Paperback, 176 pages
Published February 24th 1977 by Penguin Books (first published 1974)
Synopsis-
A tome of well-mannered high comedy, from the "unrivaled master of the comedy of manners" - Entertainment Weekly
In 'Aunts Aren't Gentlemen' Bertie Wooster withdraws to the village of Maiden Eggesford on doctor's orders to "sleep the sleep of the just and lead the quiet Martini-less life.
Only the presence of the irrepressible Aunt Dahlia shatters the rustic peace.
A classic - the last book written by Wodehouse featuring Bertie and Jeeves.
With each volume edited and reset and printed on Scottish cream-wove, acid-free paper, sewn and bound in cloth, 'Aunts Aren't Gentlemen' and the rest of the Wodehouse novels published by the Overlook Press are elegant additions to any Wodehouse fan's library.
My Review-
There is only one major issue I have with Wodehouse. Why does he have to
mess up with couples on the verge of marriage to entertain? And I do not
understand why the same silly things make me laugh everytime. I mean everything
is so silly. Bertie is always unsure of his vocabulary. He’d leave one sentence
midway and go on a hunt for that particular word he just can’t remember no
matter how hard he tries. Jeeves is always a buzz away, at his service 24*7.
That very same Jeeves in this book is roughly there half the time. And that
deprived the book from a lot of charm. Of course Bertie’s humor was there but
it doesn’t serve the purpose because of Jeeves’ absence. You obviously have
read back at high school how a certain reaction does send sparks flying until
the proportions of the reactants and the conditions are right. Bingo! That is
what goes wrong here.
This book can be read slowly and steadily taking your own time at getting
over with one joke and then laughing over the other but I devoured it within a
few odd hours. It was more like reading a comic except there is too much that
you could derive from the character’s dialogues and the narrator’s narration.
Aunt Dahlia comes back as a major entity after Jeeves In The Offing. Bertie
is actually advised to go back to the country by his doctor. I swear every time
I read the doctor’s name, I chuckled. Perhaps that’s another USP of a Wodehouse
book. The names. Another one that I repeatedly laughed after saying the name
under my breath was Gussie Fink-Nottle. So yes. The sillyness and the names
combined with chaos is pretty much what Jeeves and Wooster series was all
about. Thumbs up! I don’t think I’ll ever come across a writer who writes humor
the way Wodehouse does.
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