(Published 1981, Paperback Edition 557 pages)
Back in the early twentieth century, Mr. Wodehouse's works were not considered "serious" literature. The three works compiled in "Life With Jeeves" are certainly not high-minded material. "The Inimitable Jeeves" (1923), "Very Good, Jeeves" (1930), and "Right Ho, Jeeves" (1933) are very heavy-handed satires. In real life, people aren't consistently this clueless. There's nothing wrong with this type of literature and it says something that almost a hundred years later, P.G. Wodehouse is still going strong while other notable writers from back then have gone the way of the Dodo.
The narrator and main protagonist of the stories is a not very bright, spineless, rich, late-20-year-old named Bertram "Bertie" Wooster. Though the works have the butler's name in it, the stories revolve around Bertie's dilemmas. His chestnuts are continually pulled out of the fire by the reliable Jeeves. The stories involve mundane things such as gambling, romance, social status and oodles of miscommunication.
The works are highly amusing and set at a leisurely pace compared to much of today's entertainment. However, the frequent use of British slang and 1920s phrases had me often grabbing my dictionary. Words such as chemmy, blighters, bally, chokey, and rummy are not words you hear or read on this side of the pond. There are a handful of colorful characters who inhabit these stories: Bertie's dictatorial Aunt Agatha, the pugnacious Aunt Dahlia, fickle Bingo Small, impish college cousins Claude & Eustace, man-child Tuppy Glossop and others. They are ALL over-exaggerations of the human condition. The stories are a delightful throwback to a time when sex and profanity were handled with creative euphemisms if at all. The story "The Ordeal of Young Tuppy" just may be the funniest sports short story I've ever read. "Life With Jeeves" is my first taste of P.G. Wodehouse's work, but it certainly won't be my last.
The narrator and main protagonist of the stories is a not very bright, spineless, rich, late-20-year-old named Bertram "Bertie" Wooster. Though the works have the butler's name in it, the stories revolve around Bertie's dilemmas. His chestnuts are continually pulled out of the fire by the reliable Jeeves. The stories involve mundane things such as gambling, romance, social status and oodles of miscommunication.
The works are highly amusing and set at a leisurely pace compared to much of today's entertainment. However, the frequent use of British slang and 1920s phrases had me often grabbing my dictionary. Words such as chemmy, blighters, bally, chokey, and rummy are not words you hear or read on this side of the pond. There are a handful of colorful characters who inhabit these stories: Bertie's dictatorial Aunt Agatha, the pugnacious Aunt Dahlia, fickle Bingo Small, impish college cousins Claude & Eustace, man-child Tuppy Glossop and others. They are ALL over-exaggerations of the human condition. The stories are a delightful throwback to a time when sex and profanity were handled with creative euphemisms if at all. The story "The Ordeal of Young Tuppy" just may be the funniest sports short story I've ever read. "Life With Jeeves" is my first taste of P.G. Wodehouse's work, but it certainly won't be my last.
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