Review: JEEVES AND WOOSTER by PG Wodehouse

Original Publication Date: 1934

Genre: Mystery, comedy

Topics: Society, love, no good deed goes unpunished












Review by Sharky & Smiles:

Imagine you’re a pleasant, helpful, not very clever member of the upper class. Imagine your friends aren’t even that clever or that pleasant and helpful. And they keep getting into trouble and expecting you to get them out of it. Of course, they’re your pals, so you do, mostly based on plans your incredibly intelligent valet makes up. Same thing applies when you mess everything up and get into even deeper trouble.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster, needlessly overcomplicating a simple problem.

Simple problem you say? Now imagine if X loves Y but can’t meet Y so Z goes to make sure Y doesn’t get stolen away by Y’s charming guest while pretending to be A because A is engaged to B and B’s relatives are expecting A to visit and A can’t make it.

... what...

That’s the BASE plot of the book we read. It just gets worse from there until everything collapses on itself like an abused soufflé. Somehow into a happy ending.

The pattern is broadly the same in each book in the series, but they’re all uniquely absurd in their own ways. The nice thing is you can probably just grab any Jeeves and Wooster book (and there’s a lot of them) and enjoy it as a stand-alone, without having to worry about sequence or whether you have to read five other things to know what’s going on.

You’ll likely never know quite what’s going on anyway, and that’s the fun of it. It’s another one of those wild rides where you just have to trust the author. And if you can’t do that, if you keep stopping to roll your eyes or object to how silly things are getting, you don’t enjoy. These are SILLY books. So silly. Complete, absurd, slapstick, screwball comedy narrated with a style I’m completely in love with.

Remember what we said about Hitchiker’s Guide being weird with amazing narration? This is very like that, but without the freedom of weirdness of being set in space among aliens. And if you think a non-magical, non-alien setting doesn’t give you much leeway to be silly and strange, boy are you wrong.

The characters are more like caricatures, the plots are basically ridiculous, and the narration keeps going off on its own tangents in the most amusing ways. Great descriptions, run on confusions and liberal use of ‘dash it all!’

I’m 100% behind the way things are narrated. But I tend to lose patience with the characters sometimes, they’re all such idiots. They’re supposed to be but that doesn’t always help.

I caught Sharky yelling oh my God just tell the truth already at the book.

Oh my God just tell the truth already it’s not that hard but you’re making it harder what is happening why is nobody making any sense.

It got worse for him when someone tried to tell the truth, it got over-exaggerated by someone else, and now nobody believes the original truth.

WHAT IS HAPPENING WHY IS NOBODY MAKING ANY SENSE.

But that’s why you have to hold on and just trust the author. Everything has to go horribly for the main character, Bertie, before things can get better for anyone else, and always in the most ridiculous ways. It would almost be tragic if it wasn’t so funny.

Unlike Sharky, Jeeves is actually helpful. And objectively the smartest person in every book.

But even the stupidest characters can be really sarcastic and witty, even if Bertie can never quote anything properly even when he’s trying to act clever.

Someone somewhere once said something very profound about comedy and tragedy being the same. Kind of. Broadly. Probably.

Now you know what to expect when Bertie quotes anything.

I like the setting. There’s something nice about spending time in a little bubble where the biggest problem tends to be ‘my aunt is angry at me and she’s very scary’. It reminds me of those books where kids could have adventures because they didn’t really have to worry about anything else. Despite the fact that these books are set between wars and during, we’re in a sunny little patch where things are good, money- and status-wise, but love and family is confusing and people are unreasonable and sometimes there isn’t time to dress for dinner and you feel out of place.

Just so you know, Smiles has been shaking in place, trying not to spend the entire review just spouting off quotations rather than talking about the book.

I just want to quote so many things! ... which I do with every book. Tell you what, between this review and the next one, we’ll do a mid-week upload with a quote from each of the books we’ve reviewed!

Wha- we didn’t discuss that!

Oh Sharky, when do I ever discuss what we’re going to do with you?




Download Right Ho, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse at Project Gutenberg|Librivox

Review: DEATH AT THE EXCELSIOR by PG Wodehouse

Original Publication Date: 1914

Genre: mystery

Topics: locked room, murder














Review by heidenkind:

When a sea captain dies mysteriously at a boarding house, The Excelsior, the owner asks private detective Paul Snyder to investigate. The sea captain died from the bite of a cobra, in a locked room with no snake in the room! Was he actually killed by a snake, or was it murrrrrrrrrrrrrderrrrrrrrrr?

Death at the Excelsior is the first, and only, PI mystery PG Wodehouse wrote. While it's not as amusing and laugh-out-loud funny as the Jeeves stories, I did enjoy it. I liked the set-up of the older detective sending one of his younger employees, Elliot Oakes, to solve the case in the hopes that the cocky detective would learn a lesson by not being able to solve the mystery. I also thought the mystery itself was kind of interesting, even though this isn't the type of story you read for the mystery. I'm a sucker for locked room mysteries, and the snake bite element was just ridiculous enough that there was an element of comedy.

I also love Mrs. Pickett, the boarding house owner who shows up both Snyder and Oakes. Old ladies FTW!

This probably isn't Wodehouse's best work, but it is a decent short story that you shouldn't hesitate to check out if you're interested.



Download Death at the Excelsior by PG Wodehouse at Librivox|Project Gutenberg

Review: A Damsel in Distress

Original Publication Date:  1919

Genre:  Humor, Romance

Topics:  England, Mistaken Identity, Comedy of Manners

Review:  PG Wodehouse is most famous for his Jeeves & Wooster stories, but those are not the only books he ever wrote!  He also wrote other books with light humor and bumbling aristocrats and very capable butlers that did not star either Jeeves or Wooster.  A Damsel in Distress is one of those books.

George Bevan is bored of life - what more is there for him to do when he's a brilliantly rich and successful music composer before age 30?  He's lonely, but all the women he knows are (of course) dull, and he is completely over women.

And then one day, he's in a taxicab and a beautiful woman breathlessly jumps in and asks him to hide her.  He realizes that perhaps he's not completely over women, agrees to help her, and after knocking a chubby man's hat off and causing a scene in the middle of London, he saves her and then loses sight of her without learning her name.

But Bevan is an intrepid man, and he learns that he has fallen in love with Lady Maud Marshmoreton.  He tracks her down to a rural hamlet, and then there's a lot of mistaken identities, and finally, everything works out just as it should.

This book was fun to read, but it wasn't quite as snortingly, laugh-out-loud funny as many of Wodehouse's other books.  Wodehouse is great at comedic scenes, but not (in my opinion) that great at creating particularly differentiated or memorable characters.  You read one of his books, greatly enjoy it, and then promptly forget the details of it.  But that's what makes them so easy to read over and over, I think.

This book, though, was a bit light on the situational comedy.  It was there, of course - there were scenes that were funny.  But George Bevan was also quite moody some of the time, and it seemed like the characters weren't quite as happy and funny as they could have been, and that dampened my enjoyment somewhat.  It's all very good to laugh at bumbling aristocrats when they are happy and good-natured, but when they are sad and feel trod upon, it's not nearly as fun.  And George Bevan was just too perfect.  Wooster is great because he's really well-meaning but cant really do much of anything right.  Whereas Bevan does pretty much everything right, and is pretty dull because of it.  I much prefer Wooster and all the tongue-in-cheek humor that spills from the pages of those books.

This is an entertaining book, and probably perfect for a flight or a day at the beach or when you're in the mood for a rom-com, but just can't commit to Meg Ryan.  It's light and fun, but just not as fun as you may expect from Wodehouse.

Review: MY MAN JEEVES by PG Wodehouse

Original Publication Date: 1919

Genre: humor

Topics: class, coming of age













Review:

Bertie Wooster is a lovable, wealthy young man who is totally delusional. He wouldn't be able to solve any problem if he didn't have his imaginary friend to help him out in form of Jeeves, a factotum. Basically, Jeeves is like SIRI before there were cell phones. Whenever Bertie or one of his friends is in trouble, they ask "Jeeves," who appears out of nowhere in front of Bertie and tells him and his friend how to solve their problem.

Okay, so maybe Bertie isn't delusional. OR IS HE? You don't know. My Man Jeeves is a collection of short stories in which Bertie runs into a lot of mishaps, mostly involving women, and the djinni-esque Jeeves suggests ways for him to get out it, mostly involving lying. Over half of the stories, however, have a fellow (I have adopted the nomenclature) named Reggie as the protagonist. I'm guessing this is Jeeves before he became Jeeves--otherwise, why have the stories in a book titled My Man Jeeves? These were actually more interesting than Bertie's stories, because Reggie REALLY gets himself into some scrapes.

These stories were soooo much fun. I listened to the audiobook from Librivox (read by Mark Nelson, who did a really excellent job) and giggle-snorted through every single one--which is not comfortable when you're trying to hold a yoga position, fyi.

I classify these stories as coming-of-age because nearly every one involves a member of the older generation--dad, aunt, etc.--standing between a younger person and what they want. In one, a poet wants to hang out in the country and watch bugs all day, but his aunt threatens to cut him out of her will unless he lives in NYC and tells her about the all parties he goes to. In another, a young artist feels stifled by the presence of his father's masterpiece in his house, so his wife arranges to have it stolen. Mainly these situations are played for comedic effect, but there's a definite sense that the characters are only just beginning to figure out who they are and what they want.

If you haven't read these stories yet, you should. They are super-funny and -entertaining. And as a bonus, suddenly everything on the internet makes sense.

Other reviews of My Man Jeeves at PGP: Patty from A Tale of Three Cities
Read My Man Jeeves on Project Gutenberg

Guest Review: MY MAN JEEVES by PG Wodehouse

Original Publication Date: 1919

Genre: mystery, humor

Topics: class, coming of age













Review by Patty from A Tale of Three Cities:

I hadn't realised that one of my favourite great TV series I've watched over and over again, Jeeves and Wooster, was actually based on the books by PG Wodehouse.  My Man Jeeves would be my first in this collection to devour and feel good about it.

This is a collection of  short stories that starts with the known couple of Wooster and his butler extraordinaire Jeeves.  Primarily describing their adventures in the US, the stories capture the caricatures of the ever so slightly neurotic Wooster on the one hand and of the charismatic and suave Jeeves, trying desperately to get and keep his master out of trouble.

There is an expected template of story--once you get to understand the steps to it, all other stories are in the same format.  Not that repetition takes away anything from the pure enjoyment, far from it!  Wodehouse gets us back to the early 20th century at the upper-class establishments, where the young (nobility, but of a lesser importance) adults take advantage of their station and get into all types of mischief - getting into girl trouble, depending on the relative's financial contribution, trying to make it into the world as a professional -  there is always something for every taste.

The stories are written in a style as if the narrator (in most of the stories Wooster) is a pal of ours and he's talking to us about his misfortunes--the language is very simple and slightly slang, with a quick tempo so as to ensure an easy and comfortable reading--ideal for when tired, but more so when under the weather. Together with a nice hot cup of tea (and some cookies), these stories are bound to cheer me up any time!

I particularly enjoyed those situations where Wooster tries to by-pass Jeeves' recommendations.  This will cause a strain in the relationship and lead to farcical circumstances -- but in the end, and in appreciation of Jeeves' solving yet another direful case, Wooster will succumb to Jeeves' original recommendation.

The character of Wooster is developed to resemble a teenager, having a go at criticising everyone and everything, but always in a good-natured manner.  He's still naive, tries to do the "honourable" thing and help his friends in need.  To that he almost always relies on the help of Jeeves, whom he clearly admires:

"There is no doubt that Jeeves is in a class of his own. In the matter of brain and resource I don't think I have ever met a chappie so supremely like mother made"

The stories also reminded me of the so-called "screwball comedies" during the 1930's and 1940's--there as here, the storyline is light but not silly, fast-paced, and the situation will inevitably lead to a happy end (after many, many intermediate steps, of course). 

I would say that Wodehouse has managed to capture the essence of the avant-garde (of mischievous youngsters) of his generation and give a faithful description of  challenges they faced.  This, together with the inimitable style of tempo, caricature and empathy, he has established himself in this genre even in our times...