Not that obscure! And there are plenty of iterations of it that I dislike, but obviously this book doesn't hit that button, I suspect because Psmith is so gently and hilariously benevolent about it all. But yes, it is kind of not on, even though Spiller makes an extremely decent stab at getting his own back. (Oh, and further thought, it possibly reads okay to me because Psmith and Mike are actually the underdogs at that point, in my eye, the dreaded outsiders.)

And none of this is supposed to be a defence, it is extremely irritating when you don't like things and people tell you why they're actually alright and you totally shouldn't dislike them because blah blah blah, so I will stop typing my thoughts out now and cross my fingers you enjoy Psmith in the City.