Meet Mr Mulliner
The collection introduces the irrepressible pub raconteur Mr. Mulliner, who narrates all nine of the book's stories.
A man at the Angler's Rest recounts how his dog won a prize after being mistakenly entered in a local cat show, and notes how mistakes can lead to unexpected good results.
Hooping to get a job from his uncle, Lancelot writes a poem praising Briggs's pickles for advertising.
The poem, titled "Darkling (A Threnody)", is extremely somber, and Briggs has his butler throw Lancelot out.
The man, Isadore Zinzinheimer, represents a motion picture company in Hollywood and wants to hire Lancelot as an actor since he registers emotion so well.
William is disappointed, and a hall-porter at the hotel he is staying at suggests he get a drink at a local establishment called Mike's Place.
When he wakes up, he looks inside and sees some unusually small men eating a meal.
William, unaware that these men belong to a performing group called Murphy's Midgets, believes he is hallucinating due to the alcohol.
He sees a part of the ceiling fall and hears shouts and crashes, but assumes he is still hallucinating.
Myrtle, who was staying at the same hotel, notices William from the exposed hallway and is surprised that he is still in bed.
She already ended her engagement to Franklyn, who hastily fled when the earthquake started without stopping to help Myrtle.
William and Myrtle get married, and name their first son John San Francisco Earthquake Mulliner.
She initially seems frail, but soon orders Frederick to take off his boots and makes him feel like a small child.
Frederick hesitates, but he remembers George's warning about Nurse Wilks's heart, so he obeys and goes into the cupboard.
After they argue more, Jane reveals that she ended their engagement because she knew Frederick lied to her about having lunch with another woman.
Mr Mulliner is inspired by a photograph in an illustrated weekly paper to tell the following tale about his cousin Clarence.
Clarence and Gladys's wedding is attended by many important people and they walk out of church under an arch of crossed tripods.
All the stories, except "Honeysuckle Cottage", were illustrated by Charles Crombie in the Strand,[2] and by Wallace Morgan in Liberty.
[1] "The Truth about George", "A Slice of Life", and "Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo" were included in the 1932 collection Nothing But Wodehouse, edited by Ogden Nash and published in New York by Doubleday, Doran & Company.
[5] All of the stories were included in the Mulliner Omnibus, published in October 1935 by Herbert Jenkins Limited.
[6] "The Romance of a Bulb-Squeezer" was included in the 1981 collection Wodehouse On Crime, edited by D. R. Bensen and published by Ticknor & Fields, New York.
[8] "The Truth About George", "Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo", and "Portrait of a Disciplinarian" were adapted for television in the series Wodehouse Playhouse (1974–78).
