William Tell Told Again

1904 novel by P. G. Wodehouse

William Tell Told Again is a retelling of the William Tell legend in prose and verse with illustrations. The main prose element was written by P. G. Wodehouse, while Philip Dadd supplied the frontispiece and 15 full page illustrations, all in colour. The 15 illustrations were each accompanied by a verse written by John W. Houghton, who also wrote the prologue and epilogue in verse. The book was published on 11 November 1904 by Adam & Charles Black, London, and was dedicated "to Biddy O'Sullivan for a Christmas present". Wodehouse dedicated books to 43 different people; "Biddy O'Sullivan" was the last to be traced. Her identity was not known until 2006, when she was identified as the young daughter of Denis O'Sullivan (1869–1908), an actor and singer who was a friend of Wodehouse in the early 1900s.

The prose by Wodehouse is a parody of retellings of famous stories. It maintains the basic outline of the traditional legend, but distorts single elements in many parts of the story for their comic value. The language used in the book imitates the slightly artificial, pompous prose used in stories retold for children, with occasional archaic expressions such as "I' faith!". There are some examples in the book of the stylistic devices that Wodehouse would frequently use in his later comic novels. For example, Tell uses a mixed metaphor in the story: "'Gentlemen,' continued Tell, 'the flood gates of revolution have been opened. From this day they will stalk through the land burning to ashes the slough of oppression which our tyrant Governor has erected in our midst." The American edition was issued by Macmillan, New York, from imported sheets, in December 1904. William Tell Told Again was collected in the Wodehouse collection The Eighteen Carat Kid and Other Stories, which was published in the US in 1980. Regarding the book in the context of Wodehouse's works, Evelyn Waugh wrote in 1961, "Collectors prize as bibliographical rarities such early works as William Tell Told Again and Swoop, but it is impossible to discern in them any promise of what was to come." However, Barry Phelps, in his book P. G. Wodehouse: Man and Myth (1992), held a different view of both William Tell Told Again and The Swoop! : "Both books are early Wodehouse, writing rapidly for cash rather than art, giving them an exuberant, uninhibited freshness. He clearly enjoyed writing them and they are a marker for what is to come." In his 2003 book Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion, Richard Usborne described William Tell Told Again: "A short, cheerful narrative by Wodehouse, excellent colour pictures by Philip Dadd and excellent verse captions to the pictures, by John W. Houghton – very much the sort of expert verse Wodehouse himself was already writing, in Punch and elsewhere."