indeedsir_backup | Some Psmith trivia...

Psmith was based on a real person, who Wodehouse didn't actually know, a flamboyant schoolmate of a friend who he heard stories about.

Psmith enters wearing lavender gloves on his first day working at the New Asiatic Bank in "Psmith in the City." Lavender gloves? This guy gets married, later? On the other hand, I guess getting married was just the thing one did, back then. No, no, I shouldn't jump to conclusions. Perhaps many straight men wore lavender gloves back in the day.

"Mike and Psmith" turned out to be the second half of the story I had already read under the title "Mike." I was kind of bummed, as I'd been looking forward to it being the second half of their year at Sedleigh, which I think would have been their last year at school. "Psmith in the City" begins with them discussing which "'Varsity" they're going to, but those plans are derailed by Mike's father running out of money and Psmith's father being capricious.

So far it's from Mike's point of view, and the poor thing is so depressed when he first goes to London to work at the bank all alone. He misses Psmith! Okay, it doesn't say so in so many words, but he misses everything about being a kid, tossed into being an adult much sooner than he'd expected he would be, and wishes he could be telling his troubles to Psmith in person instead of having to write, because Psmith has a way of making all life's little vicissitudes seem like amusements. And then Psmith shows up to work with him! Wearing lavender gloves! Joy!