The Prince and Betty

By P. G. Wodehouse

Categories: Humor & Entertainment, Literature & Fiction

The Prince and Betty (1912) starts with a surprise inheritance. John Maude, a young American, learns that he is heir to the throne of Mervo, a tiny Mediterranean principality. The financier Benjamin Scobell plans to turn Mervo into a casino resort with John as its figurehead, and John falls in love with Scobell's stepdaughter, Betty Silver. Wodehouse wrote distinct British and American versions of the story, and the American one moves the action to New York.

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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.”