Indiscretions of Archie

The novel tells the story of impoverished, embarrassment-prone Archibald "Archie" Moffam (pronounced "Moom") and his difficult relationship with his art-collecting, hotel-owning, millionaire father-in-law Daniel Brewster, who is the father of Archie's new bride Lucille. Archie's attempts to ingratiate himself with Brewster only get him further into trouble. The story takes place in New York City.

It wasn't Archie's fault really. It's true he went to America and fell in love with Lucille, the daughter of a millionaire hotel proprietor and if he did marry her--well, what else was there to do?

From his point of view, the whole thing was a thoroughly good egg; but Mr. Brewster, his father-in-law, thought differently, Archie had neither money nor occupation, which was distasteful in the eyes of the industrious Mr. Brewster; but the real bar was the fact that he had once adversely criticised one of his hotels.

Archie does his best to heal the breach; but, being something of an ass, genus priceless, he finds it almost beyond his powers to placate "the man-eating fish" whom Providence has given him as a father-in-law.

By : P. G. Wodehouse (1881 - 1975)

01 - Distressing Scene in a Hotel 02 - A Shock for Mr. Brewster 03 - Mr. Brewster Delivers Sentence 04 - Work Wanted 05 - Strange Experiences of an Artist's Model 06 - The Bomb 07 - Mr. Roscoe Sheriff Has an Idea 08 - A Disturbed Night for Dear Old Squiffy 09 - A Letter from Parker 10 - Doing Father a Bit of Good 11 - Salvatore Chooses the Wrong Moment 12 - Bright Eyes - And a Fly 13 - Rallying Round Percy 14 - The Sad Case of Looney Biddle 15 - Summer Storms 16 - Archie Accepts a Situation 17 - Brother Bill's Romance 18 - The Sausage Chappie 19 - Reggie Comes To Life 20 - The Sausage Chappie Clicks 21 - The Growing Boy 22 - Washy Steps Into the Hall of Fame 23 - Mother's Knee 24 - The Melting of Mr. Connolly 25 - The Wigmore Venus 26 - A Tale of a Grandfather

Archie Moffam is an Englishman in New York. Like Bertie Wooster he's kind hearted but mentally limited, if not negligible. Unlike Bertie he has no private income. He's a veteran of the First World War.

During a stay in New York he bitterly criticises the service at the Cosmopolis Hotel, thus making an enemy of its owner, Daniel Brewster. On a subsequent trip to Miami he meets, falls in love with and marries Brewster's daughter Lucille. Brewster is not delighted. Archie's attempts to make amends by finding employment and by purchasing a valuable objet d’art for Brewster end in disaster. Further indiscretions follow for Archie: he upsets Lucille by apparently paying too much attention to an actress; he bets $1000 on the Giants (then a New York baseball team), but gets into a fight with their star pitcher and injures his arm. He advises Lucille's brother, Bill, who has a habit of getting into relationships with girls of whom his father disapproves, and lends a hand to an old comrade from the war, “The Sausage Chappie”, who's lost his memory and forgotten his own name. He upsets Mrs Cora Bates McCall, a vegetarian and healthy food campaigner, by persuading her son to take part in a pie-eating contest. Then there's an incident with a painting which further upsets Brewster. Eventually he pacifies the old curmudgeon by telling him he's about to become a grandfather.