Bøger i The Collected Novels of P. C. serien

Volume Six of The Collected Novels of P. C. Wren, The English Novels, contains four novels with a different setting than that of his other novels. The action takes place almost entirely in England, which is why the title of this omnibus edition is the English novels. Part B contains two novels, The Mammon of Righteousness (1930) and Two Feet From Heaven (1940), that are the most psychological, versus action and adventure, of all of Wren's novels. The Mammon of Righteousness is the story of Algernon Coxe, a neurotic young man heavily under the influence of his over-domineering mother, Miranda. He meets and falls in love with a young woman, Giovanna Blayton, of whom his mother disapproves. Algernon's mother persuades him to marry another young woman, but before he does, Giovanna asks him to look after a large traveling trunk or box while she goes away for a while. He does so, but his wife shortly discovers the dead body of Giovanna in the box and Algernon is arrested for Giovanna's murder. The second novel, Two Feet From Heaven, is the story of a vicar, Richard Neystoke, of a small village in the country, and his mental illness. Wren described the story as "quire a new departure, and more of an orthodox novel than a 'rattling good yarn', as the lowest form of review calls the story of action and romantic adventure. . . . The book is, of course, mainly a pathological study, and the 'hero' an abnormal neurotic and something of a Jekyll-and-Hyde. His character on the whole, is admirable, but infirm of purpose and with a weak and cowardly streak. Like all my characters, he is drawn from life. . . . He is, however the victim of an equally fundamental weakness of character-unstable temperament and an injurious mother complex."

Volume two of The Collected Novels of P. C. Wren, The Sinbad Novels, contains the four novels featuring the character of Sinclair Noel Brodie Dysart, whose nickname is Sinbad based on the initials of S.N.B.D. Part B contains Fort in the Jungle, the direct sequel to Sinbad the Soldier, and The Disappearance of General Jason, which is not a direct sequel to Fort in the Jungle and only features Sinbad as a minor, though important, character. At the end of Sinbad the Soldier, our hero, had been captured by French authorities and given the choice of prison or joining the French Foreign Legion. Instead of a North African desert Foreign Legion novel, Fort in the Jungle, has the setting of the Indo-China colonial wars of the late 1800s with the Black Flag Army. Sinbad is sent on a covert mission to a secret fort in the jungles of Vietnam. Here he has various adventures and meets the love of his life-the wife of the European advisor to the bandit army. The plot of The Disappearance of General Jason is concerned with the disappearance of a retired British army general. The story line and plot elements are quasi-science fiction in that there is a (sort of) lost race that the characters are involved with, aspects of uranium mining, and an H. G. Wells Island of Dr. Moreau element to it.

The Foreign Legion Novels Part A contains The Wages of Virtue (1916), Wren's first novel of the French Foreign Legion, and Sowing Glory (1931), a novel supposedly only edited, not written, by Wren. The Wages of Virtue is the story of Sir Montague Merline in the French Foreign Legion. Merline (known as John Bull) joined the Legion after recovering from his apparent death in combat while serving in Africa. Upon regaining his memory several years later, he was told that his wife had married again. In an act of selfless denial, he joined the Legion to keep his identity a secret. The second novel, Sowing Glory, tells the story of a woman who joined the Legion. If it were not for the fantastic ploy of a woman being in the Legion, this book would be one of Wren's most accurate descriptions of the Legion. Both the romance and the reality of the Foreign Legion are described in these novels by the man who popularized the French Foreign Legion. As John Bull states to a recruit: "But we are the cheapest labourers, the finest soldiers, the most dangerous, reckless devils ever gathered together. . . . You're a ha'penny hero now, my boy, and a ha'penny day-labourer, and you're not expected to wear out in less than five years-unless you're killed by the enemy, disease, or the Non-coms."

The Foreign Legion Novels Part B contains the novels Paper Prison, published in 1939, and The Uniform of Glory, published in 1941. Paper Prison is the story of twin fraternal brothers, Mark and Luke Tuyler, and the woman whom they love, Rosanne. Paper Prison is a complex novel, published (and assumed to be written) in the later part of Wren's life. It is more realistic than most of his more famous novels, with its themes of infidelity, divorce, blackmail, and "killing no murder". The Uniform of Glory is a humorous novel which has the subtitle of "being the true story of a free Frenchman's night out". It is the story of Denis Ducros, a legionnaire who is the servant of the Colonel, Louis Rochefort. On the night of a Legion fête day, Denis dons the uniform of the Colonel and cleverly impersonates him out on the town. Denis has a number of adventures pretending to be the Colonel, including giving non-commissioned officers a dreadful time, giving ordinary legionnaires an enjoyable time, helping the Colonel's daughter with her romance, and helping a number of "filles de joie" to escape their environment for the evening.

The English Novels Part A contains two novels, Bubble Reputation and Cardboard Castle, that are set in the English countryside in large country manor houses. Bubble Reputation is the story of Sir Giles Cortenay (known as Bump), the last descendant of an old English family. Due to difficult economic circumstances, Bump has turned the family manor into a country hotel. The main plot is about the mystery of the murder of Bump's granduncle and the search for a great hoard of jewels hidden on the estate by Bump's buccaneer ancestor. The second novel, Cardboard Castle, is the story of Henry Waring, and a teenager, Anthony Calderton, who is the son of Lord and Lady Calderton, and considered "different", and who remains at home when his parents leave to govern a British colony. When Lady Calderton is taken ill, however, she comes home to recuperate and this is when the villain, Captain Bertie-Norton, appears. This so-called "old friend" of Lady Calderton is actually her first husband, who everybody thought had died twenty years ago. He now wants Lady Calderton to provide his upkeep and living since he wants to "settle down" after his adventuring throughout the world. He wants to do this without anybody knowing who he really is. The rest of the book is about how Lady Calderton and Henry Waring, deal with Bertie-Norton and his demands, and how Henry deals with the teenager who is "mad" about the English Civil War.

Volume two of The Collected Novels of P. C. Wren, The Sinbad Novels, contains the four novels featuring the character of Sinclair Noel Brodie Dysart, whose nickname Sinbad derives from the initials of S.N.B.D. Part A contains Action and Passion and its sequel, Sinbad the Soldier. In Action and Passion, Sinbad was intended to go into the Royal Navy, but instead, after his father's suicide, has to go into the Merchant Marine. During his first voyage, on the windjammer Valkyrie, Sinbad goes from an apprentice to the captain, during a series of adventures that include a mad captain, multiple murders, mutiny, bare-knuckle boxing, sea storms, and (almost) incest. In Sinbad the Soldier, our hero and his friend Dacre decide to leave the sea. They join Her Majesty's Life Guards, a troop famous (nowadays) for being part of the "Changing of the Guard" at Buckingham Palace and other royal sites. After a couple of years as Life Guards, Sinbad and Dacre resign from the Guards and join a gunrunning venture. The gunrunning goes awry when Sinbad is captured by Arabs and sold into slavery, eventually becoming a slave to a Sultan of a remote Saharan desert kingdom. The Sultan and Sinbad, along with some of the Sultan's entourage, go to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage and to rescue the Sultan's mother, an Englishwoman who was taken captive during the failed Sepoy Rebellion of 1857.

The Later India Novels Part A contains two novels, Beggars' Horses, published in America in 1943, after Wren's death, as The Dark Woman, and Explosion which never saw an American publication. Beggars' Horses is the story of six British army officers who have a confrontation with an Indian fakir or Holy Man. The six officers are asked what they would "wish" for. One asks for great strength, the others ask to be healthy, to live a long life, for happiness, for great wealth, and for great courage. The rest of the story is how the six men obtain their wishes and how "a dark woman" interacts with them. Explosion deals with a plot by Indian agitators to use a large bomb to kill British officials and destroy several buildings: a literal explosion. The main characters are Anthony Steele, the Superintendent of Police, and Betty Gopaldas, an young English woman married to an Indian, who is one of the group of agitators planning the explosion. With Betty, being infatuated with Steele, he is able to persuade her to help him uncover the bomb plot. There are minor plots about British society in an Indian city during the British Raj, and Wren is able to convey the thoughts and feelings of a strong Imperialist in favor of British rule.