I hemmed and hawed over which book to spend my New Year’s Eve with. In the end, I found myself drawn to that most debonaire gentleman, most persuasive conversationalist, most loyal friend (and most irritating employee), Psmith. And so for the last few hours I have entertained myself most excellently with a perennial favourite, Psmith in the City by P.G. Wodehouse.
Psmith is my favourite Wodehouse character and this my favourite of the books he appears in. Both Psmith and his trusted confidant/personal secretary/school friend, Comrade Jackson (known to most as Mike), find themselves employees of the New Asiatic Bank. They toil in a dull, overstaffed office enlivened only by Psmith’s efforts to befriend his supervisors (discovering and then appealing to their passions for, respectively, football and politics) and to win over Mr Bickersdyke, the pompous bank manager whose loathing for Psmith only grows as that young man’s dogged efforts continue. Meanwhile, Mike miserably longs for the sporting, outdoor life he is best suited for, taking little comfort in Psmith’s entertaining activities.
May we all enter 2012 with the same boundless energy, determination and optimism that Psmith exhibits on his first day of work in the Postage Department of the New Asiatic Bank:
‘What are you doing here? What have you come for?’
‘Work,’ said Psmith, with simple dignity. ‘I am now a member of the staff of this bank. Its interests are my interests. Psmith, the individual, ceases to exist, and there springs into being Psmith, the cog in the wheel of the New Asiatic Bank; Psmith, the link in the bank’s chain; Psmith, the Worker. I shall not spare myself,’ he proceeded earnestly. ‘I shall toil with all the accumulated energy of one who, up till now, has only known what work is like from hearsay. Whose is that form sitting on the steps of the bank in the morning, waiting eagerly for the place to open? It is the form of Psmith, the Worker. Whose is that haggard, drawn face which bends over a ledger long after the other toilers have sped blithely westwards to dine at Lyons’ Popular Cafe? It is the face of Psmith, the Worker.’
‘I–‘ began Mr Rossiter.
‘I tell you,’ continued Psmith, waving aside the interruption and tapping the head of the department rhythmically in the region of the second waistcoat-button with a long finger, ‘I tell you, Comrade Rossiter, that you have got hold of a good man. You and I together, not forgetting Comrade Jackson, the pet of the Smart Set, will toil early and late till we boost up this Postage Department into a shining model of what a Postage Department should be. What that is, at present, I do not exactly know. However. Excursion trains will be run from distant shires to see this Postage Department. American visitors to London will do it before going on to the Tower. And now,’ he broke off, with a crisp, businesslike intonation, ‘I must ask you to excuse me. Much as I have enjoyed this little chat, I fear it must now cease. The time has come to work. Our trade rivals are getting ahead of us. The whisper goes round, “Rossiter and Psmith are talking, not working,” and other firms prepare to pinch our business. Let me Work.’
Two minutes later, Mr Rossiter was sitting at his desk with a dazed expression, while Psmith, perched gracefully on a stool, entered figures in a ledger.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you too 🙂 I have to admit that, as much as I adore Psmith, I didn’t properly appreciate this book until I re-read it last year – I think because I started with Leave It to Psmith.
I love all the Psmith books and always have but I’ve certainly changed alliances over the years as to which is my favourite. This one gained my ultimate affection after I started working in an office and saw how perfectly Wodehouse had captured that most peculiar environment!
I haven’t read any of the Psmith books yet but on the strength of your quote, I should make sure I do it sooner rather than later!
You absolutely should! They are all delightful.
[…] sporting achievements. This is what Psmith does best (as can be seen in those other fine novels Psmith in the City, Psmith, Journalist, and Leave it to Psmith) and it is why he will always be my choice for […]