MISCHIEF

I cannot both hold my dog and hold my trousers. Kindly oblige for the trousers, and I will re-obtain my handkerchief."" P. G. Wodehouse? No, Wodehouse is no more, alas, alas; but 91-year-old Ben Travers, better known for his bedroom farces as they appear on stage (in a sweep of recent London revivals), is here to go some way toward filling the sad vacuum with three of his durable 1920s novels--Mischief, Rookery Nook, and A Cuckoo in the Nest. To Wodehouse-ian wordplay and well-mannered foolishness, Travars adds sex--nothing seamy, mind you, just a good helping of active young lovers or clean-hearted, would-be adulterers always caught in the attempt. Funny foreigners, bossy wives, suspicious or hen-pecked husbands. Not Wodehouse--a touch too rowdy, a bit too unpolished--but giddy enough in his own right to gladden any escapist, Anglophile heart.