Jill the Reckless
About this audiobook
Jill Mariner’s life as a London debutante is perfect: she has money, friends, and is engaged to a handsome Member of Parliament. But it all comes crashing down when her unreliable uncle squanders her fortune. Then there is the incident of plucky Jill hitting a man with a stick while he was attacking a parrot. The MP, appalled by her arrest, breaks off the engagement.
So Jill and Uncle Chris depart for New York City, where Jill meets an acquaintance (the owner of the aforementioned parrot) who encourages her to try out for the same job she has: a chorus girl in an upcoming Broadway musical. Thus the stage is set for a potpourri of Wodehousian characters including formidable matrons (one on each side of the Atlantic), a hapless swain, and a near-replica of the author’s most famous creation, Bertie Wooster.
Written in 1920, “Jill the Reckless” reflects PG Wodehouse’s own experiences as a librettist with the composer Guy Bolton. They wrote several popular Broadway musicals in the teens and 20s, full of happy toe-tapping numbers that delighted audiences. From this world we find the unscrupulous theater managers, anxious writers, overworked chorus girls, and the ever-present worry that the show might not be a hit.
And what of Jill? She learns the dance steps and soldiers on despite her broken heart. But you can’t keep a good girl down. And doesn’t every 1920s Broadway comedy have a happy ending?
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About the author
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881–1975) was an English humorist who wrote novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He was highly popular throughout a career that lasted more than seventy years, and his many writings continue to be widely read. He is best known for his novels and short stories of Bertie Wooster and his manservant Jeeves and for his settings of English upper-class society of the pre– and post–World War I era. He lived in several countries before settling in the United States after World War II. During the 1920s, he collaborated with Broadway legends like Cole Porter and George Gershwin on musicals and, in the 1930s, expanded his repertoire by writing for motion pictures. He was honored with a knighthood in 1975.
Anne Hancock began her career with the Library of Congress's National Library Service (NLS) Talking Books Program, where she has narrated more than 300 audiobooks in a variety of genres. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner, she has lived in France and the Netherlands and uses her training in the languages of both countries in her narration. In addition, she has successfully narrated books with English and Irish accents.
