How Right You Are, Jeeves

Jeeves #12

by P.G. Wodehouse

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!"

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Classics, Comedy, Audiobook, British Literature, Historical Fiction

Hardcover

First published April 4, 1960

About the author

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE, was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read over 40 years after his death. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained that of prewar English upper-class society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career.

An acknowledged master of English prose, Wodehouse has been admired both by contemporaries such as Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by more recent writers such as Douglas Adams, Salman Rushdie and Terry Pratchett. Sean O'Casey famously called him "English literature's performing flea", a description that Wodehouse used as the title of a collection of his letters to a friend, Bill Townend.

Best known today for the Jeeves and Blandings Castle novels and short stories, Wodehouse was also a talented playwright and lyricist who was part author and writer of fifteen plays and of 250 lyrics for some thirty musical comedies. He worked with Cole Porter on the musical Anything Goes (1934) and frequently collaborated with Jerome Kern and Guy Bolton. He wrote the lyrics for the hit song Bill in Kern's Show Boat (1927), wrote the lyrics for the Gershwin/Romberg musical Rosalie (1928), and collaborated with Rudolf Friml on a musical version of The Three Musketeers (1928).

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The infamous cow creamer is back.
Aunt Dahlia, Sir Roderick Glossop, and a whole slew of Bertie's nutty friends, ex-fiancees, and frenemies show up in yet another hilarious story.



This is also known as Jeeves in the Offing. <--because Jeeves takes off (ing?) for a vacation, leaving poor Bertie to fend for himself. Don't worry, he comes back at the end to sort it all out.



I know that it doesn't have a lot of Jeeves in it, and maybe that will cause some of you not to like it as much, but I really loved the story. Just the fact that Bertie & Glossop bond in this one made me laugh. Loved it!

And the version I listened to had Ian Carmichael as the narrator.
Bravo! Well done, sir!

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeeves was right, but that title is wrong!

The statement in title form, How Right You Are, Jeeves does two things. It tells you that Jeeves is going to offer up correct advice, as per usual. It also leads you to believe that Jeeves will play a large role in said title, and that is not the case. They should've stuck with the alternate title Jeeves in the Offing.

Jeeves is Bertie Wooster's manservant. Jeeves has extracted Bertie from many a mishap. When Bertie is without Jeeves, he often finds himself neck-deep in the soup. When a Jeeves & Wooster book is without Jeeves, the book often drowns.

How Right You Are, Jeeves is a perfectly adequate addition to the J & W series, but it's not one of P.G. Wodehouse's best. It lacks the wit and fun that fill the pages in spades when both Bertie and Jeeves are doling out the words. In this story, Bertie is left to fend for himself for the most part while his manservant is off on holiday. Jeeves briefly pops his head in to comment on the proceeds, but that's about it.

Drawn again to Brinkley Court to partake in his aunt's French chef par excellence Anatole's cooking, Bertie soon finds himself embroiled in one ridiculous scheme after another, where the bog standard love triangle looks more like an octagon. The plot is a tad muddier than usual, as I don't feel Bertie has any great impetus pushing him on as is the case in other books.

Another reason for this one feeling flat could be that it was written later in Wodehouse's life, being published in 1960 when he was 79. He would go on writing and publishing for another 15 years, but this is his twilight era stage and perhaps the old tried and true plots are getting a bit tired at this point.

Even so, any Wodehouse fan can find plenty to enjoy in How Right You Are, Jeeves, such as recurring characters Aunt Dahlia, Sir Roderick Glossop, Bobbie Wickham, and the 18th century cow creamer.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the offing, indeed! Where the hell is Jeeves?!

Jeeves is Bertie Wooster's manservant. Jeeves has extracted Bertie from many a mishap. When Bertie is without Jeeves, he often finds himself neck-deep in the soup. When a Jeeves & Wooster book is without Jeeves, the book often drowns in said soup.

Jeeves in the Offing is not one of P.G. Wodehouse's best. It lacks the wit and fun that fill the pages in spades when both Bertie and Jeeves are doling out the words. In this story, Bertie is left to fend for himself for the most part while his manservant is off on holiday. Jeeves briefly pops his head in to comment on the proceeds, but that's about it.

Drawn again to Brinkley Court to partake in his aunt's French chef par excellence Anatole's cooking, Bertie soon finds himself embroiled in one ridiculous scheme after another, where the bog standard love triangle looks more like an octagon. The plot is a tad muddier than usual, as I don't feel Bertie has any great impetus pushing him on as is the case in other books.

If my review sounds very similar to the one for How Right You Are, Jeeves it's because they are the same book with different titles, one for America and one for Britain. I guess Americans couldn't be trusted to understand what "offing" means.

[Krutha · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9⭐️/5
I had always wanted to read Wodehouse ever since I was in school. Somehow, it never happened. Now a little more than a decade later I am absolutely delighted to have picked Wodehouse. What a joy it has been!

The book begins with Bertram Wooster's conversations with his aunt, Dahlia. It takes a few minutes to familiarise ourselves with the characters. But, in just three pages we begin to feel at home and as intrepid as Bertie (as he decides to spend some time at Brinkley on his aunt's invite). Jeeves his butler (present in some parts and absent in some) is the man whose opinion matters a lot. In a way, thoughts of him brings him into the scene even in parts where is off on vacation.

The characters keep the reader curious and the ending is witty and evokes empathy. I'd definitely re-read the book a few months/years from now. More in my blog: https://booksfoodmylife.blogspot.com/...

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have, by now, read a whole big bunch of Wodehouse wonders. Though I prefer the ones that are so complex plot-wise that they rival the finest of French farces, I don't approach each Wodehouse book with the hope and expectation that I'll be taken to that lofty level. To do so would be silly - and Wodehouse is already silly enough. Silly and smart is what Wodehouse offers in consistent supply. So I can be satisfied when his aim isn't particularly (or as) high. 

'How Right You Are, Jeeves' (first published in the UK as 'Jeeves in the Offing') is a modest effort. Its plot is about as basic as the author can get and its cast of characters is quite minimal. (One of my faves - Aunt Dahlia - is in typically resplendent form.) Wodehouse is largely left with a focus on dialogue - and the result is smooth, seemingly unerring comic sailing. 

True, though his name is in the title, Jeeves doesn't appear much - but, when he's there, it's enough to serve. Wodehouse keeps the tête-à-tête dynamism flowing with ping-pong vigor, building to a state of frenzy that demands the return of Jeeves to straighten things out as only he can. 

But don't be fooled by the plot's simplicity. It is still replete with a domino-theory of tangles, rooted in misunderstandings, awkward sudden appearances and unanticipated counter-moves. It's sometimes said that Wodehouse tends to repeat himself - but the truth is closer to reinvention. P.G. is much more like Fred Astaire - who famously said that he was rigorous in his crusade to avoid dance routines he had already immortalized on-screen. 

Yes, a few mechanics here and there may, at times, on the surface, seem familiar. But, then, vive la différence. 

And note Wodehouse's ever-morphing parade of language. He's forever challenging himself as he finds ways to surprise his readers. Delving deeply into the richness and wit-potential of words was clearly his reason for being.

All told, 'How Right...' is jolly good stuff!

[Girish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am sure, somewhere PGW books are categorised under therapeutic books for stress. This one is a gem that might make casual observers of your reading gain evidence that you are off your rockers!

Bertie is summoned by Aunt Dahlia to Brinkley while Jeeves is taking his off to judge beach side beauty pageants. Before reaching, he also finds from the Times (the paper), that he is engaged to Roberta Wickham, his personal nightmare and lover of his childhood friend Reggie Kipper. Brinkley spells chaos what with suspected kleptomaniac playboys, loony doctors in disguise, whangee wielding retired headmasters upset of bad press and more. Step up - Bertie, Bobbie and Kipper to bring more disorder to the proceedings. Jeeves has to break his offing to untangle the mess and save the Wooster name (more or less).

I 'reeled' at some of the most insanely ingenious lines that pop out at you like ghosts out of fireplaces. sample this "There was the sort of silence which I believe cyclones drop into for a second or two before getting down to it and starting to give the populace the works".

A total Stress Buster!

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a few things I find more agreeable than a sojourn at Aunt Dahlia’s rural lair.

Twelve books into the Jeeves and Wooster series, and I still have no quarrel with the statement above, even as I admit that P G Wodehouse is strolling here down some well-worn paths at Brinkley Manor, re-using past plot plots and past characters and even some jokes and speech mannerisms. Yet every time I come back, the wide smile is back on my face, the sun is shining without my thoughts turning towards global warming and a high sense of anticipation enfolds me as I wait to read about the new adventures of the clueless fop Bertrand Wooster and about the phlegmatic replies of his stalwart gentleman’s gentleman Jeeves. I look forward to the return of those familiar faces, summoned down to the manor by the bellowing voice of Aunt Dahlia or to an evening tasting ... the superb cheffing of her French chef Anatole, God’s gift to the gastric juices.

The alternative new title of the novel already points out to the fact that Jeeves is absent for most of the proceedings, being away on his yearly holiday, an event that all but ensures that his charge, left to his own devices, will land directly in the soup, with some help from old friends like Bobbie Wickham, Sir Roderick Glossop and from a few fresh faces:
‘Kipper’ Herring is an old school mate and partner in mischief of Bertie. He is currently writing book reviews for a London newspaper and wooing the red-headed menace named Roberta Wickham. Aubrey Upjohn is the former school master of Bertie and Kipper, currently visiting Brinkley Court at the invitation of Aunt Dahlia, accompanied by his pretty stepdaughter Phyllis Mills. An American family named Crane is also visiting, Aunt Dahlia hoping to help her husband land a contract with the rich investor from across the pond.

“I shall be delighted to run an eye over her material,” I said, for I am what they call an a-something of novels of suspense. Aficionado, would that be it? I can always do with another corpse or two.

Adela Cream, the wife, is an author, while her son Willie Cream is allegedly a New York wastrel and cabaret pillar. Bertie is summoned to keep an eye on Willie and prevent the scoundrel from laying his paws on the innocent airhead that is Phyllis Mills. Bobbie Wickham is there to throw a spanner in the works.
Hijinks ensue!

I have every right to goggle like a dead halibut.
[...]
I don’t know why it is, but whenever there’s dirty work to be undertaken at the crossroads, the cry that goes round my little circle is always ‘Let Wooster do it.’ It never fails. But though I hadn’t much hope that any word of mine would accomplish anything in the way of averting the doom, I put in a rebuttal.
‘Why me?’

Without the steadying hand of Jeeves, Mr. Wooster comes up with one crazy scheme after another, usually with a handy push in the wrong direction from the beautiful and spirited Bobby. The infamous cow creamer from previous episodes is making a comeback, as does the habit of people [and dogs] of plunging fully dressed in the estate lake. Raids on the pantry in the middle of the night and illegal visits to various chambers at Brinkley Court also feature high in the economy of the novel, all of it of course revolving around the question of who is engaged to whom and how often their fortunes in love are reversed.

Really, one sometimes despairs of the modern girl. You’d have thought that this Wickham would have learned at her mother’s knee that the last thing a fellow in a highly nervous condition wants, when he’s searching someone’s room, is a disembodied voice in his immediate ear asking him how he’s getting on.

Roberta Wickham is by far my favorite female character in a Wodehouse novel, her fiery temperament and wicked sense of humour well suited to the kind of physical comedy and witty repartee that the novelist excels at. Unfortunately for Bertie, Kipper and other males attracted by her red-coloured tresses like moths to a flame, she is proving to be a hard egg to crack.

‘Ought you to call her a pie-faced little hornswoggler?’
‘Why, can you think of something worse?’

Bertie and Kipper, the old school friends, commiserate over their unlucky fate to be contemporaries with the little tornado, giving the author a chance to express his hard acquired wisdom about youth and relationships:

Put it like this. The male sex is divided into rabbits and non-rabbits and the female sex into dashers and dormice, and the trouble is that the male rabbit has a way of getting attracted by the female dasher (who would be fine for the male non-rabbit) and realizing too late that he ought to have been concentrating on some mild, gentle dormouse with whom he could settle down peacefully and nibble lettuce.

The blonde Phyllis is a fine example of what Wodehouse refers so inelegantly as a dormouse: good intentioned, but so boring and so easily led astray. Even the amiable Aunt Dahlia is forced to declare in an exasperated voice: ‘The silly young geezer. I nearly conked her one with my trowel. I’d always thought her half-baked, but now I think they didn’t even put her in the oven.’

My own vote, as it had gone in the past, is awarded of course to the unpredictable and dangerous ‘dasher’ that makes life interesting and these books such a delight, for all their frivolity:

Roberta Wickham wouldn’t recognize the quiet life if you brought it to her on a plate with watercress round it. She’s all for not letting the sun go down without having started something calculated to stagger humanity.

>>><<<>>><<<

Some rare moments of a more introspective nature and of social commentary are present along the pranks and misunderstandings. A slightly bitter commentary on the condition of the freelance writer in the publishing world and of black-balling authors who made wrong steps [Wodehouse himself was on trial in the public eye for his years living in France under German occupation] is occasioned by an enraged author who resents a negative review and threats the newspaper witch a costly law action.

‘Chuck the blighter out the window and we want to see him bounce.’

A more careful look at a negative character from previous episodes will remind us not to be too hasty in judging other people and to always be open to give them a second chance.

What a lesson, I felt, this should teach all of us that a man may have a bald head and bushy eyebrows and still remain at heart a jovial sportsman and one of the boys.

Finally, many find it easy to dismiss Wodehouse as a peddler of cheap, unrealistic dreams of an impossible rosy life that exists only in fiction, but he manages to surprise me every time with some offhand remark that I almost gloss over and later is revealed to be some underhand literary gem:

‘I don’t know if you know the meaning of the word ‘agley’, Kipper, but that, to put it in a nutshell, is the way things have ganged.’

Not being a Native English speaker, and being even less familiar with the Scottish dialect, I chalked this down as club banter between two old chaps, but looking up the word ‘agley’ online I found out it is a sort of national treasure and this is actually a reference to a famous poem:

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Luckily for Bertie and friends, there is always the option of ringing for Jeeves in this fictional universe and kindly ask him to un-agley the proceedings. And in the end, we can exclaim with a sigh of relief :

How right you are, Jeeves!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A second read and funnier. Great lines.

“It’s this book Daddy wrote about preparatory schools. He wrote a book about preparatory schools. Did you know he had written a book about preparatory schools?
Hadn’t an inkling. Nobody tells me anything.
Well, he wrote this book about preparatory schools. It was about preparatory schools.
About preparatory schools was it?
Yes, about preparatory schools.
Thank God we’ve got that sorted out at last.”

“Don’t say Yes sir. Thanks to you I have been widely publicized as off my rocker.
Not widely, sir. Merely to your immediate circle at Brinkley Court.
You have held me up at the bar of world opinion as a man who has not all his marbles.
It was not easy to think of an alternative scheme,sir.”

Another great farce. Twists and turns with Wooster reading in the Times he is engaged and his friend Kipper trying to marry the lovely vermillion head who gets him in an entanglement. Funny throughout with his aunt, cow creamer and his disagreeable old school master Upjohn from the past. Thankfully Jeeves solves all their problems albeit Bertie ending up looking like a loon.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I last read this in 2005, I think. I bought it used and it looked like it came over on the Mayflower so it shouldn't have been a surprise when my son picked it up by the cover last night and it fell apart. Luckily, I found a much snazzier hardcover edition at Half Price Books earlier today so I was able to finish it without taping it back together.

Anyway, after waking up to find out he's engaged to Bobbie Wickham by reading it in the newspaper, Bertie is called to Brinkley Court to keep Willie Cream from proposing to Phillis Mills. Meanwhile, a silver cow creamer has gone missing and Bobbie Wickham's ex and Bertie's school chum, Kipper Herring, has come to win her back...

So yeah, this is another version of Wodehouse's tale of shit hitting the fan and Jeeves showing up to provide an umbrella just in time and, as always, he tells it very well. I didn't even mention noted loony-doctor Roderick Glossop and Mrs. Cream. As always, the reversals of fortune and revelations are impeccably times and the wordplay is top notch. Wodehouse makes it all look frightfully easy so it's a guarantee that it was a real dachshund to write.

"I'd always thought her half baked but now I think they didn't ever put her in the oven" was one of my favorite lines from the last quarter of the book but it's peppered with hilarious lines. I don't think this is a top tier Wodehouse but it was a very enjoyable read. Four out of five stars.

[Lizz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

This book is also known as Jeeves in the Offing. It’s a speedy, but splendid entry in the history of Wooster. I’d go so far as to say this isn’t as zany as many of Wooster’s antics. Sir Roderick Glossop moves around in disguise. Finally, Bobby Wickham will be settling down. And as usual, Wooster comes out looking the worst, but saving his friends, thus fulfilling the Code of the Woosters. Perfection.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another delight.

This one needs you to have read a few of the others in this series - or at least, I think it is better if you know some of the other characters and the sorts of 'solutions' that are offered in other books to resolve the types of problems Bertie's friends are likely to find themselves in before you read this one.

It is wonderful to watch Wodehouse set up situations and then to deny (or is it defy?) our expectations repeatedly. This one refers to mystery novels quite frequently - and I think one of the things you can say about Wodehouse is that his plotting is as tight as the best mystery novel.

As I said, I wouldn't start with this one, but it is a must read if you are trawling your way through the archives of Bertie Wooster.

Again, all I can say is that it is utterly breathtaking watching a master story teller at work. If I didn't know better I would say it must be incredibly easy to write a book like this. Everything seems so effortless.

Art loves to hide.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a breeze, this was a delightful read, maybe not the best of the Jeeves and Wooster books. Do you no what? It made me laugh and smile which is just the tonic needed after the debacle that was Murakamis' The Wind-up Turd Chronicle.

Nearly got that guff out of my system once I've got through the letters of Mozart and a book by John Betjeman, this little trilogy of purging shall make oneself normal again

[Vimal Thiagarajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those books in the Jeeves series in which young, bounding Bertie has to fend for himself, since Jeeves is off on vacation. The plot borrows several elements from previous Jeeves books, but is unputdownable all the same due to the usual comic Woosterisms, the highlight being his comic befriending of the loony doctor of old, Roderick Glossop.

[Lizzie’s Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining tale of Bertie Wooster as always.

Dec 7, 22 update: I don’t know how Bertie always manges to become the scapegoat in other people’s revenge plots 🤣

[Faye* · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love P.G. Wodehouse's stories. It was a pity Jeeves wasn't really in this one but I already have 2 more of these on my TBR pile, so yay! 😃

[Paulla Ferreira Pinto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nada como um livro da saga de Bertie Wooster e do inefável Jeeves para deixar qualquer um bem disposto.
Mas neste até gargalhei nas últimas páginas quando Wodehouse resolve com chave de ouro humorística todos os tolos e improváveis acontecimentos que vão surgindo e desenvolvendo-se em peripécias picarescas ao longo destas duzentas páginas.
Anti depressivo literário, é o que é.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

The antique silver cow creamer makes a reappearance! Bertie gets engaged, but not really, because that's just how his life goes! Jeeves takes his yearly holiday and ends up judging a bathing beauty contest, because of COURSE he does!

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a fan, one strolls away from the later Jeeves & Wooster novels with one’s hands deep in one’s pocket and a look across one’s face which can only can be described as perturbed. (Okay, ‘confused’ and ‘troubled’ would also be good adjectives; although ‘troubled’ might be over-stating things somewhat). You see there are still a lot of incredibly good jokes in these latter Jeeves & Wooster novels, there’s a lot of laughter on the pages, one is never going to feel short-changed on the comedy front. Yet there’s also an intangible and indescribable lack of something. Quite how you would define this something is an issue which is beyond even the greatest minds, but the joie de vivre (as our French cousins would say) in one’s heart upon reading the later Jeeves & Wooster novels most definitely comes with a caveat and footnotes. Undoubtedly this reluctance to fall to one’s knees and praise the later Jeeves & Wooster novels with every ounce of one’s being is a quirk unique to those who’ve read and enjoyed the earlier Jeeves & Wooster novels. One can find this reluctance worn like a scar on the soul of every single Wodehouse fan who has made their way right from the start of the saga to where one stands now with ‘Jeeves in the Offing’. As for all the joy within its pages, all the times it will make one laugh out loud, one can’t escape the truth that it simply isn’t as good as what went before. It lacks the spark and fizzle of the earlier Jeeves & Wooster novels: a quality wonderful and magical which existed within their pages, and which made them some of the funniest books ever to have been written in the English language, is sadly absent here. That’s not to say that ‘Jeeves in the Offing’ is a bad novel. It could still easily find its way into any list of the top two hundred comic novels ever written (if not scraping into the premier one hundred and fifty), but compared to its predecessors, a magnificent something is just lacking. ‘Right Ho, Jeeves’, ‘Joy in the Morning’ and ‘The Code of Woosters’ tower over it as the magnificent works that they are; while ‘Jeeves in the Offing’, for all the amusement within its pages, doesn’t have that spectacular sparkling something. Not that one wants to give ‘Jeeves in the Offing’ a bad review. To misquote Mark Antony, one comes to praise ‘Jeeves in the Offing’, not to bury it. This is a delightfully funny novel. It is always a joy to meet up again with Bertie Wooster and his man Jeeves, a pleasure to accompany them on one of their, never uneventful, jaunts to Brinkley Court. If one is already a fan, then the self needs girding as one needs to be aware that this is a book which will amuse greatly, but still leave one slightly unsatisfied – and that is without a doubt a perturbing sensation. However if one happens to be a neophyte, if one has never read any P.G. Wodehouse and has been told that Jeeves & Wooster is the best place to start and is wondering which volume to begin with, then by all means feel free to open the account with this one. This is a novel which will make any reader chuckle out loud, will beautifully introduce the uninitiated to Wodehouse’s brand of English silliness and to two of the greatest comic characters in the English language. One will have a glorious time reading this novel and will also have the hugely pleasurable sensation of realising that there exist other novels in this series which – for all the hilarity within the pages of ‘Jeeves in the Offing’ – contain that indefinable something which makes them some of the most magical pieces of fiction ever written.

[Zoeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

The comedy novel, it seems to me, did not exist in its well-known form before P.G Wodehouse turned it into a whole genre of its own. Surely, laughter did feature prominently in English literature in the satirical works of Jonathan Swift, in the voluminous novels of Fielding, Sterne and Dickens and we can also say that the short fiction of Kipling and Munro and the plays of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw have created a lasting style of British humour that has endured in public imagination for years. But it was Wodehouse who reinvented the art of comedic writing, crammed it with pratfalls from one cover to another. His novels are essentially very simple, and even predictable, stories - a gaggle of idiosyncratic characters thrown together to drive the perennially hapless Bertie Wooster at his wit's end until his trusted butler Jeeves steps in to save the day with a stiff-upper-lipped solution.

Well, to be honest, "Jeeves In The Offing" takes a detour from this template. It does not really feature Jeeves in most of the proceedings; the said self-assured butler is on a holiday in Herne Bay, judging a competition of bathing belles (what exactly is Jeeves up to in his hours of leisure lets the mind wander in most interesting directions). And as for Wooster, that specimen of his race, he finds himself again in his aged relative Mrs. Travers' residence, already crowded with unwelcome guests, like the carrot-topped Jezebel Roberta Wickham and Aubrey Upjohn, the terror of Malvern At Sea, who again finds new reasons to give his former pupil something akin to six of the juiciest from a cane.

And indeed, that is all there is to the frothy plot - kleptomaniacs hiding in plain sight, cow-creamers disappearing mysteriously and mistaken identity and romantic entanglements that become even more tangled - and this is the truly unique quality of Wodehouse - in how amusingly and refreshingly enjoyable this lark feels to the point of even skilfully deceiving us so that some of the comedic twists and turns are unforeseeable, indeed. We never are able to guess just how Bertie Wooster will be able to escape these shenanigans but more crucially, Wodehouse also makes us root for the other characters immersed in the soup along with him. Despite their idiosyncratic ways, even those slippery and clumsy friends and lovers earn our sympathy and the comedic twists and turns even acquire a shade of absurd suspense till the end.

All this would have seemed bordering on despair had it not been for its author's uncanny talent for putting everything together, these gags and guffaws, with such inimitable style and enthusiasm. This is a deliriously plotted comedy of manners but the writing, that fruity, frolicsome prose style, laden with inventive slang and embellished with precise comic timing, makes us lap the audacious plot and whimsical characters whole-heartedly,

Contrary to expectations, Jeeves' absence does not dampen the anarchic spirit of the novel. Rather, it gives us a chance to dive headfirst into a thick soup of complicated imbroglios and also to know Bertie Wooster a little better. Left to his own devices and tossed to and fro between characters, smarter and shrewder, than him, Wooster emerges also as a memorable narrator taking us through these madcap proceedings with an enjoyable sense of predicament. The top prize among all the characters however must be reserved for Roberta "Bobbie" Wickham - that carrot-topped Jezebel who drives everyone nearly to their wits' end with her inexorable capacity of mischief, especially Wooster himself. A fine specimen of the fairer sex, indeed.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always a pleasure to be back in Wodehouse's world. This one doesn't reach the heights of some of his other books, but even a not so good Jeeves book is highly entertaining.

[Teri-K · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the Jeeves & Wooster books are good, but this is one of the best. We get Aunt Dahlia, Sir Roderick Glossip playing an undercover butler, scheming Bobby Wickham... and the cow creamer makes a reappearance! This despite the fact that Jeeves is on vacation for much of the story, only popping in now and then to lend his magnificent brain to Bertie's and friends' problems. His final solution is especially hilarious. :)

These books are great to read or listen to. I feel sorry for people who haven't discovered Bertie and Jeeves yet - they're missing out on a load of fun!

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read but falling short of the perfection of earlier books. There is a distinct lack of Jeeves in this particular story. He only makes a few brief appearances and adds little to the tale which is maybe why I felt somewhat short-changed.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of his late books, this, and he reprises many of the elements his regular readers remember affectionately from previous stories: the continuing saga of the oft-purloined cow-creamer, for example, or the urge Bertie seems to have for pushing people in the lake, always for altruistic reasons, of course. The familiarity of the plot and even repetition of some of the jokes from earlier books gives the reader the feeling of sinking into a comfortable armchair at the end of a tiring day. The sun always shines in Bertie’s world, and never more so than in Brinkley Court, home of Aunt Dahlia and scene of many of Bertie’s most hair-raising adventures.

In short, Willy Cream may or may not be a kleptomaniac New York playboy, but he is definitely in love with Phyllis, who is Aunt Dahlia’s god-daughter and the stepdaughter of Aubrey Upjohn, once headmaster of the preparatory school attended (in his youth) by Bertie and his friend Reginald “Kipper” Herring, who is in love with Bobby Wickham, who has just announced her engagement to Bertie which came as a shock to him, though perhaps not as big a shock as discovering that eminent loony doctor Sir Roderick Glossop is impersonating a butler and going by the name of Swordfish. When Bobby falls out with Kipper because she caught him kissing Phyllis and the cow-creamer isn’t on top of the wardrobe and the dachshund Poppet ends up in the lake instead of Aubrey Upjohn, Bertie decides the matter must be put in the hands of a higher power, so summons Jeeves from his holiday in Herne Bay where he has been judging bathing beauties contests. All’s well that ends well!

I hope that clarifies the plot for you. I leave the last word to Bertie…

She was, in short, melted by his distress, as so often happens with the female sex. Poets have frequently commented on this. You are probably familiar with the one who said, "Oh, woman in our hours of ease tum tumty tiddly something please, when something something something brow, a something something something thou.”

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[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightfully humorous Wooster and Jeeves novel that is up there with the best of ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ books’. Bertie Wooster surprisingly learns whilst reading The Times newspaper of his own engagement to Bobby Wickham! He goes to Brinkley Court, his Aunt Dahlia’s residence, to find Sir Roderick Glossop posing as the Brinkley Court butler. Complications ensure when Bertie tries to scheme his way out of being engaged to Bobby Wickham.

As usual there are many fun lines, for example:
‘It just showed once again that half the world doesn’t know how the other three quarters lives.’
‘The moment had come for the honeyed word. I lowered my voice to a confidential murmur, but on her enquiring if I had laryngitis raised it again.’
‘He would, in short, have been unsafe entrant to have backed in a beauty contest, even if the only other competitors had been Boris Karloff, King Kong and Oofy Prosser of the Drones.’

This book was first published in 1960.

[Faith-Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any of Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster" books are books worth reading. His books are delightful escapes into a world where misadventures happen. Don't except solutions to world hunger or any other problems of humanity to be solved. Instead, just sit back & enjoy the ride. I find it impossible to read a Wodehouse novel without laughing.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was mayhem all around and I lived it through with Bertie. But this time around Bertie unfortunately failed to make a mess of it as much as he is capable of. And Jeeves was a late entry as the saving saint. Enjoyed this one immensely best of all the Jeeves I've read so far.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wodehouse’s command of the English language in the service of absolutely hilarious storytelling is second to none. I also appreciated the sweet note this book ends on, however brief. Great authors can always say a lot with just a little.

[Mela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simon Callow read much faster than Jonathan Cecil. Nonetheless, he was intelligible and funny. I didn't mind that he was a lector. He was really great. And the story? Of course a witty and enjoyable comedy. It is hard to believe that although the plots of Wodehouse stories are so similar they are still so much entertaining. (Jevees wasn't present for most of the time but the novel wasn't worse for that.)

PS I would have given it 4.5 stars if that was available.

[Pearl Khurana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read! Felt a little loose threads here and there. But what can I say, Wodehouse knows best!

[Cookie M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only thing that keeps this audiobook from its usual four star rating is Ian Carmichael's interpretation of Bertie Wooster. He has given him a slight stutter, which is just not right for The Pride of the Woosters. It drove me bonkers. There are much better Wodehouse readers out there.