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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
I have listened to several of these Bertie Wooster books on cd and they never fail to make me smile. Bertie's manservant, Jeeves, always seems to save the day AND get in the last word without making Bertie lose face. A unique pair of characters!
Reread: fantastic
Growing up, I was a big fan of Jeeves and Wooster every time it came on PBS. I didn't realize until a couple of years ago that the show was based off if this series. Finally got around to reading one and......enjoyed it just as much.
Admittedly, I was a little confused at a couple of parts due to the slang and references. However, overall I loved this, laughed quite a bit out loud (which doesn't always happen with books for me) and am definitely planning on tracking down the other books.
This was an unplanned book for my 2017 Reading Challenge. In other words, trolled Book Outlet and couldn't pass it up.
Growing up, I was a big fan of Jeeves and Wooster every time it came on PBS. I didn't realize until a couple of years ago that the show was based off if this series. Finally got around to reading one and......enjoyed it just as much.
Admittedly, I was a little confused at a couple of parts due to the slang and references. However, overall I loved this, laughed quite a bit out loud (which doesn't always happen with books for me) and am definitely planning on tracking down the other books.
This was an unplanned book for my 2017 Reading Challenge. In other words, trolled Book Outlet and couldn't pass it up.
Here is the question: is this one of the lesser Wodehouse offerings, or did I, in a fit of silliness, overindulge in Wodehouse and make myself lightheaded?
Impossible to say. Poppet the dachshund is, however, delightful, even if Bobbi Wickham is not.
Impossible to say. Poppet the dachshund is, however, delightful, even if Bobbi Wickham is not.
I enjoyed this a lot. It's yet another effervescent exercise in verbal joy. The sentences often sing, the scenes are all great. I laughed at every mention of 'Swordfish'.
And yet this is not a Jeeves of the first water.
I read all the Jeeves stories about 15 years ago, and on starting this reread (the first of many, depending on my longevity) was fascinated by how well I remembered the early books, and how little I remembered the later ones. The last five were almost a complete blank in my recollection.
For the record, what I remembered of the last five Jeeves novels was that Jeeves's first name is revealed; and there's a rather sentimental moment where Bertie promises to reward Jeeves with his heart's desire, within reason, and Jeeves asks that Bertie never let him go. The recollection brings a tear to the gall bladder, but perhaps it will read better in context.
The rest of those five volumes: nada. Even now, only 34 days since I finished Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, I struggle to recall who, apart from Jeeves and Bertie, was in it. Catsmeat, I think, but who else? Of the events therein, I recall virtually nothing. And yet I know I enjoyed it very much.
Wodehouse is such a good writer, and I think never better than when Bertie Wooster speaks through him, that even his lesser books are delights to read.
Much of my time reading Jeeves in the Offing (titled How Right You Are, Jeeves in the American omnibus edition in which I read it), was spent considering why it fails as a whole, when every sentence and scene is a winner.
The set-up is very good: Bertie is required to come and stay at Aunt Dahlia's country residence, where among those present is Roberta (Bobbie) Wickham, my favourite of Wodehouse's female characters. Bertie, much impressed by her espièglerie, has proposed to her several times, but now dreads the prospect of marriage to her, as the scales fell from his eyes in a previous story and he realised she is not the right wife for a retiring boulevardier fond of the quiet life.
Bobbie is one of the few women in Bertie's life who speaks his language. Most of the ghastly females he almost marries reveal their ghastliness in part by not understanding Bertie's slangy style. But Bobbie is one of him, if you see what I mean. So there's a real threat that Bertie might marry her and let himself in for a life filled with outrages that stagger humanity.
Also among those present is Aubrey Upjohn, the vicious headmaster of Bertie's preparatory school. Upjohn has been mentioned often in previous stories as the principal (or do I mean principle?) villain of Bertie's childhood.
It has the makings of a classic.
Why it fails as a story is that the stakes are too low. Virtually all the threats that hang over the characters hang over them because they want to help Bertie's uncle, Tom Travers, make a lot of money in a business deal. Tom is already very rich, so what is at stake is that, having wanted to become slightly richer, he might not, which would be upsetting.
For this, various characters willingly accept life-changing threats to themselves and their loved ones. It doesn't really add up. I can accept that Bertie is very grateful to his uncle for the money he sent Bertie when he was at school, but I can't see him risking other people's happinesses over it.
It seems to me that a simple tweak could have fixed this: if Tom had actually lost all his money, and needed this business deal to go through in order to become rich again and maintain his and Aunt Dahlia's lifestyle, and keep the chef Anatole on the payroll, then all would make sense. To justify life-changing risks, you need life-changing stakes.
The jeopardy Bertie faces is also half-baked. He often talks up events as if they are extremely threatening to him; but he seems neurotic, massively over-reacting to threats such as the exposure of Swordfish. Compared to the threat of being torn limb from limb by a would-be fascist dictator of England, or marrying Madeleine Bassett, the situations that terrify Bertie in this one are small fry.
And yet this is not a Jeeves of the first water.
I read all the Jeeves stories about 15 years ago, and on starting this reread (the first of many, depending on my longevity) was fascinated by how well I remembered the early books, and how little I remembered the later ones. The last five were almost a complete blank in my recollection.
For the record, what I remembered of the last five Jeeves novels was that Jeeves's first name is revealed; and there's a rather sentimental moment where Bertie promises to reward Jeeves with his heart's desire, within reason, and Jeeves asks that Bertie never let him go. The recollection brings a tear to the gall bladder, but perhaps it will read better in context.
The rest of those five volumes: nada. Even now, only 34 days since I finished Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, I struggle to recall who, apart from Jeeves and Bertie, was in it. Catsmeat, I think, but who else? Of the events therein, I recall virtually nothing. And yet I know I enjoyed it very much.
Wodehouse is such a good writer, and I think never better than when Bertie Wooster speaks through him, that even his lesser books are delights to read.
Much of my time reading Jeeves in the Offing (titled How Right You Are, Jeeves in the American omnibus edition in which I read it), was spent considering why it fails as a whole, when every sentence and scene is a winner.
The set-up is very good: Bertie is required to come and stay at Aunt Dahlia's country residence, where among those present is Roberta (Bobbie) Wickham, my favourite of Wodehouse's female characters. Bertie, much impressed by her espièglerie, has proposed to her several times, but now dreads the prospect of marriage to her, as the scales fell from his eyes in a previous story and he realised she is not the right wife for a retiring boulevardier fond of the quiet life.
Bobbie is one of the few women in Bertie's life who speaks his language. Most of the ghastly females he almost marries reveal their ghastliness in part by not understanding Bertie's slangy style. But Bobbie is one of him, if you see what I mean. So there's a real threat that Bertie might marry her and let himself in for a life filled with outrages that stagger humanity.
Also among those present is Aubrey Upjohn, the vicious headmaster of Bertie's preparatory school. Upjohn has been mentioned often in previous stories as the principal (or do I mean principle?) villain of Bertie's childhood.
It has the makings of a classic.
Why it fails as a story is that the stakes are too low. Virtually all the threats that hang over the characters hang over them because they want to help Bertie's uncle, Tom Travers, make a lot of money in a business deal. Tom is already very rich, so what is at stake is that, having wanted to become slightly richer, he might not, which would be upsetting.
For this, various characters willingly accept life-changing threats to themselves and their loved ones. It doesn't really add up. I can accept that Bertie is very grateful to his uncle for the money he sent Bertie when he was at school, but I can't see him risking other people's happinesses over it.
It seems to me that a simple tweak could have fixed this: if Tom had actually lost all his money, and needed this business deal to go through in order to become rich again and maintain his and Aunt Dahlia's lifestyle, and keep the chef Anatole on the payroll, then all would make sense. To justify life-changing risks, you need life-changing stakes.
The jeopardy Bertie faces is also half-baked. He often talks up events as if they are extremely threatening to him; but he seems neurotic, massively over-reacting to threats such as the exposure of Swordfish. Compared to the threat of being torn limb from limb by a would-be fascist dictator of England, or marrying Madeleine Bassett, the situations that terrify Bertie in this one are small fry.
wonderful. several laugh-out-loud parts so you might want to confine your reading to a secluded setting lest you startle others.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Incredible writing. Perhaps the best and funniest Wodehouse book.
I was all prepared to not really enjoy this book, but I did. Funny, funny, funny.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No