The Man Upstairs (short story collection)

The Man Upstairs is a collection of nineteen short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 23 January 1914 by Methuen & Co., London. Most of the stories had previously appeared in magazines, generally Strand Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan or Collier's Weekly in the United States. Although the book was not published in the US, many of the stories were eventually made available to US readers in The Uncollected Wodehouse (1976) and The Swoop! and Other Stories (1979).

It is a miscellaneous collection, not featuring any of Wodehouse's regular characters; most of the stories concern love and romance.

Contents

"The Man Upstairs"

UK: Strand, March 1910 (UK setting)

US: Cosmopolitan, March 1910 (as "The Man Up-stairs", US setting)

Plot

Annette Brougham, a quick-tempered female composer and music-teacher, is disturbed by a knocking on her ceiling. She visits the flat above to complain, but despite her initial feelings of anger towards him, she soon finds herself drawn to "Alan Beverley", the modest and charming struggling artist she finds there. Alan invites her to knock on the ceiling whenever she wants to talk to him.

Reginald Sellers, another resident of the building, a pompous and self-important painter, criticises Alan's work harshly, and Annette defends him, but regrets her cruelty towards Reginald. The boorish Sellers finds some success with his art, selling several paintings to a Glasgow millionaire named Bates, and continues to lord it over his less high-achieving neighbour.