P. G. Wodehouse 
Damsel in Distress 

A musical writer bumbles his way into a storybook romance in this classic comedy of manners by the author of Right Ho, Jeeves.   An American composer living in London, George Bevan is successful, lonely, and terribly bored. Then one day in Piccadilly, a pretty young lady dashes into his taxi looking for a place to hide. George gladly accepts the opportunity to be her knight in shining armor. But as soon as he helps her escape a certain disagreeable gentleman, the woman disappears. Suddenly George finds himself baffled, in love, and desperate to find his mysterious damsel in distress.   Lady Maud Marsh, daughter of the seventh earl of Marshmoreton, is being pressured to marry her aunt’s stepson, but everyone knows she’s in love with an American she met in Wales. When she flees the family estate to meet her beau in London and a kind stranger in a cab helps her evade her brother, she doesn’t expect to see the man again. But then George shows up at Belpher Castle only to be mistaken for the wrong American, setting off a hilarious brouhaha of romance and manners that is quintessential Wodehouse.   First appearing in serialized form in the Saturday Evening Post, A Damsel in Distress inspired the 1937 film of the same name starring Fred Astaire, Joan Fontaine, George Burns, and Grace Allen.