Carry on Jeeves by P G Wodehouse

Carry on Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

English fiction

Personal copy

I am going to do a quick post for this book as most people are aware of PG Wodehouse. I have been a fan of his book. They capture that carefree air of the interwar years of the early 20th century. He has created several well-known characters from the Blanding castle books, and of course, this, which is part of maybe his best-known two-character series, Berit Wooster and his butler Jeeves. It was one of the books that leapt off the list of books that came out in 1925, especially as it is the second Jeeves and Wooster book, but it has several stories from the first collection, like the opening story, which is the tale of how the two men meet and Jeeves becomes Bertie’s butler.

Return immediately. Extremely urgent. Catch first train.

Florence.

‘Rum!’ I said.

“Sir?”

‘Oh, nothing!’

It shows how little I knew Jeeves in those days that I didn’t go a bit deeper into the matter with him. Nowadays I would never dream of reading a rummy communication without asking him what he thought of it. And this one was devilish odd. What I mean is, Florence knew I was going back to Easeby the day after to-morrow, anyway; so why the hurry call? Something must have happened, of course; but I couldn’t see what on earth it could be.

Jeeves, I said, ‘we shall be going down to Easeby this after-noon. Can you manage it?

‘Certainly, sir’

You can get your packing done and all that??

•Without any difficulty, sir. Which suit will you wear for the journey?’

“This one?

Jeeves and Woosters first meeting

I don’t know about you, but if you are, like me, and grew up in the UK in the 80s, you have the two main characters in your head as Fry and Laurie; they did a lot of the stories from Wodehouse. The first tale shows how Jeeves takes charge and becomes Bertie’s man after Bertie has had a series of butlers steal and try to rip him off. It is the start of a relationship we all know, then we have one of his friends, an artist struggling to get by, until, with the help of Jeeves and Wosters, he happens on a plan for a book of birds. Then we meet one of the great foes of Berite, his Aunt Agathe, when one of her friends joins them in New York. They ned to keep them on the straight and narrow.. In other disasters, he gets a couple together, finds servants for his friends, and is saved from taking in three relatives, all thanks to Jeeves’ insights and knowledge more than Bertie’s, as the two get out of scrapes and help others along the way.

Why should not the young lady write a small volume, to be entitled – let us say – “The Children’s Book of American Birds” and dedicate it to Mr Worple? A limited edition could be published at your expense, sir, and a great deal of the book would, of course, be given over to eulogistic remarks concerning Mr Worple’s own larger treatise on the same subject. I should recommend the dispatching of a presentation copy to Mr Wor-ple, immediately on publication, accompanied by a letter in which the young lady asks to be allowed to make the acquaintance of one to whom she owes so much. This would, I fancy, produce the desired result, but as I say, the expense involved would be considerable?

I felt like the proprietor of a performing dog on the vaudeville stage when the tyke has just pulled off his trick without a hitch.I had betted on Jeeves all along, and I had known that he wouldn’t let me down. It beats me sometimes why a man with his genius is satisfied to hang around pressing my clothes and what not. IfI had half Jeeves’s brain I should have a stab at being Prime Minister or something.

When they help the Artist Corky get some money for an art project !

As I said, in my head I have Fry and Laurie in my head when reading so  I loved this collection, it may be my favourite of the Wodehouse I have read I have a number of the Everyman Library ones as I think they are very nicely made and have great cover art, and long term are a collection I want to collect. I have reviewed him for another club year and have actually brought other books for the years, but haven’t got to them. I think this collection works as it shows what is great between Bertie a loveable oaf of an upper-class man with a heart of gold, but a real habit of putting his foot in his mouth and needs Jeeves, the man who sees it all, knows it all and has the inside track on everything that Bertie gets involved in. I think it is one of the best partnerships in fiction, second maybe to Holmes and Watson.This is maybe a great intro to the pair. Do you ever have actors in your head for a character you are reading ?