A review by waylander101
Joy in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse

5.0

So here we are, volume eight of Wodehouse's Jeeves stories and the first one I've bothered to review.

Once again we see poor (not in the financial sense) Bertram "Bertie" Wooster manipulated into things by his far more intelligent Gentleman's Gentleman Jeeves. Apparently Jeeves wishes to spend the summer fishing and with that in mind "persuades" Bertie to travel to Steeple Bumpleigh to visit family. With a cast featuring but not limited to: old school chums, former fiancés, cousins, uncles, and the constabulary much misunderstanding and shenanigans ensue.

I, as many of my age and nationality, was introduced to the world of Jeeves and Wooster through the excellent Fry and Laurie adaptation from the early 90s. So here we are some thirty years later and I thought it would be fun to read the books. I say read where I really mean listen to the superb Audible audiobooks read by Jonathan Cecil. Have I mentioned I like these stories?

Wodehouse has ideas... the gentry tend to be rather dim and our man Jeeves is a positive genius... this isn't bad as a plot device and works very well in a "now what is the blighter's plan" way. I really do enjoy these stories though some care must betaken as they were written in a time where some ideas were still thought of as acceptable. That being said if you can accept that 1920s Britain was a very different place there's no reason not to like these tales.

Cecil's performance as narrator has been top notch through all eight of the books I've read(?) listened to(?) so far.