Home List of books List of works About this page Plot and people page Notes and Quotes page

Blandings - the logo of www.blandings.org.uk, the Companion to the works of P G Wodehouse

The White Feather

A school novel

Feelings between the school and the boys of the town are running high. In the midst of hostilities, Sheen dodges a fight, lets his house down and is cut by all. Then a chance and painful encounter shows him the way to regain his self respect. But will he get the chance to win back the school?

Publishing Information

UK:1907 A & C Black
1972 Souvenir Press Ltd
1986 Penguin in omnibus form as The Gold Bat and other school stories (used here)
US:1907 Macmillan

First published October 1905 to March 1906 in The Captain magazine.

Horizontal blue bar

Not a bad story, all in all. Still PG's early style, of course, but a decent plot and not so much school talk as the other school books. Today this would probably be called a 'coming of age' story - with a hefty dose of the boy hero, of course.

Wodehouse was a boxer during his time at Dulwich College. Despite being forced to give up for the sake of his eyesight, he remained a fan. The long passages describing boxing training and the match are presumably based on his personal experience.