Tales of St. Austin's is a collection of short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 and essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

s, all with a school theme, by P. G. Wodehouse

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...

. It was first published on 10 November 1903 by Adam & Charles Black

A & C Black

A & C Black is a British book publishing company.The firm was founded in 1807 by Adam and Charles Black in Edinburgh, and moved to the Soho district of London in 1889. In 1851, the firm bought the copyright of Walter Scott's Waverley Novels for £27,000. In 1902 it published P. G...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, all except one item having previously appeared in the schoolboy magazines, The Captain

The Captain (1900s magazine)

The Captain was a magazine for young boys, published monthly in the United Kingdom from 1899 to 1924.It is perhaps best known for printing many of P. G. Wodehouse's early school stories, such as many of those featured in the collection Tales of St. Austin's...

and Public School Magazine

Public School Magazine

Public School Magazine was a short-lived magazine for young boys. It was started in 1898 by publishers Adam and Charles Black and appeared monthly until March 1902, when it ceased publication, the copyright being sold to rival publisher George Newnes, who had in the meantime founded his own...

.

The stories are set in the fictional public school

Public School (UK)

A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...

 of St. Austin's, which was also the setting for The Pothunters

The Pothunters

The Pothunters is a 1902 novel by P. G. Wodehouse. It was Wodehouse's first published novel, and the first of several school stories, this one set at the fictional public school of St...

(1902); they revolve around cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

, rugby

Rugby football

Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

, petty gambling

Gambling

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

 and other boyish escapades.

Contents

Stories

• "How Pillingshot Scored"
  • The Captain
    The Captain (1900s magazine)
    The Captain was a magazine for young boys, published monthly in the United Kingdom from 1899 to 1924.It is perhaps best known for printing many of P. G. Wodehouse's early school stories, such as many of those featured in the collection Tales of St. Austin's...
    
    , May 1903
• "The Odd Trick"
  • The Captain, August 1902
• "L'Affaire Uncle John (A Story in Letters)"
  • Public School Magazine
    Public School Magazine
    Public School Magazine was a short-lived magazine for young boys. It was started in 1898 by publishers Adam and Charles Black and appeared monthly until March 1902, when it ceased publication, the copyright being sold to rival publisher George Newnes, who had in the meantime founded his own...
    
    , August 1901
• "Harrison's Slight Error"
  • The Captain, January 1903
• "Bradshaw's Little Story"
  • The Captain, July 1902
• "A Shocking Affair"
  • (previously unpublished, would later appear in Puffin Post, Q2, 1973)
• "The Babe and the Dragon"
  • The Captain, February 1902
• "The Manoeuvres of Charteris"
  • The Captain, August & September 1903
• "How Payne Bucked Up"
  • The Captain, October 1902
• "Author!"
  • Public School Magazine, October 1901
• "The Tabby Terror"
  • Public School Magazine, February 1902
• "The Prize Poem"
  • Public School Magazine, July 1901

Essays

• "Work"
  • Public School Magazine, December 1900
• "Notes"
  • Public School Magazine, February 1901
• "Now Talking About Cricket"
  • Public School Magazine, July 1901
• "The Tom Brown Question"
  • Public School Magazine, December 1901

Several of the stories were eventually published in the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in the collections The Swoop! and Other Stories

The Swoop! and Other Stories

The Swoop! and Other Stories is a collection of early short stories and a novella by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on April 11, 1979 by The Seabury Press, New York, four years after Wodehouse's death....

(1979) and The Eighteen-Carat Kid and Other Stories

The Eighteen-Carat Kid and Other Stories

The Eighteen-Carat Kid and Other Stories is a collection of early short stories and a novella by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on September 1, 1980 by Continuum, New York, five years after Wodehouse's death....

(1980); others, along with many school stories never published in book form in Wodehouse's lifetime, were collected in Tales of Wrykyn and Elsewhere

Tales of Wrykyn and Elsewhere

Tales of Wrykyn and Elsewhere is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 1 October 1997 by Porpoise Books, London with illustrations by T. M. R. Whitwell...

(1997).

External links

• The Russian Wodehouse Society's page, with photos of book covers and list of characters.
• Fantastic Fiction's page, with details of published editions, photos of book covers and links to used copies