Welcome back once again Ladies and Gentlemen. I would today like to share with you a little bit of my love of the works of P. G. Wodehouse. For those who don’t know, or more likely don’t care! Mr Pelham Grenville Wodehouse is the chap who wrote the Jeeves stories. Yes the Jeeves as in the the butler to that blundering character Bertie Wooster. Of course he wrote all sorts of things but I am into my Jeeves in a big way, as illustrated in the above picture (complete with suede patches!)

    So what’s so good about the Jeeves stories then? Good question. For me it is the exaggerated and over the top way the characters are all portrayed. Before explaining this though it is important to set the scene of what these stories are actually about. The books are written as if they are the memoirs of Bertram Wooster, a rich aristocrat, gentleman, man of leisure etc, one of the “Idle Rich” if you will. The stories are set in the first part of the 20th century, so that’s roughly in the 1920’s I believe. In these memoirs Bertie tells us the tales of what he used to get up to, dashing round the country to relatives, getting into all sorts of scrapes and capers. Basically each story is one of the problems that he has faced, be it his own or something else somebody has put upon him and how Jeeves always comes to the rescue with an incredible and amusingly executed plan.

    If people have a problem, then they go to Jeeves. He is like the “Jim’ll Fix It” for the old world gentry! There are all sorts of things that he is faced with, yet being the genius that he is he always comes up with a solution. It is inside this layout of someone has a problem and with much humour it gets solved, that Wodehouse places these exaggerated upper class characters. The dippy lovestruck couples, the wild tearaway children, the super rich eccentrics. The garish relatives, the terrifying aunts, the excitable friends and so on. It is not just through descriptions and events that these characters are made what they are, it is also the way that Bertie Wooster speaks about them, and events... everything in fact!

    Bertie has this amazing way of saying things you see. Firstly these are books written in the first half of last century so you have to take it into account that he will speak in an old fashioned way. Then the character is a super rich gentry type so that adds to the fun, then Wodehouse is an absolute genius in the way he uses language so you are all set up for some excellent humour and an incredible storytelling technique. It would be impossible for me to explain it so I will just give you a few Bertie Wooster Quotes and you will soon get the idea...:

“... And yet here she was - with my farewell kiss still lingering on her cheek, so to speak - pleading for another reunion, Bertram Wooster is not accustomed to this gluttonous appetite for his society”

“...in this life, you can choose between two courses. You can either shut yourself up in a country house and stare into tanks, or you can be a dasher with the sex. You can't do both.”

"Rummy, you'll admit. However, one masks one's feelings. I betrayed no vulgar astonishment, but, as I say, what-hoed with civil nonchalance."

"Jeeves, I said, A V-shaped rumminess has manifested itself from the direction of Worcestershire..."

“...I concentrated deeply on this trouble of Angela’s and was successful in formulating a plan, based on the psychology of the individual, which I am proposing to put into effect at an early moment.”

    Now to really understand what the stories are like imagine that almost everything written is done in that style! It really is unbelievable that somebody could write some many stories in this way and even more so that they are amusing from start to end!

    I really do love these books and if you are interested then please take a look at the shop page of this site where i have put them into the books category, remember if you buy from amazon through these links then you are helping out this site by giving me the chance to earn £1 a year!!! I have also put the links below for those who like to do things in a much easier way! Non of this clicking to pages and whatnot!

Thanks for reading folks,

as always look after yourself and have fun,

dan