Table D'hôte

The opening story alone is worth the price of admission: Mr. Baynes, attempting to assert domestic authority, institutes a system of fines against his wife for imagined infractions, only to discover she has inherited money from a late uncle, upending his petty tyranny with magnificent efficiency. This sets the pattern for the entire collection, sharp, affectionate satires of Edwardian middle-class life where husbands scheme, wives counter, and social pretensions crumble under the weight of human absurdity. W. Pett Ridge writes with the precision of a caricaturist, finding the comedy in marital sparring, the absurdity in propriety, and the quiet warmth beneath the banter. These are stories served table d'hôte: you get what you're given, and it's consistently satisfying. For readers who enjoy the comic novels of P.G. Wodehouse or the social observation of early 20th-century British humor.