The Coming of Bill

By P. G. Wodehouse

Categories: Humor & Entertainment, Literature & Fiction

The Coming of Bill (1920; first published in the U.S. in 1919 as Their Mutual Child) is among Wodehouse's more serious novels. Ruth Bannister, the daughter of a rich New Yorker, marries Kirk Winfield, a likable painter with little money. After their son Bill is born, Ruth falls under the spell of a theorist of scientific child-rearing, and the marriage strains as Kirk tries to win back his family.

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• Fareed Zakaria: “P. G. Wodehouse. I’ve read almost everything he wrote. He once explained that there were two ways of writing novels. “One is mine, making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, ignoring real life altogether; the other is going right down deep into life and not caring a damn.” He did the former better than almost anyone.”