Reviews for The Little Nugget

The average rating for The Little Nugget based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-11-04 00:00:00 Andrew Latimer I won't be an exaggeration to say that P G Wodehouse's books are gems of English humour literature. So far I have managed to read only a few of his Blandings Castle series,Jeeves series and Mr. Mulliner series, but each one was fantastic. The "little nugget" in the book is a spoiled and to quote the author a "repulsive" child of an American millionaire. The nugget's father won his custody after his parent's divorced and sent him to study in England. Of course, his doting mother would try anything to get her "darling son" back to her. Now enters Mr. Peter Burns, a man who never had to work for his sustenance and is a bit of a quixotic fool. He is convinced by his fiancee, Cynthia, to kidnap the nugget from the private school he would be attending. No need to say, Burns is not the only person out there to get his hands on the nugget. The school being in the remote corner of the English countryside is the perfect place for the kidnapping. Burns joins the school as an assistant master and the adventure begins. We are introduced to a few funny/interesting characters - Mr. Abney, the owner of the school, who is obsessed with the British aristocracy, an undercover detective, Burn's old flame, gun-toting American thugs, a smooth-talking American thief and so on. Burns, the man who never took any serious responsibility in his life, now has to depend upon his brain as well as brawn to fight off the enemies. He is also a man in a dilemma - his feelings for his old flame and his love for Cynthia are conflicting with each other. One thing I really liked was how the character of Burns evolved throughout the story. The same thing holds for his old flame, Audrey, as well. This book was enjoyable but not hilarious. There were some funny moments and dialogues but somewhere it fell short of my expectation. It was more like a cozy adventure with some of comedy thrown in. The book had all the ingredients for being a hilarious adventure-comedy but I felt that something went wrong. Wodehouse's writing is always so smooth but in my humble opinion the writing was not so great in this book. His depiction of the idiosyncrasies of people, his ability to turn mundane events into something so funny were not so developed in this book. The flair and skill the author so remarkably demonstrated in his Jeeves, Blandings Castle or Mr. Mulliner books were in somewhat a rudimentary stage in "The Little Nugget". The gun-toting thugs were not really that convincing and the action scenes were well - forced, one expects more from the PG Wodehouse. The romantic dilemma suffered by Burns started to bore as well. I would like to rate the book 3.5 but did not want to round it off to 4. Lovers of P G Wodehouse can give this book a try. Please allow me reiterate that don't expect it to be a laugh riot. Last but not least I would like to thank my friend for letting me borrow this book from her.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-05-16 00:00:00 Andrew Cedergren An early Wodehouse that reads a lot like a later one. The comedy is not as developed as in would be in his Jeeves and Wooster books, but the kidnapping plot's close. The character's need a little work too. They're a bit flat. Although, I really enjoyed W's portrayal of the American kidnappers. The main character doesn't have the charm of Bertie Wooster, but he's a likable chap and serviceable for this particular story. Good stuff! I haven't been a fan of W's early work (too heavy on the drippy romance), but this one is the stuff to give the troops!