Although I’ve watched and enjoyed all of the Jeeves and Wooster tv series starring Fry and Laurie, this is my first time reading any of the original stories, and I was looking forward to it. As expected, this book deals with the various scrapes and jams that the estimable Bertie Wooster finds himself embroiled in, usually involving fearsome aunts setting him up with a suitable gel to marry or feckless friends tapping him up for ready cash. However sticky the situation, Bertie is inevitably rescued by his inimitable butler Jeeves, who is “an amazing cove … so dashed competent in every respect”
This book was originally published as a series of short stories in the Strand Magazine in 1920 and 1921, and arranged here to form a narrative with a little bit of rearrangement. Each chapter stands nicely on its own, making for an enjoyable read, mostly with a similar structure involving Bertie’s idiot chum Bingo Little falling hopelessly in love with some unsuitable girl and needing help somehow, or some convoluted scheme involving betting on the length of a Sunday sermon or a school sports day. Another recurring motif is Bertie deciding that a particular item of clothing is de rigueur (colour coded spats and jolly purple socks!) much to Jeeves unspoken dismay.
The stories are all narrated by Bertie with Jeeves remaining as a Machiavellian figure in the background who ‘pours silently’ into a room, quietly fixing things through his network of contacts with the staff of other gentlemen of leisure. I loved the breezy tone of the book and frequently laughed out loud at a particular turn of phrase or farcical plot twist. I’d certainly like to read more of these!
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59254
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