P. G. Wodehouse

Love Among the Chickens P. G. Wodehouse

Love Among the Chickens is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published as a book in the U. K. in June 1906 by George Newnes, London, and in the U. S. by Circle Publishing, New York on May 11, 1909, having earlier appeared there as a serial in Circle magazine between September 1908 and March 1909. A substantially rewritten version was published in May 1921 by Herbert Jenkins. This is the only novel to feature the recurring character Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, whose appearances are otherwise confined to short stories. The novel is written in the first person, from the point of view of Jeremy Garnet, an author and an old friend of Ukridge. Seeing Ukridge for the first time in years, with a new wife in tow, Garnet finds himself dragged along on holiday to Ukridge's new chicken farm in Dorset. The novel intertwines Garnet's difficult wooing of a girl living nearby, with the struggles of the farm, which are exacerbated by Ukridge's bizarre business ideas and methods.