A Damsel in Distress

A Damsel in Distress is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 4 October 1919 by George H. Doran, New York, and in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, on 15 October 1919. It had previously been serialised in The Saturday Evening Post, between May and June of that year. Its plot revolves around golf-loving American composer George Bevan who falls in love with a mysterious young lady who takes refuge in his taxicab one day. When he later tracks her down to a romantic rural manor, mistaken identity leads to all manner of brouhaha. Plot Lady Maud Marsh, daughter of the widowed 7th Earl of Marshmoreton, is in love with Geoffrey Raymond, whom she met the previous summer in Wales. Maud has not revealed the man's name to her aristocratic family but has admitted that he is a penniless American. Her family, led by Lord Marshmoreton's haughty sister, Lady Caroline Byng, disapprove of the match and will not allow Maud to leave their home of Belpher Castle in Hampshire, in order to keep her from seeing the man. Lady Caroline wants her step-son, Reginald "Reggie" Byng, to marry Maud, though unbeknownst to her, Reggie is actually in love with Lord Marshmoreton's secretary, Alice Faraday. Lord Marshmoreton meekly listens to his sister, and to Alice, who is insistent that he write the history of his family, though he only wants to tend to his rose garden.