Jeeves and the Tie That Binds

Jeeves #14

by P.G. Wodehouse

A Jeeves and Wooster novelJust as Bertie Wooster is a member of the Drones Club, Jeeves has a club of his own, the Junior Ganymede, exclusively for butlers and gentlemen's gentlemen. In its inner sanctum is kept the Book of Revelations, where the less than perfect habits of their employers are lovingly recorded. The book is, of course, pure dynamite. So what happens when it disappears into potentially hostile hands?Tossed about in the resulting whirlwind you'll find lots of Wodehouse's favourite characters - and a welcome return to Market Snodsbury, in the middle of one of the most chaotic elections of modern times.

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

161 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 1971

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]

This is the first book that I can remember Bertie giving the audience a little recap!
Of course, after 13 other books (that don't actually need to be read in order), I thought it was a pretty good idea.



His much beloved ancient relative, Aunt Dahlia, calls upon her favorite nephew to help her wheedle some of the money her future son-in-law is owed from an invention his father made while in the employ of businessman L. P. Runkle. And so off to Market Snodsbury he goes!



And while there he gets embroiled in the local elections to help his friend Ginger stay in the good graces of his fiancee, the overbearing beauty Florence Craye. <--who is under the mistaken impression that Bertie secretly loves her.
The drippy Madeline Bassett also rears her flower-filled head and strikes fear in the heart of our eternal bachelor. If you don't know, Madeline is under the very mistaken impression that Bertie longingly pines for her, and only her engagement to Roderick Spode saved him from a trip down the altar the last time they met.
But since it would be bad form to pipe up and let a lady know that you'd rather spend a stretch in prison than spend your evenings in their company, Bertie is seemingly stuck becoming engaged to these women whenever their respective fiances tick them off.



At the heart of this one is the often-referenced book kept by members of Junior Ganymede Club, of which Jeeves is a member. It is a club for butlers and valets and the book contains the escapades of the various members' employers. Bertie features heavily.
The point of the book is to let prospective job seekers know what they are up against should they agree to employment with one of these noodles, and the contents are kept secret from the general public.
Bertie has loudly complained throughout the series that something will someday go sideways, and this is THAT book.
Although, things don't go quite the way he envisioned.



Very funny story that I think most Jeeves & Wooster fans will enjoy.
Recommended.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aw, this makes me sad. Much Obliged, Jeeves is one of Wodehouse's last books in the Jeeves & Wooster series, just when it's starting to show some life after so many books by rote.

The usual plot and characters are all in order. Finicky friends and daffy family members all seemingly conspire to thrust Bertie Wooster neck-deep into the soup, then jam him between a rock and a hard place. Hovering about the periphery is the all-knowing, gentleman's gentleman extraordinaire Jeeves, ready to extract his master and set all to rights.

Where this book differs from other Wodehouses is in the little details. Bertie's narration makes it plain that Much Obliged, Jeeves comes later in the Wodehouse oeuvre by referencing past exploits, and I'm not just talking about that scripture prize he won in school or the article he wrote for Milady's Boudoir on "What the well-dressed man is wearing." I'm not even talking about the big reveal that Jeeves actually has a first name. The real difference is in how Jeeves interacts with Wooster. It's not a vast shift to the left, but there is a slight subversion in his tone, a sort of sauciness to his lip service, a kind of sass to his soliloquy. Yes indeed, Jeeves expresses himself here with more than just a raised brow and I found it shocking. SHOCKING, I SAY!

Seriously though, it was nice to see an old familiar character being appropriately stretched a bit. After all the patience-straining nonsense Jeeves endures, it seems quite natural for such a clearly superior mind to grow a tad surly after such trying times. I only wish Wodehouse had started this process and expanded upon it years, nay, decades prior.

In summary, Much Obliged, Jeeves is a solid book in the series, but if you're a newcomer, I'd suggest starting somewhere earlier. Perhaps, Right Ho, Jeeves or The Code of the Woosters would be more suitable. These books don't need to be read sequentially, and you'd be fine if you read this one first, but I think the Wodehouse newb would be better severed with a more elementary introduction. Wouldn't want to muddle the grey matter, now would we?

[Nigeyb · Rating 4 out of 5]

P.G. Wodehouse was ninety years old when Much Obliged, Jeeves was published in 1971 and it is the penultimate Jeeves and Wooster novel. This was the first time I had read this particular Wodehouse book. One chapter in and it was like being with old friends. Just sublime.

You probably don’t need me to tell you that P.G. Wodehouse is the funniest writer of the past century. Wodehouse defies superlatives. He is, quite simply, the best comedic writer to ever put pen to paper. I am a confirmed Wodehousian and revel in the man’s comedic genius. I have read numerous books by the great man and all, to one degree or another, are a delight.

Much Obliged, Jeeves contains all the familiar tropes but is no less entrancing for that. Wooster blunders around, narrowly avoiding engagements that threaten his bachelor lifestyle whilst Jeeves dispenses his learning, bon mots and quiet wit, whilst simultaneously ensuring his master’s mishaps are quietly and efficiently solved.

How P.G. Wodehouse maintained his supreme level of quality is one of the great mysteries, however, even at the tail end of the Jeeves and Wooster series, he kept the magic to the now familiar levels of brilliance.

Suffice it to say that, if you don’t know why so many people worship at the comedic altar of PGW, this novel will reveal all.

4/5

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was going through the Jeeves/ Wooster list on my GR bookshelf and found that I had missed out adding this book! I think this is the last in the series, where Bertie is finally rid of the danger of getting married to either the intellectual Florence Craye or the maudlin Madeline (hey, that rhymes!).

But the crux of this story is an election in Market Snodsbury, and how the journal detailing the exploits of various gentlemen - recorded faithfully by their valets and kept securely at the butlers' and valets' club, the Junior Ganymede - becomes central to its outcome. The tome in question is stolen by a renegade valet and creates all sorts of havoc before it is reclaimed by Jeeves. I was thinking that if such a thing really existed today, how the news channels will be slavering after it!

Trivia:It is in this novel that we hear Jeeves's first name for the first and last time.

[Lizz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

And I’ve never met a Wodehouse story I didn’t like. This one tied up the ends of the chronicles regarding Tuppy Glossop, The Junior Ganymede Club Book, Madeline Bassett and Roderick Spode. A nice story though lacking a bit for the Wodehouse connoisseur.

[Dan Schwent · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Jeeves reread is nearing its conclusion. In this volume Bertie heads down to Aunt Dahlia's. Ginger Winship is running for parliament and engaged to Bertie's ex, Florence Craye. Roderick Spode and Madelyn Basset are also in attendance, as is Bertie's former valet Bingley and a certain book from the Junior Ganymede club.

This is a late era Wodehouse, just a couple years away from his death, but it's exceptional. You get political machinations, sundered engagements, new love, someone getting slipped a Mickey Finn, and Bertie Wooster caught in the middle, as always.

Wodehouse's bag of tricks is as fresh as ever, even if he's continuously telling different versions of the same story over and over. Yes, Bertie winds up engaged. Yes, Jeeves saves the day. The fun is in the new routes taken to get there and this one ticks all the boxes. Four out of five stars.

[Kris Larson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good lord, Jeeves has a first name. No, don't just skip right by that sentence. Really take a minute. JEEVES HAS A FIRST NAME. It never even occurred to me that he might. It doesn't seem like the sort of possession Jeeves would own; I feel as if I'd caught him cuddling a Beanie Baby or something.

Honestly, this would have been worth reading just to discover this little bit of trivia, but even without that it's a fine Wodehousian romp; not my favorite of the Woosters, but very entertaining all the same. If you like any of the Jeeves books you'll like this one; if you do not like the Jeeves books, check your pulse. Are you dead? I can think of no other explanation.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the penultimate entry in the decades-long success that is the delirious saga of Jeeves and Wooster. Released in 1971 in the UK with the title 'Much Obliged, Jeeves' (the US title is better; more appropriate), its publication coincided with the happy event of the author's 90th birthday! 

~ perhaps happier for his audience because what a gift! Many of us can only hope to be this quick, this spry, this effervescent at age 90! This chapter is easily among the best in the series. 

~ mainly because, with it, P.G. branches out in his approach. There's much less emphasis on personal (i.e., love) entanglements and a more-or-less direct focus on local politics; not the ins-and-outs of what makes politics tick but the peripheral reasons for seeking a seat in a special election... which, in this case, yes, mainly hinge on love (or perhaps upward mobility) and marriage (or perhaps upward mobility).

A particular plus here are the ways Wodehouse finds to add new verbal comic tics - which help to work against the myth that all J&W books are the same. (Once and for all, they're not. P.G. has always been adept at the element of surprise.) 

Hopefully - along with all of my previous positive reviews, for quite a few Wodehouse romps - this will again serve to remind that, if it's wit you want, you can't go wrong with P.G. I usually turn to one of his books as an 'intermission' between serious or dark lit. And P.G. is always there for a - sometimes much-needed - lift! 

This one also has the delightfully madcap Aunt Dahlia in it - jolly good stuff, what? 

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Either you like Bertie Wooster and Jeeves or you don’t. There isn’t much in between. This is not the first of these books I have read but the first Wodehouse that I have reviewed.

The gifted Bernard Cornwell (many of whose books I have reviewed) was recently quoted as saying that Wodehouse “…wrote the most English novels ever written.” I would add that he did so while skewering many of the class lines, traditions and manners that we find so familiar.

It can be argued that one Wooster and Jeeves is much like the next…and it’s true that Wodehouse has only “rearranged the furniture” among a limited number of plot elements to wit:
Wooster is requested to do what turns out to be an impossible favor for a chum
Wooster is stuck with an impossible relative
Wooster finds himself about to marry an impossible woman
And…………eventually Jeeves is there to guide him through the minefield

It’s the journey, full of upper-class twits; hilarious names and nick-names; wonderful quotes and literary references; and, always, Bertie’s self-confident, yet illogical, reasoning.

This is one of Wodehouse’s last efforts but it still hits the mark. Much obliged, P.G.

[Vimal Thiagarajan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surely below par for something in the Jeeves series. May be because the master wrote this in his nineties, he couldn't match his own towering standards. There is always a certain level of repetition in Wodehouse's plots, but in this one it was unusually high. Wodehouse's usual bubbling vigour was less-pronounced, the comic possibilities were under-explored, there was an over-reliance on Bertie's stammering and word-groping, and even some of his trademark daft turns of phrase seemed subdued and laborious. In many parts I couldn't shake off a slightly depressing feeling akin to watching my favorite cricketer past his prime and struggling to put bat on ball. Nevertheless it was great fun being among Bertie and co after long, for a change at the Ganymede club instead of the Drones, and it was a good relaxing read. Apparently even a half-good Wodehouse is still good enough for a potent de-stressing potion.

P.S. - Super-like to this cover from HarperCollins!

[Girish · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book read like a montage to Bertie and Jeeves with a handful of references to the best parts of their previous adventures. And yet, it has you in splits - like any good thing in ration.

Bertie wakes up on top of the world, with a rainbow between his shoulders - And we know thunderstorm is imminent. Bertie's pal Ginger is contesting elections. Bertie's safely engaged lady terrors threaten to come unhinged towards him and his 'reputation' for pinching stuff threatening the good name of Woosters. Amidst all this Jeeves feels responsible when the Junior Ganymede book of secrets fall in wrong hands.

With the typical atypical muddle that are characteristic of Bertie and Jeeves and featuring a near all star cast, this book written by PGW in his 90s is a riot.

Loved it!

[Anna Kļaviņa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much Obliged, Jeeves first published in 1971 in the UK and in the same year in the USA by alternative title Jeeves and the Tie That Binds is second to last in the Jeeves & Wooster series.

The two editions have slightly different endings. In the USA edition after Jeeves informs that he has destroyed the 18 pages from the Junior Ganymede Club Book that he has written about Bertie, Jeeves express hope that he will stay in Bertie's service permanently.

As my copy was UK edition (ISBN: 9780099513964) I had to look for the added tidbit. Here it is:

“…For I may hope, may I not, sir, that you will allow me to remain permanently in your service?”
“You may indeed, Jeeves. It often beats me, though, why with your superlative gifts you should want to.”
“There is a tie that binds, sir.”
“A what that whats?”
“A tie that binds, sir.”
“Then heaven bless it, and may it continue to bind indefinitely. Fate’s happenstance may oft win more than toil, as the fellow said.”
“What fellow would that be, sir? Thoreau?”
“No, me.”
“Sir?”
“A little thing of my own. I don’t know what it means, but you can take it as coming straight from the heart.”
“Very good, sir.”

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even below par Jeeves and Wooster is still pretty good.

Madeline Bassett, Roderick Spode, Aunt Dahlia all return in this latest instalment of sundered engagements, purloined silver ornaments, obstinate moneymen and the kind of fiendishly tricky problems which can only be neatly ironed out by almost deity-like butler with a huge brain he owes to his consumption of masses of fish. All is seemingly as it should be then. However there’s a decided lack of oomph in this volume of the Wooster memoirs. All the elements are present, yet the fire singularly fails to ignite. At the end we’re even robbed of the great normal set-piece where Jeeves sorts everything out while Wooster googles at him, unsure of his intentions. Instead Bertie exits stage left beforehand and is merely told about events afterwards. Without a doubt it’s a dispiriting anti-climax.

An interesting side-note though is that one of the plot strands we have concerns a local by-election, and Wodehouse identifies the two political parties – Conservative and Labour – as being very much of the same sort. Okay, one of the candidates is of the idle rich, while the other is a retired barrister, so aristocracy versus the professional middle class; but in language, tone and public standing (and the fact they both keep servants), they are both very much of the right sort of stock. There is no oily fingered, ex-mechanic trade unionist in this particular scenario. What makes this fascinating to your humble reader in 2014 is that hailing from the same kind of stock, having gone to the same type of schools and being basically interchangeable is one of the (many, many, many) things we criticise our modern British politicians for. This was published in 1967 with one ex-grammar school boy as Prime Minister and the other as Leader of the Opposition. But Wodehouse was already thirty years into his exile from Blighty so how much he would have his finger on the political pulse is up for debate (a brief reference to Tony Benn renouncing his peerage to sit in the commons, apart). Perhaps more likely is that this is the way he remembered the political classes from his time at home, that he always viewed the type of individual who sought political power as basically interchangeable. Or possibly, given this is Wodehouse, he just didn’t really know how to write an oily fingered, ex mechanic, trade unionist.

[Ruthiella · Rating 4 out of 5]

We learn that Jeeves belongs to a club for manservants in which pertinent details of their employers are committed to a book “to inform those seeking employment of the sort of thing they will be taking on”. Bertie is afraid that the book (with an incredible 18 pages devoted solely to him) will fall in to the wrong hands. For once, Bertie isn’t wrong. Jeeves and Wooster go to stay at Aunt Dahlia’s with the aim of helping Bertie’s old pal Harold “Ginger” Winship who is standing for Parliament in the by-election at Market Snodsbury. Unfortunately, Ginger’s impetus for politics is his fiancée, Florence Cray, one of Bertie’s old paramours. Also staying at Brinkley Court is Madeline Bassett and her suitor, Lord Sidcup, one of Bertie’s avowed enemies.

Without any spoilers, this is the novel where Bertie finally commits to a relationship. I laughed out loud more reading this book than I did the previous two. I wonder if that is because each book builds a bit on the previous books adventures and/or I have become fully integrated into this ridiculous world.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Mr. Wodehouse -

Thank you for the delightful visit to a time when the sun never set on the British empire and a wealthy idiot could spend his days at his aunt's estate in the English countryside and only worry about avoiding becoming engaged. It was lovely spending a few hours with the best gentlemen's gentlemen ever and that dear fool Bertie. Thank you for not aging them or trying to make them modern.

~A~

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just had to squeeze in a Wodehouse for Christmas, and how wonderful it was. I can't believe I almost finished the Jeeves and Wooster series (woe and woe upon woe); when the fatal moment inevitably arrives, I'll be seeking solace in the Blandings Castle series.

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The usual fun and interesting romp with Bertie and Jeeves (and this is where we find out his first name). Well narrated.

[Sam Aird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brought forth many a chuckle, and perhaps one or two guffaws - a delight

[Jenna Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious as always.

[Ines · Rating 3 out of 5]

В который раз совершила ошибку и зачиталась Вудхаусом. Он хорош в любой ситуации, но в ограниченных количествах, и три романа подряд - совершенный перебор. А со стороны издательства было большим упущением публиковать под одной обложкой три романа про Мадлен, тетю Далию и Спода, да еще когда каждый следующий многословно описывает события предыдущего.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first Jeeves and it came at a good time. I would never have picked it up, as I thought I had no interest in Wooster or Jeeves. During an intense week of work, they provided lightness and levity. Well-written with an incredible amount of detail, almost nothing really goes on. Wooster has gone to his Aunt's house to canvas for a friend running for political office. After knocking on one door, he is done. It seems that everyone wants to marry Wooster rather than the men they are betrothed to already. Light and frothy, this series might be a good escape from everyday life and weighty, difficult subjects.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great novel. Laugh out loud. Witty lines throughout. I love the characters and how Reginald Jeeves always finds solutions for Wooster’s tribulations. Ginger, Aunt Dahlia with her loud voice and aristocratic snorts whimsical and oddly believable characters. I am so glad that I have another 86 PG Wodehouse novels to read.

[مروان البلوشي · Rating 3 out of 5]

تاريخ القراءة الأصلي : ٢٠٠٢
موقع القراءة : بريطانيا

[Katie Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There is a tie that binds, sir."

*snifflesssssssssssssss* who gave Wodehouse the RIGHT to be so darn emotionally affecting

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another from the archives of Bertram Wilberforce Wooster in which he is once again rescued by the very large, and fish stoked, brain of Reginald Jeeves. This is the book in which I learned both Bertie’s middle name – which he got after his father, now deceased, gave to him in remembrance after a particularly good win at the races at the time Bertie was born – and that Jeeves even had a first name. We learn this close to the start of the book and Bertie also comments that he had never thought of Jeeves having a first name either.

Something else I only noticed in this novel is how much fish Wooster eats – kippers in the morning, and fish every night – and yet it is only Jeeves’ brain that seems to benefit from fishy-goodness.

And no one does funny cats in quite the way the Wodehouse does! I have learnt that if there is a cat a smile is not far away either.

There are some wonderful lines in this – I’ve forgotten the context now, but Bertie is feeling particularly harassed by one of the characters, perhaps Roderick Spode, 8th Earl of Sidcup, and says that to get away from him he would climb a tree and pull it up after himself.

During this novel, well, during the moments when I was not laughing, I couldn’t help thinking how dangerous it would seem to make Bertie the narrator of this series of books. Bertie is universally regarded as a bit of a half-wit – in fact, he is perhaps even considered a fraction less than a half, maybe even a third-wit. The temptation might have been to have used Jeeves as the voice to these stories. But that would have been as much a mistake as making Holmes the narrator of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes or Dr Johnson as the teller of his own life. Genius is best viewed from a human perspective – and Wooster, Watson and Boswell are precisely the right voices. At least, I think that is true of Boswell, I haven’t gotten around to opening the book yet, but I will eventually.

This is the second to last of the series (perhaps even the penultimate story – if that is the word I’m after) and written in 1971. Hard to imagine.

[Rajan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Wodehouse is pure bliss. His writing style seems simple but it is not. Wodehouse is a genius and he painstakingly creates humor out of ordinary everyday situations. It is not slap stick, satire or comic. It is pure unadulterated humor. Reading Wodehouse is the best stress buster and anti-depressant. He doesn’t claim to very highly literary writing prowess. In his own words “I believe there are two ways of writing novels. One is making a sort of musical comedy without music and ignoring real life altogether; the other is going deep down into life and not caring a damn...”.

Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories humorous was his view of life, and he stated that "If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It's probably because you were born that way."

"For a humorous novel you've got to have a scenario, and you've got to test it so that you know where the comedy comes in, where the situations come in … splitting it up into scenes (you can make a scene of almost anything) and have as little stuff in between as possible."

Bandings castle and its characters is one the best of his creations. All other charaters Jeevs, Ukridge, Bertram Wooster, Psimth, Mulliner, Clarence Threepwood, Sebastian Beach, Ashe Marson, Joan Valentine, J. Preston Peters, Aline Peters, Freddie Threepwood, Mrs. Twemlow, Mrs. Bell, Richard Jones, George Emerson, Lord Stockheath, Adams, Rupert J. Baxter, Thorne, George Threepwood, Ann Warblington, Merridew, James, Alfred, Mildred Mant, Horace Mant, Judson, Algernon Wooster, Bishop of Godalming, Billy, Muriel, Dr. Bird, Slingsby, Chester, Ferris, Miss Willoughby etc are highly likable.

I think there will not be a single person who cannot like Wodehouse.

[Ezra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never realized this, but P.G. Wodehouse published this book in 1971 when he was 90! It is the penultimate Jeeves and Wooster book, and for being a late installment, it is still quite good.

In “Much Obliged, Jeeves” Bertie Wooster is called back to his Aunt Dahlia’s country abode, Brinkley Manor, to help his old pal, Ginger Winship, campaign to become a Member of Parliament for Market Snodsbury.

We also get the return of a character from “Thank You, Jeeves” which was the first full length Jeeves and Wooster novel published 37 years earlier in 1934. During a brief separation between Jeeves and Bertie (over Bertie’s insistence on playing an instrument called the banjolele), Bertie employed a vastly inferior valet named Brinkley. (Wodehouse renamed Brinkley to Bingley for this book to, I assume, avoid confusion between Brinkley the valet and Brinkley the manor.) In this novel, Bingley has moved up in the world and is no longer a valet, but he is still in the market to make some easy money by fair means or foul.

In addition to the long-forgotten Bingley, “Much Obliged, Jeeves” has many of his oft used, and dearly beloved, characters, to wit: Madeline Bassett, Florence Craye, Roderick Spode (Earl of Sidcup), and the Junior Ganymede Club book, with its unbounded potential for blackmail.

While not the best Jeeves and Wooster, it is still a source of comfort and a joy each time I reread it.

[Sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really very good fun. The last decade of Wodehouse's career is patchier than the rest, which is unsurprising given he wrote nigh-on 100 books, was pushing 100 years old, and was a half century out of the era he was writing about - not to mention he hadn't lived in England since the 1930s! These factors make for some works that either feel stodgy, archaic, or just plain "quaint". But this is a great little novel, clocking in at 200 pages, and running through a breezy plot that feels rather like a highlight reel of previous Jeeves and Wooster volumes.

True, there's nothing original here; this plot really is everything we've seen before, as if Wodehouse was trying to reunite as many characters as possible in case this was the final novel in the series. And there are occasions, I must admit, when gags are tirelessly repeated. Still, Wodehouse's comic voice is in healthy form, with lines that make the reader burst out laughing and none of the odd anachronisms that, although at their best feel like clever attempts to challenge form, often came to seem like the struggles of an author yoked forever to a formula.

The farce isn't quite as heightened or as clockwork-perfect as in the golden era, but you'd be forgiven for thinking this had been written at least 20 years earlier in his life.

[Ensiform · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visiting his Aunt Dahlia, Bertie is confronted once again by Spode, as well as a businessmen who suspects him of being a thief, Madeline Bassett perhaps wanting to marry him, and the perplexing problem of how to reconcile his pal Ginger with the secretary of his dreams when he’s actually engaged to the bossy Florence. The usual lunacy results, with some quick acting by Jeeves, of course, to straighten things out.

Perhaps the most remarkable things about this book, given that it was written by Wodehouse at the age of 90, is how little the series has declined over the years. Sure, this entry creaks with perhaps a few too many forced and oft-repeated literary allusions and gags (the “fretful porpentine” line must be in every single Jeeves book), but if this is a lesser work, it’s the lesser work of a master. Reading this book, coming from a lifetime of association with Bertie and Jeeves, I felt as if I’d had a slightly disappointing meal at an excellent steakhouse: not up to snuff, but still well worth the money and time expended.

[The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. If you've never read Wodehouse... if you don't really like humorous books... this is the author and series that will change your mind. The Jeeves books are set around turn of the century England (think Downton Abbey), where an unflappable butler is constantly saving his employer, Bertie Wooster, from marriage, mean aunts, and old college mates. I absolutely recommend ANYTHING by P.G. Wodehouse to everyone I know. These stories make for quick, light reading that will make you chuckle all day.