The Man With Two Left Feet is a collection of 13 short stories is from Wodehouse’s early part of his writing career, first published in 1917. This 1971 Barrie and Jenkins republication has a preface by Plum himself where he admits to writing what the publishers wanted (slanter is the terminology he uses to describe such a writer) circa 1910 when these stories were first published in various magazines. And he submits the specific story, At Geisenheimer’s, as proof positive of how he modeled his writing to O. Henry’s. I definitely could see that not only in that story, but the final one, The Man With Two Left Feet, which reminded me very much of The Gift of the Magi.

This is certainly not Wodehouse at his humorous best. Not even Extricating Young Gussie where Jeeves makes his classic appearance with the announcement, “Mrs. Gregson to see you, sir,” gives an indication to the comedic writer Wodehouse would become later.

I was drawn to this book after reading The Mixer in the curated collection, A Wodehouse Bestiary. And I would encourage every true Wodehouse fan interested in more than his classic humor to give this O. Henry-esque short story collection a read.