' with lower stakes, but even more charming eccentricity and homoeroticism (I know, right?!). In almost every book, Psmith ends up throwing himself on his sword in various hilarious ways for the benefit of Mike, who is a non-eccentric, everyman cricket star.

What Makes It Great:
Do you like identity porn? Do you like satire? Do you like completely devoted, self-sacrificing best friends who are immensely shippable? Do you like odd couples? Do you like stories set at dreamy English castles, with bonus mysteries, heists, and action scenes? Do you like angst with a happy ending? Do you like exquisitely pyrotechnic celebrations of the English language? Do you like to laugh? Do you like breathing? If you answered 'yes' to any of the above, you will like these books!

This series often gets recced as a good example of the English boarding school genre; however, only the first book takes place at school. The rest put the boys in a variety of locales and situations. There's truly something for everyone.

The greatest draws of the series are:
• Psmith himself – Psmith's dialogue is unparalleled in gentle, eccentric hilarity. The guy talks non-stop and it's always so weird and funny and charming. But then, when necessity demands, he will very calmly, very elegantly, very sexily take you down and make you squirm. If you go after Mike, he will destroy you and blandly pretend to Mike that he had nothing to do with it. He's an eccentric genius, but a really nice example of one. He's a snob about everything except people, whom he likes no matter their class.

• Odd Couples – Mike is the opposite of Psmith in terms of dialogue and temperament. Watching their back and forth is beautiful. Even better is how mastermind Psmith respects and constantly compliments Mike's simple, straightforward contributions (compliments AND complements!). The wonderful thing is how the narrative never makes Mike the butt of the joke, or treats him as bland foil. One of the reasons this is my favorite series is because, unlike in his other books, Wodehouse allows Mike to wallow in so much believable ANGST, which makes Psmith's sly resolutions all the more satisfying.

• The writing – In addition to the dialogue, the plotting -- specifically in Leave It to Psmith -- is AMAZING. Even aside from the character of Psmith, this is one of Wodehouse's most satisfying, perfectly crafted masterpieces.

If, after reading the main four books, you find yourself equally in love with Mike as with Psmith, try the prequel called simply "Mike". It's on Gutenberg HERE. It's a classic boarding school novel about Mike before he met Psmith. I wouldn't recommend starting with it, since it's not as interesting as the Psmith ones (and therefore might bore you and make you stop before you get to the good stuff), and it isn't remotely necessary to understand the later ones.

Content Warnings: Honestly, the biggest content warning is about the cricket content. It's zzzzz. When you see a game starting, just skim until it looks like the characters and narrative start talking about other things. You won't be missing anything. More seriously, part of the reason Psmith, Journalist is my least favorite is because Wodehouse wrote out phonetic accents for a few NYC characters, which, with most writers, tends to come off... yikes. You don't get that in the other books, thankfully.

I know a lot of people consider writing Wodehouse fic very intimidating ; however, this is not Jeeves. Mike's canonical 3rd person POV is incredibly straightforward and simple. I promise. Please? Pretty please?