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| The Girl on the Boat (Three Men and a Maid)
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Main page / Bibliography / The Girl on the Boat (Three Men and a Maid)
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US Title: Three Men and a Maid
First published in US: April 26 1922 by George H. Doran, New York
UK Title: The Girl on the Boat
First published in UK: June 15 1922 by Herbert Jenkins, London
E-text (323K)
 Russian translation
- Devishka s korablya by A. D'Aktil: 1927
Wilhelmina Billie Bennett, red-haired daughter of American millionaire
Rufus, loves golf, dogs and Tennyson and is to marry Eustace Hignett, the
weak, poetry-writing son of Mrs. Horace Hignett, the famous English writer
on theosophy. Enter Sam Marlowe, Eustace's cousin, who plays tournament
golf, and Jane Hubbard, Billie's big-game-hunting friend, and another romp
in the inimitable Wodehouse style unfolds.
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Click for enlarge book cover
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Characters
(Aunt Adeline) Mrs. Horace Hignett — Famous English writer
on Theosophy lecturing in America. Bosses her son.
Eustace Hignett — Weak, poetry writing son of Mrs. Hignett
who owns Windles. Engaged to Billie and loves Jane.
Sir Mallaby Marlowe — Mrs. Hignett's brother, an eminent lawyer
Sam Marlowe — Hero — Sir Mallaby's 25 year old son who went to
school and Oxford with his cousin Eustace. Plays tournament golf and loves
Billie.
Mr. Rufus Bennett — American millionaire head of Bennett, Mandelbaun and
Co. who wants to rent Windles for the summer with his friend Mortimer
Mr. Henry Mortimer — Rufus's friend who has a son. Bream
Bream Mortimer — Looks like a parrot, grew up with Billie and
wants to marry her
(Billie) Wilhelmina Bennett — Heroine — Redheaded daughter
of Rufus who was going to marry Eustace, but wants a Sir
Galahad type and winds up with Sam. She loves golf, dogs
and Tennyson.
Pinky-Boodles — Billie's Peke
J.B. Midgeley — Eustace and Sam's steward aboard the Atlantic
Jane Hubbard — Billie's big-game hunting friend who loves Eustace
Smith — Mortimer's bulldog
John Peters — Sir Mallaby's clerk
Miss Milliken — Sir Mallaby's secretary
Montagu Webster — Mr. Bennett's English valet who is reminiscent of Jeeves
Mrs. Withers — Cook at Windles
Susan (*)
Oscar Swenson (*)
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 Synopsis
Sam Marlowe, English, six foot, broad-chested, a stopper-of-dog-fights, a
romantic and a buzzer, has been in America to play in the amateur golf
championship (beaten in the semifinals). Wilhelmina (Billie) Bennett,
American, is a very pretty redhead, with a freclde on the tip of her nose,
a Peke, Pinky-Boodles (who bites everybody), and a rich, fat father. Sam
and Billie meet on the SS Atlantic, heading for England and, although
Billie has one, if not more, other adorers or courtiers, and though Sam
makes a damnfool of himself at the ship's concert, he wins Billie in the
end. Some other characters are Mrs Adeline Horace Hignett, Sam's formidable
aunt, a writer and lecturer on Theosophy, a dominant dame who, to prevent
her coddled son, Eustace, from going out to get married, steals all his
trousers; Jane Howard, the big-game hunter who takes her elephant gun and
cartridges with her on a country house visit in England and is longing to
find a nice weak man to marry and fuss over - so what about Eustace? And
Montague Webster, Billie's father's stately, ambassadorial 'personal
gentleman's gentleman', a flamboyant and haughty sort of Jeeves. The last
chapter evokes the midnight scene at Blandings Castle in Something Fresh.
And Sam boning up on Tennyson's to impress the girl will be repeated in the
Freddie Widgeon story Trouble at Tudsleigh. Long quotations from poets
written as prose - quite a habit in this book. A very yeasty light novel.
Source: Richard Usborne. Plum Sauce. A P G Wodehouse Companion.
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