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The Gem Collector

by Wodehouse Pelham Grenville

Author: Wodehouse Pelham Grenville

Romance » Authors, A-Z

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Description:

This book is about a reformed jewelry thief, who has a serious struggle with his conscience. There's even some fairly serious but subtle social commentary, comparing honest thievery to dishonest police. Almost all of this is lost in the rewrite for the American market. The main hero is not a thief, merely a Yale alumnus on a bet. The plot shows the typical weaknesses, amusements, and impostors of the later Wodehouse, though this time presumably done from necessity, not for comic effect.

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Read an excerpt:

...Jimmy, father! Jimmy Pitt, whom you used to know in New York. "CHAPTER VI. On his native asphalt there are few situations capable of throwing theNew York policeman off his balance. In that favored clime, _savoirfaire_ is represented by a shrewd left hook at the jaw, and a masterfulstroke of the truncheon amounts to a satisfactory repartee. Thus shallyou never take the policeman of Manhattan without his answer. In othersurroundings, Mr. Patrick McEachern would have known how to deal withhis young acquaintance, Mr. Jimmy Pitt. But another plan of action wasneeded here. First of all, the hints on etiquette with which Lady Janehad favored him, from time to time, and foremost came the mandate:"Never make a scene. " Scenes, Lady Jane had explained--on the occasionof his knocking down an objectionable cabman during their honeymoontrip--were of all things what polite society most resolutely abhorred. The natural man in him must be bound in chains. The sturdy blow mustgive way to the honeyed...