The White Feather is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...

, first published on 9 October 1907 by Adam & Charles Black

A & C Black

A & C Black is a British book publishing company.The firm was founded in 1807 by Adam and Charles Black in Edinburgh, and moved to the Soho district of London in 1889. In 1851, the firm bought the copyright of Walter Scott's Waverley Novels for £27,000. In 1902 it published P. G...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. It is set at Wrykyn school, scene of Wodehouse's earlier book The Gold Bat

The Gold Bat

The Gold Bat is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 13 September 1904 by Adam & Charles Black, London. Set at the fictional public school of Wrykyn, the novel tells of how two boys, O'Hara and Moriarty, tar and feather a statue of the local M.P. as a prank...

(1904), and the later Mike

Mike (novel)

Mike is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 15 September 1909 by Adam & Charles Black, London. The story first appeared in the magazine The Captain, in two separate parts, collected together in the original version of the book; the first part, originally called Jackson Junior, was...

(1909). Like many early Wodehouse novels, the story first appeared as a serial

Serial (literature)

In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...

 in the boys' magazine The Captain

The Captain (1900s magazine)

The Captain was a magazine for young boys, published monthly in the United Kingdom from 1899 to 1924.It is perhaps best known for printing many of P. G. Wodehouse's early school stories, such as many of those featured in the collection Tales of St. Austin's...

, between October 1905 and March 1906. The phrase "white feather

White feather

A white feather has been a traditional symbol of cowardice, used and recognised especially within the British Army and in countries associated with the British Empire since the 18th century...

" is a reference to cowardice.

Plot

When Sheen, a quiet and studious boy, finds himself facing a street brawl between boys of Wrykyn and those of St. Jude's, their sworn enemies, he slips away to safety to avoid the wrath of his masters

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

. However, his cowardliness is noticed by his fellows, who send him to Coventry

Send to Coventry

To send someone to Coventry is a British idiom meaning to ostracise someone, usually by not talking to them. To be sent to Coventry is to be regarded as absent. It is often used by children to bully others, and can be used to punish people who, for example, refuse to join a strike...

. In order to save his reputation, he must train secretly under boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 legend Joe Bevan. Can he overcome the many obstacles in his path, and restore the school's honour in the ring?

External links

• The Russian Wodehouse Society's page, with photos of book covers and a list of characters
• Free eBook of The White Feather at Project Gutenberg
  Project Gutenberg
  Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
  
  
• The White Feather, audio book at Librivox