Monday, 11 March 2013

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (Jeeves #13)

Hardcover, 240 pages
Published December 17th 2002 by Everyman's Library (first published 1963)

ISBN
184159105X (ISBN13: 9781841591056)
edition language
English
original title
Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
series
Jeeves #13
characters
Jeeves, Rodrick Spode, Sir Watkyn Bassett, Bertram "Bertie" Wooster, Augustus "Gussie" Fink-Nottle

Synopsis-


 
Bertie Wooster vows that nothing will induce him to return to Totleigh Towers, lair of former magistrate Sir Watkyn Bassett. Apart from Sir Watkyn himself, the place is infested with his ghastly daughter Madeline and her admirer, would-be dictator Roderick Spode. But when his old friend 'Stinker' Pinker asks for Bertie's help, there is nothing for it but to buckle down and go there. His subsequent adventures involve a black statuette, a Brazilian explorer with a healthy appetite for whisky-and-soda, an angry policeman, and all the horrors of a school treat. It takes Jeeves, posing as Chief Inspector Witherspoon of the Yard, to sort out the mess and retrieve his employer from the soup.
 
My Review-
 
Stiff Upper Lips Jeeves has Jeeves trying to play games to get his master Bertram ‘Bertie’ Wooster to get back to Totleigh Towers when he has vowed that nothing in this world will induce him to go back to the same.

Generally when you reach the end of a chapter of a B&J book what happens is things tend to become more complex and that somehow generates a mystery in the minds of the reader about what shall happen next. That is absent in this book. What I observed was halfway through the chapter things got almost there and took a sharp U-turn. With the beginning of the next chapter somehow things were again the same. There is too much repetition. The funny moments are not as funny for the very same reason. Somewhere it seems as if it is spot on, right how Wodehouse does it. But, again Wodehouse seems to have given up on that winning formula and deviating in a whole new direction. However it is not so. Many old characters make reappearance and one has to have read all of them the earlier books in the series to get the story in this one. So its definitely not for those who are new to the dry humor and wit of Wodehouse. Other than that you pick up this book and it’s not going to disappoint you.
Posted by at 10:29 0 comments

Jeeves In The Offing (Jeeves #12)

Paperback, 208 pages
Published November 1st 2000 by Touchstone (first published 1960)

ISBN
0743203593 (ISBN13: 9780743203593)
edition language
English
original title
Jeeves in the Offing (Jeeves, #12)
series
Jeeves #12
characters
Jeeves, Bertram "Bertie" Wooster


Synopsis-
A Bertie and Jeeves classic, featuring a cow-creamer, the redheaded Miss Wickham, and the formidable schoolmaster Aubrey Upjohn. Jeeves is infallible. Jeeves is indispensable. Unfortunately, in How Right You Are, Jeeves, he is also in absentia. In this wonderful slice of Woosterian mayhem, Bertie has sent that prince among gentlemen's gentlemen off on his annual vacation. Soon, drowning dachshunds, broken engagements, and inextricable complications lead to the only possible conclusion: "We must put our trust in a higher power. Go and fetch Jeeves!"

My Review-
 
"It was the first time I had met the Vinton Street chap [a policeman], always hitherto having patronized his trade rival at Bosher Street, but Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps, who was introduced to him on the morning of January the first one year, had told me he was a man to avoid, and the truth of this was now borne in upon me in no uncertain manner. It seemed to me, as I stood listening to the cop running through the story sequence, that Barmy, in describing this Solon as a twenty-minute egg with many of the less lovable qualities of some high-up official of the Spanish Inquisition, had understated rather than exaggerated the facts."


This particular quote from this volume makes me fall in love with the writer. Wodehouse’s humor is impeccable.
This particular novel was about Bertie's efforts to avoid matrimony, help his aunt conceal her pawning of a pearl necklace, and avoid bodily injury and insult. The storyline does justice to the interesting title. There are a few small little stories going around and when they finally converge it is sheer madness. And it has always been the madness that has drawn me towards B&J.

By the way I picked up a few insults from this one – how does “inhuman gargoyle” grab you? Or “You ghastly sheepfaced fugitive from hell”? Or even “You revoting young piece of cheese”? I should say, that although I love these books, I expect a lot of people won’t – my friend Tash can’t stand them. Seems like I was born in the wrong period. Things would have been way better had I been born during those times.
Sheesh! My favorite B&J book so far!
Posted by at 10:24 0 comments

Jeeves and The Feudal Spirit (Jeeves # 11)

Hardcover, 231 pages
Published January 1st 2002 by Overlook Hardcover (first published 1954)

ISBN
1585672297 (ISBN13: 9781585672295)
edition language
English
original title
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
series
Jeeves #11
 
Synopsis-
Fans of P. G. Wodehouse's comic genius are legion, and their devotion to his masterful command of the hilarity borders on an obsession.

In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Bertie is in it up to his neck when a perfectly harmless visit to Aunt Dahlia at Brinkley Court finds him engaged and beleaguered on all sides, and only Jeeves can save the day.
 
My Review-
 
."A very hearty pip-pip to you, old ancestor," I said, well pleased, for she is a woman with whom it is always a privilege to chew the fat.

"And a rousing toodle-oo to you, you young blot on the landscape," she replied cordially.***

"You wished to see me?"

"Yes, but not in the way you're looking now. I'd have preferred you to have fractured your spine or at least to have broken a couple of ankles and got a touch of leprosy."

"My dear Dahlia!"

"I'm not your dear Dahlia. I'm a seething volcano."

 

Aunt Dahlia has been a mystery as a character to the readers making swift entries and exits of the plot. With Jeeves in the Offing, the reader gets his/her insight into her character. She has always come across as an annoying aunt who looks down upon others and thinks highly of ONLY herself. She has never left a chance to insult her in the cruelest and prompt way. Jeeves in the Offing is just an extension of the same.

Some might think that when the plot does not change much with each volume then what is the purpose of writing so many volumes? I’d say nothing much but Wodehouse’s wonderful ways at making things hilarious. With doomed lovers, a lazy, forever on a vacation Bertram Wooster and a cunning butler Jeeves Wodehouse manages to weave a story that brings a smile on your face.

Other than that I find no other words or adjective to describe other than his work. A little disappointment happens every time and it is bound to happen because the story is set in 1920’s even if it promises to be set in 1860’s.
Posted by at 10:23 0 comments

Ring For Jeeves (Jeeves #10)

Hardcover, 208 pages
Published April 12th 2004 by Overlook Hardcover (first published 1953)

ISBN
1585675245 (ISBN13: 9781585675241)
edition language
English
original title
Ring for Jeeves
series
Jeeves #10
characters
Jeeves, Captain Biggar


Synopsis-
Spring brings four more antic novels by P. G. Wodehouse. In "Quick Service" a complicated chain of events is set into motion after Mrs. Chavender takes a bite of breakfast ham, and readers are reminded that disaster can be averted if you "Ring for Jeeves." Bertie Wooster avoids Madeleine Bassett in "Much Obliged, Jeeves," at Blandings Castle, in "Uncle Fred in the pringtime," Uncle Fred is asked to foil a plot to steal a prize pig.

My Review-
 
Ring For Jeeves is what happens when Bertie Wooster is taken away from the plot. Jeeves is sent away temporarily to serve as the butler for Lord Bill Towesceter. Jeeves deviates from his usual self and indulges in gambling, robbing and what not.

This is the most negative review I’ve ever written for a Wodehouse book. The problem I guess lies with the plot and the narration. It is simply because of the fact that Wooster isn’t there. Wooster is the one who is the narrator. Wooster is the person who messes things up and cracks you up. So when Wooster is gone, you realise how and what does he do to the plot. He is clumsy and creates the chaos, the mess. He makes the plot convoluted and the book readable.

Lord Bill Towesceter is a lot like Bertie but not funny enough as Wooster. My expectations suffer a mild dip with this book. Ring For Jeeves is a disappointment and should not be a recommendation either for someone who loves Wodehouse or for someone who is about to pick up his first Wodehouse book.

A good Wodehouse book, maybe; but a very poor B&J book.
Posted by at 10:23 0 comments

Thursday, 7 March 2013

The Mating Season (Jeeves #9)

Hardcover, 272 pages
Published January 1st 2002 by Overlook Hardcover (first published 1949)

ISBN
1585672319 (ISBN13: 9781585672318)
edition language
English
original title
The Mating Season
series
Jeeves #9
characters
Jeeves, Bertram "Bertie" Wooster, Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright, Augustus "Gussie" Fink-Nottle, Madeline Basset

Synopsis-
Fans of P. G. Wodehouse's comic genius are legion, and their devotion to his masterful command of the hilarity borders on an obsession.

The Mating Season is a time of love, mistaken identity, and mishap for Bertie, Gussie Fink-Nottle and other guests staying at Deverill Hall-luckily there's unflappable Jeeves to set things right.

My Review-
 
Fink-Nottle? Did you read that? Oh.My. God. Wodehouse is a genius and so is Wooster. I realized that after reading nine books. I mean what is a B&J book without Bertie’s narration. Bertie is a genius. ACCEPT IT!

 Here, the fiasco is in the Deverie Hall, Hampshire where our lovely Gussie Fink-Nottle has been arrested. Bertie with his intelligent butler Jeeves comes to the rescue and traps himself in a convoluted plot where no one else but Jeeves could help him out of!


This is springtime, the mating season, when, as you probably know, a livelier iris gleams upon the burnished dove and a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

This is how the book starts and Bertie continues to dread ‘The Mating Season’ with

- I tell you Jeeves, the spirits are low. I don't know if you have been tied hand and foot to a chair in front of a barrell of gunpowder with an inch of lighted candle on top of it?
- No, sir, I have not had the experience.
- Well, that's how I'm feeling. I'm just clenching the teeth and waiting for the bang.


Don’t worry. You’ll reach the end of the book with a fat smile on your face.
And to end this review, shall I leave you with a quote?

"Except for knowing that when you've heard one, you've heard them all, I'm not really an authority on violin solos, so cannot state definitely whether La Pulbrook's was or was not a credit to the accomplices who had taught her the use of the instrument. It was loud in spots and less loud in other spots, and it had that quality which I have noticed in all violin solos, of seeming to last much longer than it actually did."
Posted by at 21:13 0 comments

Jeeves In The Morning (Jeeves #8)

Paperback, 256 pages
Published March 14th 1990 by Harper Perennial (first published 1946)

ISBN
0060972823 (ISBN13: 9780060972820)
edition language
English
original title
Jeeves in the Morning
series
Jeeves #8
characters
Jeeves, Bertram "Bertie" Wooster, Aunt Agatha, Lord Worplesdon, Stilton Cheesewright
 
Synopsis-
Joy in the Morning is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on August 22, 1946 by Doubleday & Co., New York, and in the United Kingdom on June 2, 1947 by Herbert Jenkins, London. Some later American paperback editions bore the title Jeeves in the Morning.
The story is another adventure of Bertie Wooster and his resourceful valet Jeeves.
The title derives from an English translation of Psalms 30:5:
"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

Bertie is persuaded to brave the home of his fearsome Aunt Agatha and her husband Lord Worplesdon, knowing that his former fiancee, the beautiful and formidably intellectual Lady Florence Craye will also be in attendance. What ensues will come to be remembered as The Steeple Bumpleigh Horror, with Bertie under constant threat of engagement to Craye, violence from her oafish suitor Stilton Cheesewright, the unfortunate interventions of her young brother Edwin and unnamed peril from the acid tongue of Aunt Agatha. Only the masterful Jeeves can save the day.

My Review-

There is a certain kind of joy that hits you every time you’re reading B&J. You know the kind of jokes they crack, the gestures they make, they’re all known and yet you laugh for something is so funny about it that it tickles your senses. The names are really funny and reading those names time and again alone will make you laugh. Steeple Bumpliegh, Boko Fiddleworth, Percy Lord Worplesdon. You get it, don’t you?

There is a lot of wit that continues to boil over from time to time. Bertie continuously incompletely or incorrectly cites literature and Jeeves makes the usual corrections along with the proper quotes that’d fit in. Wodehouse seems to have found the magic formula of that wonderful potion and diligently sticks to it again. It is frothy, witty, delightful and nevertheless an entertainer.

 I was reading this on a family dinner and I ended up laughing like a maniac. My public image is now of a girl who reads books even on family dinners and laughs with her mouth full of food.
Posted by at 21:12 0 comments

The Code Of The Woosters (Jeeves #7)

Hardcover, Everyman Wodehouse, 208 pages
Published April 28th 2000 by Everyman's Library (first published 1938)

ISBN
1841591009 (ISBN13: 9781841591001)
edition language
English
original title
The Code of the Woosters
series
Jeeves #7
characters
Jeeves, Aunt Dahlia, Rodrick Spode, Stephanie Byng, Sir Watkyn Bassett
setting
United Kingdom
Synopsis-
Nothing but trouble can ensue when Bertie Wooster's Aunt Dahlia instructs him to steal a silver jug from Totleigh Towers, home of magistrate and hell-hound, Sir Watkyn Bassett. First he must face the peril of Sir Watkyn's droopy daughter, Madeline, and then the terrors of would-be Dictator, Roderick Spode and his gang of Black Shorts. But when duty calls, Bertram answers, and so there follows what he himself calls 'the sinister affair of Gussie Fink-Nottle, Madeline Bassett, old Pop Bassett, Stiffy Byng, the Rev H.P. ('Stinker') Pinker, the eighteenth-century cow-creamer and the small, brown, leather-covered notebook'. In a plot with more twists than an English country lane, it takes all the ingenuity of Jeeves to extract his master from the soup again.

My Review-
 
As I go on in my voyage of devouring the B&J series, I realise how different the idea of a hero is for P.G. Wodehouse. Bertie maybe rich but he is like no other protagonist. Jeeves is one of the main charaters but even after all this reading that I’ve done, I’m pretty unsure of who he really is. He might be intelligent and clever but sometimes I feel unsure of where does his loyalty really lie.

At the heart of each story lies Bertie Wooster who is a pro at making mess and then there is Jeeves who is there to save the day with his brains. That doesn’t change much with all of the books I’ve read so far. Aunt Dahlia has sent Bertie to Totleigh Towers to steal a silver jug. This is no cakewalk and involves a lot twists. The twists and turns here are perfectly timed and leave you in a state of shock while you roll on the floor roaring with laughter. The whole night I kept on saying to myself just one more chapter and I go to sleep. That unfortunately did not happen. With red droopy eyes that were craving sleep I read this book. I do not regret not sleeping the whole night. It was completely worth it.

Here. Check this out.

I suppose even Dictators have their chummy moments, when they put their feet up and relax with the boys, but it was plain from the outset that if Roderick Spode had a sunnier side, he had not come with any idea of exhibiting it now. His manner was curt. One sensed the absence of the bonhomous note.
...
Here he laid a hand on my shoulder, and I can't remember when I have experienced anything more unpleasant. Apart from what Jeeves would have called the symbolism of the action, he had a grip like the bite of a horse.
"Did you say 'Oh yes?'" he asked.
"Oh no," I assured him."
Posted by at 21:10 0 comments
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