Annette had been busy at her piano when the knocking coming from the room above finally wrenched her mind from composing her music. Aha! The unseen brute obviously disliked her playing and intimated his views with his boot heel. Insulted, she struck the piano’s loud pedal. His reply: Bang! Bang! Bang!

This little incident from “The Man Upstairs” is just one of the many capers that P. G. Wodehouse humorously portrays in this collection, which includes nineteen of Wodehouse’s delightful pre–World War II short stories. Though these tales are decades old, such was Wodehouse’s amiable genius that they have not aged a bit. Like ancient crusted port, they have matured with the years, and perhaps only now can their timeless humor be savored with its full bouquet.

Among the other stories in this collection are “The Man Who Disliked Cats,” “The Good Angel,” “Pots o’ Money,” and “Out of School.”