A slight novella, from early in his career.

I agree with the comments of the other 2 (earlier) reviews, and have little more to add other than to emphasise that someone new to Wodehouse should regard this as typical in any substantive way.

Big Ship

23 October 2018 ( )

Amusing, but dated. Much of the humor comes from racial and national stereotypes, which takes away from what is otherwise a neat little satire.

"The Military Invasion of America" is just an abridged version of "The Swoop" transplanted to America and barely worth the 15 or so minutes it took me to read it. ( )

A fun book, not an entry for new readers to Wodehouse but a must for any collector. In this early novella, we see every early 1900s racial stereotype on display, albeit mostly in harmless form. There is no real depth or complexity to the plot, but the writing is beginning to show the sparkle for which Wodehouse would later justly be known.

The companion piece is a retelling of the main story, in shorter form and transplanted across the Atlantic. I found this most interesting--the "localization" reveals some peculiarities of American and British English which the intervening century have wiped away. ( )

Clarence Chugwater is not a Boy Scout for nothing. It is summer 1909 and everyone is too interested in the Test Match to notice that England has been invaded by the Germans. And the Russians. And the Chinese. Not to mention a ‘boisterous band of the Young Turks’, a mad Mullah, and a brace of North African pirates. The government has recently abolished the army so there is nothing to be done about it anyway, except give a masterly display of polite indifference. But this would be to reckon without patriotic Clarence, ‘Boy of Destiny’, who alone is prepared to stand up to the foe, and who devises a highly unorthodox plan to restore his country to freedom…

An amusing jeu d’esprit of the young Wodehouse, which satirizes the popular ‘Invasion literature’ of the era while poking gentle fun at English (and Foreign) manners and generally revelling in absurdity. The Swoop! Or, How Clarence Saved England reprints the 33 black and white drawings by C. Harrison that accompanied the first edition. It is supplemented byThe Military Invasion of America, in which Clarence’s story is humorously transplanted across the Atlantic.