Very funny frivolous farce
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One of the first Jeeves and Bertie books by English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, this is really a series of loosely connected short stories. Most of them (though not all) deals with dim witted bachelor Bertie Wooster, with the help of his inimitable and intelligent butler Jeeves, trying to help his friend Bingo Little, who can't fail to fall in love with the first woman in his sight. Bingo fears that if his uncle doesn't like the current woman he is wooing, he will cut the rent he depends on for living. By the time Bertie and Jeeves has the problem kind of sorted out, Bingo has lose interest in the woman. The other stories deal with Bertie trying to get himself out of his own problems, and with his aunt Agatha, who is always looking for a woman to marry him. Very funny sort of frivolous comedy.
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Top notch cast
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Just the job to while away a long car journey. It's worth the cost of the CD simply to hear Michael Horden intone "Indeed, sir" or Richard Briers exclaim "Dash it!". It would easily be possible to make the 'mentally negligible' Bertie Wooster too ridiculous, but Briers somehow keeps the character just this side of caricature.
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The Inimitable P G Wodehouse
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Almost the first Jeeves and Wooster novel. Like `The Indiscretions of Archie' before it rather than be a novel the book is basically a series of short stories with a constant theme, that's not intended as a criticism as Wodehouse is the master of the short form and the stories are all fantastic. Although the book is less satisfying than the subsequent Jeeves novels, the thread running through the episodes make it better than a simple collection of stories.
This book introduces us to Bingo Little whom is constantly falling in love and requiring Jeeves to `scare up a happy ending'. Jeeves is not entirely altruistic and is sometimes known to further his own interests, making the `happy endings' not entirely predictable and adding to the almost perfect comedy Wodehouse was peddling at this stage in his career. Also new additions to the Wodehouse cast of characters are Honoria Glossop whom is one of many of Bingo's true loves much to the relief of Bertie Wooster whom is under his detested Aunt's instruction to woo himself.
Due to the famous Wodehouse misunderstandings and the `old noblesse obliqe', Bertie becomes engaged to Honoria who see's him very much as clay regarding moulding. Caddying for Honoria in a shopping expedition is one thing but when Honoria calls for Jeeves to be dismissed drastic measures are required.
Aid comes in the form of Honoria's father Nerve Specialist Sir Roderick Glossop, the world famous `Brain Doctor'. Can Jeeves convince Sir Roderick that Bertie's sanity is less than assured before tragedy strikes?
If you don't laugh out loud then you'll hear a couple of ribs part from their moorings under the strain. I think it prudent to illustrate the crisp language by giving the last word to Mr Wooster describing the lateness of the hour that he arrived at Twing Hall `It was only by getting into my evening things in record time and taking the stairs to the dinner-room in a couple of bounds that I managed to dead-heat with the soup.'
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What ho!
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Although "The Inimitable Jeeves" is not the first appearance of the famous double act, Jeeves and Wooster, it is the first book to be 'completely' dedicated to them. It was first published in 1923, and was originally known in America as, simply, "Jeeves".
The book is set in the 1920s England and features Wodehouse's best known creations : Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves. Bertie is the book's wealthy, good-natured and rather dim narrator. He's a member of the "idle rich" and, rather than having to work for a living, lives off an allowance provided by his uncle. He spends much of his time in the bar-room of the Drones Club, is fond of the occasional wager and has an appalling dress sense. Luckily, Bertie has Jeeves to look after him. Without Jeeves, Bertie's life would be a mess : he makes an excellent hangover cure, his bets usually win and he's intelligent enough to rescue Bertie from nearly any situation. He disapproves of Bertie's more garish items of clothing, and will - occasionally - take it upon himself to deal with the offending item.
All of the short stories are connected and most of them involve Bertie's friend Bingo Little, who is always falling in love - occasionally while still 'officially' in love with another. It's Bingo who most consistently drops Bertie into trouble : Bingo's schemes generally aim for an increase in his allowance from his Uncle, with the intention of marrying his latest girlfriend. Generally, Bingo's intended is a girl his uncle wouldn't approve of - so he ropes Bertie and Jeeves into helping him out. There are also appearances for Bertie's troublesome cousins, Claude and Eustace, a devious bookmaker called Steggles and Bertie's fearsome Aunt Agatha. Bertie is held in very low esteem by Agatha, but she is determined that Bertie should marry - Bertie's opinion, as far as she is concerned, is irrelevant.
A very easy and enjoyable read.
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Wodehouse is the best
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I love PG Wodehouse's book - especially the ones about Jeeves and Wooster. Wodehouse's humor is kind and gentle and funnier than most other authors' around today. To discover that his books were given out on audio just made my day. I highly recommend this audio book.
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P G Tips
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There are certain books and certain authors one is coy about naming in the realms of favourites - Mr Wodehouse is one.
Ever since teenageness I've been drawn to the chaos of the phantom upper-class world he scratched out - less enamoured, I have to say, of the American excursions. What attracts is difficult to say - maybe the downright silliness of them.
Wodehouse was a writer of copious amounts - included lyrics for musical comedies (some 30 all told - around 250 songs). And therein lies the first clue to enjoying a Wodehouse - a good one will be like spending a couple of hours in the theatre - a `musical comedy' approach is necessary, a `between-the-wars', musical comedy approach in fact.
Love and ridiculous complications, mad uncles and tart aunts, rich old fogies and poverty stricken young things ... warm balmy, never to be repeated summer days, and policemen (who appear solely for the purpose of knocking their helmets off in order to be captured and dragged along to the local magistrate - who will turn out to be the offenders, as-yet-un-met father of newly affianced fiancé).
Uncle Fred in the Springtime has most of these elements or a variation thereof - and the Blanding's Pig.
The story is not really essential - in this case it revolves around one Uncle, Fred, trying to get another Uncle, the Loony Duke of Dunstable, to behave in a reasonable manner and cough up lots of money to support his poetry writing nephew in the enterprise of an onion soup stall in Picadilly, which will facilitate the said poet's marriage - to the dance teaching daughter of a private detective. There is also the sub plot of preventing the removal of Lord Emsworth's pig by the poker wielding Duke, who is convinced Emsworth wishes to enter the pig in the Derby, and the supplying of even more money to Fred's nephew who is in danger of several broken limbs and a long stay in a hospital bed on account of debts unpaid.
Confused? - you are allowed to be. And yet there is a clarity in the confusion - you never get confused enough to lose track, (either that, or you are laughing too much to care) and something new pops up so quickly you do not notice any confusion in yourself whilst noticing it in the story.
And that's my next tip - take a chair into the garden, a bowl of strawberries (peppered) and an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne and one flute. Position yourself - and read. Don't `do' a Wodehouse in too many sessions - it's a two act-er rather than five. Just let the whole silly story flow over you and worryeth not about following every detail. Being tipsy helps.
Most Wodehouses have a central character around whom things fly (revolve is far too sedate a word). Here it is Uncle Fred - not surprising really, given the title.
He's a lovely old buffer - Shakespeare quoting, so an instant success with me - although not so with his nephew and niece, nor his fortunately absent wife. He has an aging Puck-like quality of solving problems in a way which causes maximum difficulties for all around, including `Uncle Fred'. Rarely does he doubt himself - everything will resolve satisfactorily, by magic it seems.
Fred is very `hands-on' - preferably his nephews or other gullible young tyke, or co-operative young tyke-ess (who knows a good plan when she sees it). Nice young things fall for him instantly - sour prunes not so (one is left with the suspicion his absent wife is more the former than latter - but plays a good part in appearing shrivelled).
Fred's biggest challenge is his contemporaries - who seem to have grown crabbed with age. Principle is Emsworth's wife - who is the sort of woman who'd take a hairbrush to the backside of some poor nephew at the drop of a cricket ball (through the greenhouse window). Her biggest weapon is knowledge - of Fred's wife - and access to a jungle telegraph more effective than e-mail. A minor danger, swiftly dealt with, is his neice - who is apprentice sour prune.
In a similar class to the niece, is the secretary - male. I suspect Wodehouse had problems with one of these early in life and consequently took a hatchet to the species whenever the opportunity arouse. Dishonest, devious, cowardly, ganging up with the united forces of vinegar-women and Loony-Dukedom. Fortunately he gets truly egged.
And there is the-passion-for-taking-money-off-other-people-with-a-card-game, Private Detective - who just happens to be the father of a wanna-be poet's bride.
How could a story fail with such a classic bunch of caricatures? Quite easily - but not on Wodehouse's typewriter. Lesser writers would find it very difficult to assemble an entertaining castle on such foundations.
Wodehouse's cement is a wit with language - and spare, effective, cutting dialogue (no doubt sharpened in the fifteen plays he joint wrote). It is not surprising adaptations of his novels and stories make such good television.
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Uncle Fred Flits by Blandings
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If not the best then, at worst, `Uncle Fred in the Springtime' is one of the best Wodehouse novels. It is a sort of a `Best of Wodehouse' with Pongo Twistleton and his Uncle Fred, whom we met previously in `Young Men in Spats', flitting by Blandings Castle under an assumed name, as is traditional to first time visitors. The name in question belongs to Roderick Glossop, renowned psychiatrist, whom has had to pronounce Bertie Wooster certifiable on more than one occasion.
Also present at Blandings are Valerie Twistleton whom has become estranged from her fiancée, Horace Pendlebury-Davenport, whose Uncle, the Duke of Dunstable is determined to remove Lord Emsworth's beloved pig with the help of the efficient Baxter, Emsworth's discharged secretary. Polly Pott is also posing as a secretary to secure the funds she requires to marry her estranged fiancée, Ricky Gilpin, a further nephew of Dunstable.
Uncle Fred believes that it is his mission to spread sweetness and light throughout the world but to unite Valerie and Horace, Polly and Ricky whist separating Dunstable and the Empress and Baxter and Emsworth without driving Pongo to desertion will take all of his and Wodehouse's guile. The sweetness and light is infectious not just through Blandings Castle but is easily caught by the reader. The symptoms are so great only a fool would seek a cure.
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