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The Jeeves Collection
P.G. Wodehouse ( 1881-1975 ) was a British humorist who wrote novels, short stories and journalism pieces over a career that spanned almost 70 years. Wodehouse is most famous for his creation of the character Jeeves which is the inspiration behind the search engine “Ask Jeeves”.
A table of contents is included.
A table of contents is included.
830 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 26, 2012
70 people are currently reading
426 people want to read
About the author
P.G. Wodehouse
1,680 books6,925 followersSir 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).
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).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
April 5, 2018
I am in general fond of the works of P.G. Wodehouse [1], but I must say that in my second go around reading many of the Jeeves & Wooster novels, I have to say that I do not like them as much as I did before. I do not think that the blame for this belongs on P.G. Wodehouse, who had a gifted touch with comic literature, much of which can be found here in these rather tropey novels and short stories about a somewhat dopey young English bachelor named Bertie Wooster and his wise butler Jeeves. It can be said, though, that there may be too much of a good thing. While the Jeeves stories are enjoyable one story or one novel at a time, I think reading two complete novels and ten stories, as this more than 500 page book contains, is probably too much Jeeves for the taste of even those who would be inclined to be fond of the hijinks. One gets the sense that Wodehouse's novels were rather narrow in their scope and that accounts for a great deal of their charm, in that characters from one series could easily show up or be referred to in another series, showing that they were all part of the same universe.
Included in this omnibus series are: Carry On, Jeeves, The Inimitable Jeeves, and Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves. Not much needs to be said about the rather episodic stories themselves. P.G. Wodehouse in these stories can be said to be the inverse of, say, Jane Austen, except that both are witty writers. Whereas Jane Austen's characters were female, generally highly interested in marriage, and not inclined to discuss their personal lives with the help, these novels revel in the relationship between doltish master and almost omniscient servant and show neither Bertie nor Jeeves particularly interested in marriage or family life. Likewise, while Jane Austen's characters were deeply concerned with money, the main characters here are not much concerned with that at all, having enough to make it possible to pay fines and support children's books on ornithology without any difficulty whatsoever. The novels and stories themselves are rather episodic and show no particular moral and intellectual development of any kind. They are the stories of boys who have perhaps never entirely grown up, glorying in biblical knowledge and using their savvy to escape from various scrapes but not showing an interest in becoming fully functional adults integrated into the wider world.
And it is perhaps this element that I find wanting at this stage in life. I simply don't have much to identify with in these characters. Indeed, I may be about as opposite a character to Bertie Wooster among the bachelor class as can be imagined, in the presence of brains, the desire for integration with others and intimacy, and in the absence of having servants. I can see in these novels a great deal to amuse, but the laughter seems a bit hollow some of the time. These are characters that one would wish would grow up a bit, as they do have something to offer the world but they have no interest in anything except their own games and schemes. And I view that as somewhat of a shame. At least when we look at Wodehouse's Blandings Castle saga we see someone enjoying being in touch with the land and finding pleasure in the simple pleasures of raising animals and dealing with one's loving family. Here we have bossy aunts and bossy would-be wives and servants who are too smart and too bossy for their own good and have as a narrator someone who has just enough ambition to breathe and eat and smoke and dress in rather odd ways that his manservant disapproves of. And life is more than just those things alone.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
Included in this omnibus series are: Carry On, Jeeves, The Inimitable Jeeves, and Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves. Not much needs to be said about the rather episodic stories themselves. P.G. Wodehouse in these stories can be said to be the inverse of, say, Jane Austen, except that both are witty writers. Whereas Jane Austen's characters were female, generally highly interested in marriage, and not inclined to discuss their personal lives with the help, these novels revel in the relationship between doltish master and almost omniscient servant and show neither Bertie nor Jeeves particularly interested in marriage or family life. Likewise, while Jane Austen's characters were deeply concerned with money, the main characters here are not much concerned with that at all, having enough to make it possible to pay fines and support children's books on ornithology without any difficulty whatsoever. The novels and stories themselves are rather episodic and show no particular moral and intellectual development of any kind. They are the stories of boys who have perhaps never entirely grown up, glorying in biblical knowledge and using their savvy to escape from various scrapes but not showing an interest in becoming fully functional adults integrated into the wider world.
And it is perhaps this element that I find wanting at this stage in life. I simply don't have much to identify with in these characters. Indeed, I may be about as opposite a character to Bertie Wooster among the bachelor class as can be imagined, in the presence of brains, the desire for integration with others and intimacy, and in the absence of having servants. I can see in these novels a great deal to amuse, but the laughter seems a bit hollow some of the time. These are characters that one would wish would grow up a bit, as they do have something to offer the world but they have no interest in anything except their own games and schemes. And I view that as somewhat of a shame. At least when we look at Wodehouse's Blandings Castle saga we see someone enjoying being in touch with the land and finding pleasure in the simple pleasures of raising animals and dealing with one's loving family. Here we have bossy aunts and bossy would-be wives and servants who are too smart and too bossy for their own good and have as a narrator someone who has just enough ambition to breathe and eat and smoke and dress in rather odd ways that his manservant disapproves of. And life is more than just those things alone.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
October 26, 2016
There is no one quite like Jeeves and his empty-headed but amiable employer, Bertie Wooster. Wooster is a hilariously non-self-aware narrator who is full of fantastic turns of phrase and the master of the apt description, but utterly reliant on Jeeves' superior brainpower to get himself and his assortment of hapless friends out of mildly uncomfortable jams. (This is a series that is wonderful to listen to as an audiobook.)
October 25, 2016
Laugh out loud funny!!! Hysterical!!!! Jeeves is AMAZING and so very proper. He saves the day and still manages to do it with such stylish aplomb. Bertie is...well...he's certainly something. I am so pleased that I own this book because I will definitely read it again and again!!!
March 26, 2011
Pure light-hearted entertainment--that's what the JEEVES books are. I've found quite a collection of reading material on the Kindle free reader list, and this was one of them. If you're looking for something deep, complex, or in any way mind-expanding, this is not the series for you. But if you're in the mood for some quirky, light reading, curl up in a cozy chair and grab a JEEVES book. It'll hit the spot.
June 14, 2013
Found on the street in front of my building. Jeeves, save me from The Corrections!
Mildly charming, but repetitive. I will however give Fry & Laurie a go. Perhaps they are what I wanted all along.
Mildly charming, but repetitive. I will however give Fry & Laurie a go. Perhaps they are what I wanted all along.
September 18, 2022
My gosh, these are funny,
April 6, 2016
I have read a couple of short Wodehouse stories, but never any Jeeves before this. I'm so glad I picked it up - it made me a fan. For those who only have a vague idea of what it's all about, Jeeves is the "gentleman's gentleman" (pretty much a valet/butler/manservant for Americans) to Bertram Wooster, a not-too-bright bachelor who lives off his Aunt Agatha, if I understand it correctly. Jeeves has a knack for getting Bertie and his friends out of trouble.
I don't know why this collection was ordered the way it was, because the story of how Bertie meets Jeeves is the last one in this collection. Goodreads describes this omnibus as containing books 3, 2 and 13, in that order, but it's like watching a movie, then seeing a prequel. I guess that's how they were released. Scanning Wikipedia shows me that Wodehouse was quite prolific, and many chapters in this omnibus, though connected, would be pretty good standalone short stories.
Half a century after they were published, and a century after they are set, these stories are still funny. Wodehouse is playful with the language, too. I don't recall another story in which the narrator has such a small vocabulary or is such a dim bulb. Jeeves is the smart one, yet Bertie is notionally in charge, but when things finally shake out, it's usually Jeeves that comes out on top.
I'll be trying to read all the Jeeves stories now, and trying to ignore the few scattered racist details as being the products of their time. That's my only point of discomfort with them. Well, that and the fact that after all this, combined with watching Downton Abbey, I kind of feel like it would be pretty awesome to have household servants.
I don't know why this collection was ordered the way it was, because the story of how Bertie meets Jeeves is the last one in this collection. Goodreads describes this omnibus as containing books 3, 2 and 13, in that order, but it's like watching a movie, then seeing a prequel. I guess that's how they were released. Scanning Wikipedia shows me that Wodehouse was quite prolific, and many chapters in this omnibus, though connected, would be pretty good standalone short stories.
Half a century after they were published, and a century after they are set, these stories are still funny. Wodehouse is playful with the language, too. I don't recall another story in which the narrator has such a small vocabulary or is such a dim bulb. Jeeves is the smart one, yet Bertie is notionally in charge, but when things finally shake out, it's usually Jeeves that comes out on top.
I'll be trying to read all the Jeeves stories now, and trying to ignore the few scattered racist details as being the products of their time. That's my only point of discomfort with them. Well, that and the fact that after all this, combined with watching Downton Abbey, I kind of feel like it would be pretty awesome to have household servants.
April 7, 2019
I picked this up for pleasure and distraction in the midst of plotting a complex fantasy novel. I’d heard of the Jeeves and Wooster series on PBS but hadn’t a clue what these stories were about. End result: I’ve found another classic British author to collect! Wodehouse is a master of dry, witty comedy and quick character sketches that made me laugh out loud.
The Jeeves Omnibus is a collection of two complete novels and ten short stories – the perfect introduction to the world of Jeeves and Wooster. Bertram Wooster is a member of Britain’s aristocratic idle rich in the Roaring Twenties. A hapless but amiable man, his life and adventures are masterminded by his unbendingly correct valet, Jeeves. Where Bertie is blissfully ignorant and frequently blindsided, Jeeves exercises a sort of mental gymnastics worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
Bertie’s conversation tends to be strung together with 1920’s British slang and exclamations of emotion (usually shock) which confound the hidebound older members of his family and their titled friends. Friendly and generous, he bumbles his way into a myriad of mishaps including marriage proposals, petty thievery, and impersonation. His trials and tribulations – and resultant extrication by his faithful Jeeves – are immensely good fun. I’m looking forward to finding more books by the prolific Wodehouse and thoroughly enjoy his style.
The Jeeves Omnibus is a collection of two complete novels and ten short stories – the perfect introduction to the world of Jeeves and Wooster. Bertram Wooster is a member of Britain’s aristocratic idle rich in the Roaring Twenties. A hapless but amiable man, his life and adventures are masterminded by his unbendingly correct valet, Jeeves. Where Bertie is blissfully ignorant and frequently blindsided, Jeeves exercises a sort of mental gymnastics worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
Bertie’s conversation tends to be strung together with 1920’s British slang and exclamations of emotion (usually shock) which confound the hidebound older members of his family and their titled friends. Friendly and generous, he bumbles his way into a myriad of mishaps including marriage proposals, petty thievery, and impersonation. His trials and tribulations – and resultant extrication by his faithful Jeeves – are immensely good fun. I’m looking forward to finding more books by the prolific Wodehouse and thoroughly enjoy his style.
October 5, 2010
This is another in my growing list of books listened to on the commute to and from work, and I may keep going after British comedies, if the track record remains. I found this one quite entertaining, if a bit repetitive and not quite laugh-out-loud funny.
Hearing the Jeeves and Wooster tales as a radio drama is probably far different from reading them, but I liked the deliveries of the actors, for the most part. Sometimes, they spoke a little too quickly, or a little too softly, for me to make out what they were saying, and the sound quality irked me at times. But, mostly, it was like listening to a play, with a few audio clues to let me know what I was missing.
This is the first thing I've encountered of P. G. Wodehouse, though, and I think it'll be the last. I feel like I've rather gotten the idea from listening to this set, and that I'm not missing a whole lot by not reading all the rest.
Hearing the Jeeves and Wooster tales as a radio drama is probably far different from reading them, but I liked the deliveries of the actors, for the most part. Sometimes, they spoke a little too quickly, or a little too softly, for me to make out what they were saying, and the sound quality irked me at times. But, mostly, it was like listening to a play, with a few audio clues to let me know what I was missing.
This is the first thing I've encountered of P. G. Wodehouse, though, and I think it'll be the last. I feel like I've rather gotten the idea from listening to this set, and that I'm not missing a whole lot by not reading all the rest.
October 6, 2020
From my reading journal circa 1996, when I was a teenager:
"In one edition, Barnes & Noble has put together two novels and ten short stories (the shorts were originally published in one volume) recounting the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his man, Jeeves. I will save time in the future by saying that I will never talk about the plot of a Wodehouse book. It's just way too complicated, yet inconsequential. His enjoyability has already been established in this notebook. So, all I will say is that these three parts of the The Jeeves Obminus are essential. Several of the short stories are very important if one wants to fully understand later novels. Oh, I should probably mention the titles. Here they are, as presented in the book: Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, The Inimitable Jeeves, and Carry On, Jeeves. Once again, they're all musts.
"In one edition, Barnes & Noble has put together two novels and ten short stories (the shorts were originally published in one volume) recounting the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his man, Jeeves. I will save time in the future by saying that I will never talk about the plot of a Wodehouse book. It's just way too complicated, yet inconsequential. His enjoyability has already been established in this notebook. So, all I will say is that these three parts of the The Jeeves Obminus are essential. Several of the short stories are very important if one wants to fully understand later novels. Oh, I should probably mention the titles. Here they are, as presented in the book: Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, The Inimitable Jeeves, and Carry On, Jeeves. Once again, they're all musts.
August 15, 2008
Most of my favorite books are serious in nature, a learning experience. This is one delightful exception. This book is one of the few that have ever made me laugh out loud while reading it alone. It is hysterically funny. It is "humour" with a "u", that is, British style. Jeeves is the character who started all of those stereotyped butlers who are smarter than their employers. You would think that, since we are so familiar with this kind of character now, we would know what to expect, but Jeeves is a constant surprise. He was the first, and he is still the best. As the title of one of Wodehouses novels has it, he is "the Inimitable Jeeves."
September 25, 2009
While listening an author interview at the end of a book I liked, the author referred to P.G. Wodehouse as his favorite author. Wow, what a great endorsement, I thought. So shortly thereafter I sought audio books by Wodehouse, particularly the 'Jeeves' collection to which that author referred. My first encounter ("Love Among the Chickens") was a bit of a disappointment, but I decided to try again with this collection of Jeeves stories by Wodehouse. Unfortunately I must admit I was disappointed again. Perhaps I had my hopes set too high? I love a good comedy, and I thought I generally appreciated British humor, but I didn't find these stories very amusing or witty.
October 29, 2010
I love P.G. Wodehouse books. They don't get any better than this. Hilariously funny, witty, well paced, and with absurd, but believable plots. My husband gets annoyed when I read them because I laugh out loud, all the time, at a book written over 100 years ago.
Also, I felt very smart reading this book, because I caught a reference to an old pirate book Captain Blood that I just barely read. I feel like I now should go around flicking the impeccable Mechlin lace at my cuffs.
Also, I felt very smart reading this book, because I caught a reference to an old pirate book Captain Blood that I just barely read. I feel like I now should go around flicking the impeccable Mechlin lace at my cuffs.
April 10, 2011
We hear of Jeeves in so much other literature of various sorts of of varying decades, it seemed to me a shame not to read some of the original stuff myself. Well, it's as brilliant and as witty as all the reference make it out to be and it's also as funny -- with me guffawing and hoping no windows are open to the Spring air so my neighbors will think I'm potty. When I have the time I'll read more. Jeeves is definitely like salted nuts . . . you want more as soon as possible! Recommended to everyone!
July 26, 2024
Культова книга, яку я, на жаль, не змогла оцінити. Чи то через завищенні очікування, чи стиль автора мені не близький, чи просто прочитала я її в неправильний час... Як мені здалося, всі новелли схожі одна на одну, можливо вони просто підібрані за тематикою, але ситуації в які потрапляє Берті Вустер всі однотипні.
September 2, 2024
This is a rather comprehensive collection of the essential Jeeves' stories. I purchased this edition for the cover, of course (Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, the old Granada Television). I would say it is difficult to read a thick book and I much prefer the books separately. I shall continue this review with my thoughts on each of the three stories, which I used to conduct an analysis on the use of humor and linguistics to benefit plot development in these novels.
September 22, 2009
Bordering on a three-four stars. I really did like it. I love Jeeves and Wooster. The stories, however, are a lot the same and a whole compilation of them got a little old. I should've mixed it up with other books. Overall, a funny, light read.
February 20, 2010
P.G. Wodehouse wrote like a fiend, and his particular specialty was soft, intelligent, wry humour. Whenever I read Wodehouse's work, I find myself smiling and smiling -- always makes me feel good. Gentle stories in a language that is beautifully wrought.
August 27, 2017
A classic
This is vintage Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. It's a fine introduction to the series. Bertie is inane and Jeeves comes to the rescue. I never get tired of the stories, even if they are all the same.
This is vintage Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. It's a fine introduction to the series. Bertie is inane and Jeeves comes to the rescue. I never get tired of the stories, even if they are all the same.
August 9, 2007
The best of the best Jeeves, which is the best of Wodehouse!
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March 15, 2011Spiffing, and just plain fun. Now to watch the BBC series.
October 4, 2011
A complete delight! The writing is superb. No great insights just pure joy of language and laughter.
February 12, 2020
Always a good read.
June 3, 2012
I keep picturing Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry mouthing the words as I read. Great stuff, that's why I keep re-reading it every year or so.
June 1, 2014
Somehow I "The Inimitable Jeeves" had escaped my Wodehouse reading over the years.
July 25, 2015
A good introduction to Jeeves & Wooster. Light, summer reading.
June 5, 2018
4stars is my minimum for the brilliantly humorous Wodehouse. This audiobook's presentation was not to my liking or it would have shared 5 stars with the majority of my collection. Very disappointed.
November 5, 2018
A whole series of delights.
February 27, 2021
A very fun read for an anglophile like me. Jeeves and Wooster are a hilarious duo.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews