Golf Without Tears: Stories of Golfers and Lovers

by P.G. Wodehouse

Book Overview

Golf and love--the two primal obsessions.

P. G. Wodehouse displays his most uproarious storytelling and never-ending jollity in these tales of lovers on the links.
--Cuthbert Banks, champion golfer, wins the heart of his beloved Adeline, who won't give him the time of day until a visiting Russian author ignores everyone to fawn over Cuthbert's golfing prowess.
--One man loses his fiance when he discovers golf late in life (on the eve of his wedding) and just can't stop thinking about it.
--One golfing woman attempts to kill (with her niblick) her golfing husband who just won't stop talking during the game (he survives, cured of his garrulity).
--One golf fanatic discovers, to his horror, that he has married a croquet player; their union is nearly sundered, until she takes up the ancient and royal game and matches his handicap.
--Two men play a single hole sixteen miles long, requiring over eleven-hundred strokes, in a grudge match over the love of one woman.

Other loves stand and fall by the vagaries of that infuriating tiny white ball. The end result is a collection of sublimely funny stories, dear to all golfers, and those who love them.

Praise for P. G. Wodehouse

"One of Britain's most talented comic writers."--Time

"Wodehouse on golf: a delight. He may have been a hacker on the course, but Wodehouse's drives, putts, and mashie shots were deadly accurate when it came to writing about the game."--The Boston Globe

"Mr. Wodehouse's world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in."--Evelyn Waugh

"A master, a genius of inventiveness and versatility, brilliant in his use of language, more adroit than almost any novelist since Dickens."--The Daily Telegraph

"A brilliantly funny writer--perhaps the most consistently funny the English language has produced."--The Times

"Mr. Wodehouse is a creature of pure light and joy."--The New Statesman

Contents
The Clicking of Cuthbert
A Woman Is Only a Woman
A Mixed Threesome
Sundered Hearts
The Salvation of George Mac

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891369083
• ISBN13: 9781891369087
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Breakaway Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Woodhouse at his best

He might have been a hacker but PG Woodhouse is no hack. His short stories bring sheer delight to golfing readers all too familiar with the object lessons on the many foibles that this game elicits. To err is human, to golf is divine comedy, thanks to PG's ageless wit and wisdom. The Oldest and Greatest Member indeed.

Like Wodehouse? Like golf? Read this!

P. G. does it again. Through the words of the "Oldest Member", Wodehouse spins his tales of love, golf and more golf. Though most modern golfers won't have a clue what a mashie or a niblick is, it doesn't matter, because the golf-stricken fanatics in his tales will light a memory in everyone's mind of a person run into on the links, in the airport, or in the sporting goods store. Wodehouse mentions in passing some of the early greats of golf, and his love of the game comes through in terms of reverence spoken by his characters. The love of golf is ageless and timeless, and to read these stories, written in the 1920's, late in the century proves a link to the past that is strong and vital yet.