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A review by christopherc
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
3.0
The Code of the Woosters is one of the few novel-length works about "intellectually negligible" young aristocrat Bertie Wooster and his titan of a valet Jeeves. I found this novel somewhat entertaining, though about two-thirds of the way through it starts to drag and all in all left me unimpressed.
Summarising the setup of the novel would be difficult, but it begins with a battle over a cow-shaped creamer. The cow creamer is desired by Bertie's Aunt Dahlia and Uncle Tom, but is bought instead by Sir Watkyn Bassett, the retired magistrate who once fined Bertie five pounds for stealing a policeman's helmet. Aunt Dahlia gives Bertie a choice between infiltrating Bassett's house and stealing the cow creamer, or never again tasting the wonderful meals of her French chef Anatole. Two related problems are the engagements of Bassett's niece Stephanie "Stiffy" Byng and Bertie's school chum Harold "Stinker" Pinker, and Basset's daughter Madelaine and Wooster friend Gussie Fink-Nottle. There's also Roderick Spode, Watkyn's menacing associate and the leader of a fascist group called the Saviours of Britain. The book was published in 1937, and through the character of Spode, Wodehouse makes a few jabs against Hitler and Mussolini.
In spite of its observation of human social interactions which really are often zany, the novel does seem somewhat far-fetched. A character hears a major revelation but reacts too tamely, the plot's resultion in the last couple of pages seems like an easy way out of a book starting to run out of steam.
There are a few moments in The Code of the Woosters which made me laugh out loud, and therefore I do cautiously recommend the book. However, it is a somewhat insubstantial novel, and falls into a three-star rating. If you've never read Wodehouse before, you might want to try one of his many short stories before tackling an entire novel.
Summarising the setup of the novel would be difficult, but it begins with a battle over a cow-shaped creamer. The cow creamer is desired by Bertie's Aunt Dahlia and Uncle Tom, but is bought instead by Sir Watkyn Bassett, the retired magistrate who once fined Bertie five pounds for stealing a policeman's helmet. Aunt Dahlia gives Bertie a choice between infiltrating Bassett's house and stealing the cow creamer, or never again tasting the wonderful meals of her French chef Anatole. Two related problems are the engagements of Bassett's niece Stephanie "Stiffy" Byng and Bertie's school chum Harold "Stinker" Pinker, and Basset's daughter Madelaine and Wooster friend Gussie Fink-Nottle. There's also Roderick Spode, Watkyn's menacing associate and the leader of a fascist group called the Saviours of Britain. The book was published in 1937, and through the character of Spode, Wodehouse makes a few jabs against Hitler and Mussolini.
In spite of its observation of human social interactions which really are often zany, the novel does seem somewhat far-fetched. A character hears a major revelation but reacts too tamely, the plot's resultion in the last couple of pages seems like an easy way out of a book starting to run out of steam.
There are a few moments in The Code of the Woosters which made me laugh out loud, and therefore I do cautiously recommend the book. However, it is a somewhat insubstantial novel, and falls into a three-star rating. If you've never read Wodehouse before, you might want to try one of his many short stories before tackling an entire novel.