Very Good, Jeeves!
BOOK REVIEW
Very Good, Jeeves! - P.G. Wodehouse
A comic book in text form, enriched with memorably aristocratic dialogue and gags
Rarely while reading a book is the experience supplemented by the soundtrack of my own laughter, so it’s testament to Very Good, Jeeves! that this was a theme across the eleven short stories of Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. I had felt a tinge of embarrassment when I confessed to the bookstore clerk who recommended the title that I’d not previously heard of P.G. Wodehouse, prompting a quasi-lecture about his reputation as one of Britain’s great humourists.
“She seemed to me a good deal like what Cleopatra would have been after going in too freely for the starches and cereals.”
I’ve since learned that Wodehouse was a prolific writer and published over ninety books and two hundred short stories throughout his career. The Jeeves series, widely regarded as his magnum opus, features the first person narrator Bertie Wooster, a naïve and well-intentioned young gentleman who represents the ‘idle rich’ class of the era, and his droll, highly intelligent manservant Jeeves. The stories follow Bertie as he swings from one social mishap to another, with each escapade setting and climaxing in no more than an admirably palatable thirty pages. Invariably, whenever Bertie finds misfortune buzzing about the room, it falls to Jeeves to open a window and usher it out, saving the day.
“ ‘Bertie,’ said Aunt Dahlia, ‘you are the Abysmal Chump. It’s simply because I am fond of you and have influence with the Lunacy Commission that you weren’t put in a padded cell years ago.’ ”
One needs time to get used to reading text that is so comic-like, filled with improbable occurrences and character behaviour, as one naturally expects such dynamism to be paired with the visual imagery of a cartoon. Upon settling into the experience, Very Good, Jeeves! is a hearty page-turner full of wit. Bertie has to navigate extraordinarily peculiar circumstances, like rescuing his aunt’s dog from a successful American play producer, who received the canine as a gift from one of Bertie’s friends as the friend was trying to sell the producer a play she had written. In another jaunt, Bertie is tasked by the same aunt to break up the relationship between his uncle and a young waitress who she deems to be an unworthy wife.
I found the writing very transportive, bringing me back to a time of classic English aristocracy decorated with charming dialogue and excellent dry humour. It satisfied the escapist inside my head, a refreshing break from the heavy non-fiction that has dominated my current to-read pile. I will most certainly be exploring more of this uniquely funny series with time.
-NP, March 2022