Mulliner Nights

P.G.Wodehouse gives his fans a series of short stories as told by Mr. Mulliner about the tales of his relatives.
The series begins with Adrian Mulliner of 'The Smile That Wins', who was suffering from dyspepsia, which made him smile strangely from time to time and was usually interpreted to be a kind of evil smile, which made people scared and cautious. He uses this smiles to eventually win the lady of his heart, from her foreboding father, Reginald, and her balding fiance, Jasper, with the help of a kleptomaniac Sutton.
'The Story of Webster' boasts of a pristine cat gone rotten with Lancelot, a struggling artist, who is forced to give up his Bohemian habits when his rich uncle bishop, Theodore, leaves his cat, Webster, under his care. The cat was also indirectly to reform Lancelot of his waywardness, by giving up his love, Gladys, and offer his hand to a boring pill, Brenda, who also posed for Lancelot.
The sequel to the above comes in 'Cats will be Cats' where Theodore finds himself in the grip of Lady Widdrington, a lover of cats and power. Theodore implores Lancelot to help him and bring his cat back. To the former, Lancelot is willing, however, the second might bring him trouble, since Webster, isn't exactly in his former glory. So leaving the cat to a reformer, Lancelot arrives at Lady Widdrinton's castle as Theodore's lawyer. After fruitless efforts to detach his uncle, the surprise arrival (to Lancelot) and state (to Theodore) of Webster and the fight ensuing between him and Lady Widdrington's cat, Percy, puts an end to all of Theodore's misery, reserving a definite part of his fortune for Lancelot's future.
'Knightly Quest of Mervyn' makes a hero out of a shy, quiet person, Mervyn, by making a hero out of his disposition. To prove his love for Clarice, Mervyn ventures the impossible of obtaining strawberries during the off season. Although he succeeds in getting the strawberries, first by using his uncle Joseph's name falsely, then by escaping with it, he loses by tasting and finishing them by the time Clarice asks him to wait. And then he is forced to get it again, when Oofy also seems to be competing with him for Clarice's attentions.
Change in confidence levels and fear of headmasters rules the plot of 'A Voice From the Past'. Sacheverell is a soft spoken Mulliner, who is now engaged to breezy, confident girl, Muriel, who was previously engaged to her cousin, Bernard. And the reason she broke it off was because he was very commanding. However, when the subject asking Muriel's hand in marriage comes, Sacheverell is worried and to impress her father, he takes up a correspondence course on Muriel's father, Col. Branksome, interests. But he realises, after more than half the course, he still hasn't seen a word on what he wants, feels furious and stomps down to the school's office and finds out that he has seen results of a confidence builder course. Pleased with himself, he returns to Muriel and expresses his confident self, much to the chagrin of Muriel. But when he realises, his headmaster is in the same castle, he returns to his former self and Muriel's lover.
'Open House' sees another version of Jeeves and Wooster where Eustace is thrown into a mess because of his valet, Blekinsop's, incomplete information. Marcella, his lover, leaves her canary and dog under his care, while she travels to Paris. At the same time, his widowed aunt leaves her cat with him. While trying to keep all of the pets alive, Eustace's actions are misinterpreted by his animal lover neighbour Orlando. Meanwhile, a drop in visit by Eustace's old flame throws his affairs into a further disarray, displacing the dog, bringing in both his lover and aunt as surprise during the most untoward hour. But thankfully, his valet's quick ideas save him.
'Best Seller' outlines the relationship between a novel author hating news correspondent and a new authoress. Egbert is the correspondent and he checks if Evangeline is not a novel writer before falling in love with her. Over time, she feels like writing her relationship with Egbert as a novel. Although he is shocked and is perturbed with his personal relationship becoming public, he allows her to proceed. With the fame, she becomes closer and closer to her manager, Henderson, until the day she breaks down confessing that she can't be an author anymore to Egbert. Egbert is happy to have her back and promises to help her complete all her assignments.
Mystery and nature lovers duel in the story of 'Strychnine in the soup'. Cyril and Amelia are in love and share the passion of mysteries. However, Amelia's aunt, Lady Basett is a hindrance to their union, as she finds interior decorating (Cyril's profession), not manly enough. Cyril tries to reason but to no avail. She has other plans of having Lester, a hunter, marry Amelia. Drawing Cyril, Lady Basett and Lester into a twine of mystery, the story ends with Lady Basett consenting to Cyril and Amelia's marriage.
'Gala Night' is another tale of a man misinterpreted due to his love for the arts, dancing. Ronald and Hypatia are in love, yet her uncle, Percy, a bishop is against it. Using the assistance of Augustine, Jane and an energy booster, they manage to make Percy and his wife Priscilla dance and hence accept Ronald's love of dancing after a mysterious gala night which they attend without proper consciousness.