Psmith

Rupert Psmith (or Ronald Eustace Psmith, as he is called in the last of the four books in which he appears) is a recurring fictional character in several novels by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being one of Wodehouse's best-loved characters.

The P in his surname is silent ("as in pshrimp" in his own words) and was added by himself, in order to distinguish him from other Smiths. A member of the Drones Club, this monocle-sporting Old Etonian is something of a dandy, a fluent and witty speaker, and has a remarkable ability to pass through the most amazing adventures unruffled.

Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on Rupert D'Oyly Carte (1876–1948), the son of the Gilbert and Sullivan impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte, as he put it "the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Carte was a school acquaintance of a cousin of Wodehouse at Winchester College, according to an introduction to Leave it to Psmith. Rupert's daughter, Bridget D'Oyly Carte, however, believed that the Wykehamist schoolboy described to Wodehouse was not her father but his elder brother Lucas. Lucas was also at Winchester.

Psmith appears in four novel-length works, all of which appeared as magazine serials before being published in book form.

"The Lost Lambs" was later republished separately as:
* Enter Psmith (1935) and
* Mike and Psmith (1953).

All these works also feature Mike Jackson, Psmith's solid, cricket-playing friend and sidekick, the original hero and central character of Mike and Psmith in the City, until eclipsed by Psmith's wit and force of personality.

In his first appearance (in Mike, Enter Psmith or Mike and Psmith, depending on edition) Psmith introduces himself as Rupert. He is also referred to as Rupert twice in Psmith in the City.

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