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fictionfan's review against another edition
5.0
Knotted locks and knitted socks...
Bertie isn’t keen on visiting Steeple Bumpleigh, home to Aunt Agatha, the most terrifying of his aunts. But Jeeves is keen to do a spot of fishing and Uncle Percy needs Jeeves’ help in finding a way to pull off a big business deal, so Bertie gives in gracefully. After all, Aunt Agatha is off elsewhere on a visit, ex-fiancée Florence Craye can be no threat to his bachelorhood now that she’s engaged to D’Arcy “Stilton” Cheesewright, and while his young cousin Edwin is always a pestilence, how much harm could one Boy Scout possibly do? But when Florence and Stilton fall out over Stilton’s insistence on being the village policeman and Edwin burns down Bertie’s cottage whilst doing his daily act of kindness, things take a sinister turn. Meantime Uncle Percy is refusing to allow his ward Nobby Hopwood to marry the light of her life, Boko Fittleworth. Even for Jeeves, it will be a tall order to set everything right...
All the Jeeves and Wooster books have fundamentally the same plot, which is part of their charm but doesn’t make it easy to find new things to say in reviews! This is a particular favourite of mine, partly because I like Florence as one of Bertie’s recurring girlfriends – she’s not as drippy as Madeline nor as haughty as Honoria, and I often felt she would have been a serious contender in the matrimonial stakes had it not been for her desire to improve poor Bertie’s mind by forcing him to read highbrow literature. Bertie, as we know, prefers to relax with the latest murder mystery. Edwin and his acts of kindness bring trauma and despair to all his unwilling victims and much hilarity to the reader.
Jonathan Cecil is the perfect narrator for these books. His Bertie is Bertie, and he’s brilliant at creating appropriate voices and personas for the whole cast of characters. In this one, there’s a fabulous scene where Uncle Percy gets riotously drunk and Cecil’s performance had me chuckling and guffawing all the way through. If you need a bit of joy in the morning, the evening or any other time, I heartily recommend this and the other Jeeves audiobooks – they should be available on prescription!
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Bertie isn’t keen on visiting Steeple Bumpleigh, home to Aunt Agatha, the most terrifying of his aunts. But Jeeves is keen to do a spot of fishing and Uncle Percy needs Jeeves’ help in finding a way to pull off a big business deal, so Bertie gives in gracefully. After all, Aunt Agatha is off elsewhere on a visit, ex-fiancée Florence Craye can be no threat to his bachelorhood now that she’s engaged to D’Arcy “Stilton” Cheesewright, and while his young cousin Edwin is always a pestilence, how much harm could one Boy Scout possibly do? But when Florence and Stilton fall out over Stilton’s insistence on being the village policeman and Edwin burns down Bertie’s cottage whilst doing his daily act of kindness, things take a sinister turn. Meantime Uncle Percy is refusing to allow his ward Nobby Hopwood to marry the light of her life, Boko Fittleworth. Even for Jeeves, it will be a tall order to set everything right...
All the Jeeves and Wooster books have fundamentally the same plot, which is part of their charm but doesn’t make it easy to find new things to say in reviews! This is a particular favourite of mine, partly because I like Florence as one of Bertie’s recurring girlfriends – she’s not as drippy as Madeline nor as haughty as Honoria, and I often felt she would have been a serious contender in the matrimonial stakes had it not been for her desire to improve poor Bertie’s mind by forcing him to read highbrow literature. Bertie, as we know, prefers to relax with the latest murder mystery. Edwin and his acts of kindness bring trauma and despair to all his unwilling victims and much hilarity to the reader.
Jonathan Cecil is the perfect narrator for these books. His Bertie is Bertie, and he’s brilliant at creating appropriate voices and personas for the whole cast of characters. In this one, there’s a fabulous scene where Uncle Percy gets riotously drunk and Cecil’s performance had me chuckling and guffawing all the way through. If you need a bit of joy in the morning, the evening or any other time, I heartily recommend this and the other Jeeves audiobooks – they should be available on prescription!
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
wodecraft's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jasonfurman's review against another edition
4.0
Another delightful Bertie and Jeeves book, brilliantly read by Jonathan Cecil.
chrysalis11's review against another edition
4.0
Only Wodehouse can do what Wodehouse can. A delightful story with the good ol' Worplesdon, Boko, Stilton and co. stirring up troubles like no other. Reading a Jeeves novel is always a happy indulgence, you only want more.
ajraffles's review against another edition
3.0
I tell you, the more books I read from the Jeeves series, the more I really wonder how Bertie puts up with it all! There is having a cheery disposition and bright outlook on life while helping friends and family now and again, and then there is what Bertie does. Not to mention that usually if Bertie needs assistance, everyone turns a blind eye, says they have their own problems to attend to, or tells him to go get Jeeves and leave them be! If I had to deal even with just the events in THIS story, I would have been shouting until my voice was hoarse and my face was red.
I suppose that's what separates me from the Bertie Woosters of the world. Not only has he got to manage to keep one engagement on so that he can keep himself off the scaffolding--or rather keep out of the marital altar--he has to manage to secure for another couple the blessing so that they CAN get married. Throw into it the fact that he has to deal with a cousin (by marriage) bent on doing "good deeds" that inevitably misfire back at Bertie/intended recipients, manage to keep away from a wrathful old chum who thinks he is sneaking in on his affianced, AND ensure that a deal goes down between his uncle (by marriage) and a businessman from America, and you're wondering how Bertie can handle not just clinging to a bottle of the finest (and strongest) alcohol available to him.
Jeeves is there to sort it all out, as always, although poor Bertie often has to leap through embarrassing and somewhat illegal hoops in order to obtain the end result.
It was a good romp, as Wodehouse usually is, but when measured up against the previous two that I read (ack! I don't have seven! Must remedy this and purchase it soon!), it falls a little short of such stellar reads. Still a few laughs to be had, and still worth it to marvel at how quickly Jeeves can work out schemes intended to please all present in the end whilst simultaneously fishing his young master out of the soup.
I suppose that's what separates me from the Bertie Woosters of the world. Not only has he got to manage to keep one engagement on so that he can keep himself off the scaffolding--or rather keep out of the marital altar--he has to manage to secure for another couple the blessing so that they CAN get married. Throw into it the fact that he has to deal with a cousin (by marriage) bent on doing "good deeds" that inevitably misfire back at Bertie/intended recipients, manage to keep away from a wrathful old chum who thinks he is sneaking in on his affianced, AND ensure that a deal goes down between his uncle (by marriage) and a businessman from America, and you're wondering how Bertie can handle not just clinging to a bottle of the finest (and strongest) alcohol available to him.
Jeeves is there to sort it all out, as always, although poor Bertie often has to leap through embarrassing and somewhat illegal hoops in order to obtain the end result.
It was a good romp, as Wodehouse usually is, but when measured up against the previous two that I read (ack! I don't have seven! Must remedy this and purchase it soon!), it falls a little short of such stellar reads. Still a few laughs to be had, and still worth it to marvel at how quickly Jeeves can work out schemes intended to please all present in the end whilst simultaneously fishing his young master out of the soup.