"Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo" is a
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
by the British comic writer
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...
. A part of the
Mr. Mulliner series, the story was first published in the United States by ''
Liberty Magazine'' on September 4, 1926 and in the United Kingdom in ''
The Strand'' in November 1926.
It was collected in ''
Meet Mr. Mulliner
''Meet Mr. Mulliner'' is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. First published in the United Kingdom on 27 September 1927 by Herbert Jenkins, and in the United States on 2 March 1928 by Doubleday, Doran.McIlvaine (1990), pp. 53–5 ...
'' (1927).
Plot
Augustine Mulliner, a meek and mild young curate, arrives in Lower-Briskett-in-the-Midden to assist the vicar, the Rev. Stanley Brandon and falls in love with the vicar's daughter, Jane Brandon. The young lovers wonder how to approach the fierce vicar about their love when a package arrives from Augustine Mulliner's aunt containing a tonic, Buck-U-Uppo (it works directly on the corpuscles). Mulliner takes a tablespoonful as recommended by his aunt and becomes more confident and assertive. The next morning, after another tablespoonful, he rescues a visiting bishop chased up a tree by a dog and firmly ends a quarrel between the bishop and the vicar, receives the vicar's blessings for his love for Jane, saves the bishop from being forced to wear thick winter woolies, and becomes the bishop's secretary. On returning to his rooms, he finds a letter from his cousin
Wilfred Mulliner Wilfred may refer to:
* Wilfred (given name), a given name and list of people (and fictional characters) with the name
* Wilfred, Indiana, an unincorporated community in the United States
* ''Wilfred'' (Australian TV series), a comedy series
* ' ...
("
A Slice of Life") explaining that the tonic, mistakenly sent to Augustine, is meant for steeling the nerves of elephants in India ("too often elephants, on sighting the tiger, have turned and galloped home," he writes). Augustine promptly writes for three cases of Buck-U-Uppo.
Buck-U-Uppo
The creation of
Wilfred Mulliner Wilfred may refer to:
* Wilfred (given name), a given name and list of people (and fictional characters) with the name
* Wilfred, Indiana, an unincorporated community in the United States
* ''Wilfred'' (Australian TV series), a comedy series
* ' ...
, one of
Mr. Mulliner's brothers, Buck-U-Uppo is a tonic invented 'primarily with the object of providing Indian Rajahs with a specific which would encourage their elephants to face a tiger of the jungle with a jaunty sang-froid'. The dose for an adult elephant is a teaspoonful mixed with the elephant's morning mash, though the various characters in the Mulliner stories are generally unaware of this and take glassfuls. Buck-U-Uppo features in three Mulliner stories: "Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo", "
The Bishop's Move
"The Bishop's Move" is a short story by the British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. A part of the Mr. Mulliner series, the story was first published in August 1927 in '' Liberty'' in the United States, and in September 1927 in '' The Strand Maga ...
", and "
Gala Night".
Publication history
Wallace Morgan
Wallace Morgan (1875 – April 24, 1948) was a war artist for the United States Army during World War I.
Biography
Morgan was born in 1875, and he grew up in Albany, New York, where his family had moved shortly after his birth. Upon graduation fr ...
illustrated the story in ''Liberty''. The story was published in the ''Strand'' with illustrations by
Charles Crombie
Charles Arbuthnot Crombie, (16 March 1914 – 26 August 1945) was an Australian aviator and flying ace of the Second World War. Born in Brisbane, he was working as a jackeroo when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in May 1940. Com ...
. It was published in ''
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiva ...
'' (US) in December 1955.
[
The story was included in the 1932 collection ''Nothing But Wodehouse'', edited by ]Ogden Nash
Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his light verse, of which he wrote over 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyming schemes, he was declared by ''The New York Times'' the country's bes ...
and published by Doubleday, Doran & Company, New York. It was collected in the ''Mulliner Omnibus'', published in 1935 by Herbert Jenkins Limited, and in ''The World of Mr. Mulliner'', published in 1972 by Barrie & Jenkins, London. ''The World of Mr. Mulliner'' was first issued in the US by the Taplinger Publishing Company in 1974. "Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo" was included in ''The Most of P. G. Wodehouse'', published in 1960 by Simon and Schuster, New York. It was also included in the 1984 collection ''The World of Wodehouse Clergy'', published by Hutchinson, London.
The anthology ''A Pageant of Prose'', edited by Frank H. McCloskey and published in 1935 by Harper, New York, included the story.
Adaptations
A BBC television adaptation of the story in the series ''Wodehouse Playhouse
''Wodehouse Playhouse'' is a British television comedy series based on the short stories of P. G. Wodehouse. From 1974 to 1978, a pilot and three series were made, with 21 half-hour episodes altogether in the entire series. The series has been ...
'' first aired in December 1978.
A radio adaptation aired on 3 June 2002 on BBC Radio 4, as part of a series with Richard Griffiths
Richard Thomas Griffiths (31 July 1947 – 28 March 2013) was an English actor of film, television, and stage. For his performance in the stage play '' The History Boys'', Griffiths won a Tony Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Drama Desk A ...
as Mr Mulliner. In the episode "Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo", the cast also included Matilda Ziegler
Matilda Ziegler (born 23 July 1964) is an English actress, best known for her roles as Donna Ludlow in ''EastEnders'', Irma Gobb in ''Mr. Bean'', and Pearl Pratt in ''Lark Rise to Candleford''.
Television and film career
Ziegler's first screen r ...
as Miss Postlethwaite, Jane, and Aunt Angela, Peter Acre as a Port and the Rev. Stanley Brandon, David Timson as a Pint of Stout and the bishop, and Carl Prekopp
Carl James Prekopp (born 25 May 1979) is a British actor.
He played Richard III at the Riverside Studios (2010) and originated the part of Lawrence in Tim Firth's stage adaptation of ''Calendar Girls''. Prekopp has appeared in BBC Radio 4 adap ...
as a Small Bitter and Augustine.
See also
* List of Wodehouse's Mr Mulliner stories
References
;Notes
;Sources
*
{{P. G. Wodehouse
Short stories by P. G. Wodehouse
1926 short stories
Works originally published in Liberty (general interest magazine)