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Scream for Jeeves: A Parody
Book by Cannon, Peter H.
86 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
December 31, 2017
This book is only for P.G Wohdouse fans it's not a book for the cause reader but the fans of Jeeves.My copy is signed
November 11, 2010
Cannon tries to combine the styles and plots of P. G. Wodehouse and H. P. Lovecraft. An afterword compares the two authors, and also Arthur Conan Doyle. A knowledge of the authors' works, especially Lovecraft's, is assumed. The execution isn't up to the idea.
June 12, 2025
A brief booklet whose title tells you the deal—what if Jeeves and Wooster got embroiled in Lovecraft stories. We've got “The Rats In the Wall,” we've got “Cool Air” (a slightly eccentric choice), and we've got “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (with bonus “The Music of Erich Zann”) I enjoy both authors, and the idea is a funny one, but left this with extremely mixed feelings.
“Cats, Rats, and Bertie Wooster” is the strongest of the stories because it's most pure in its central conceit; Bertie Wooster reluctantly answers a call from an old friend, Edward “Tubby” Norrys to bring Jeeves down to the site of the story and try to “get to the bottom of this mystery.” It's slightly incoherent in premise (Jeeves is going to get to the bottom of some cats acting weirdly?) but you have to accept that. The events of the story occur, narrated sometimes in a faux-Lovecraft style, sometimes faux-Wodehouse. The joke, you see, is that they're very different:
“Preserved in balladry, too … is the hideous tale of Mary de la Poer, who, shortly after her marriage to the Earl of Shrewsfield was killed by him and his mother, both of his slayers being absolved and blessed by the priest to whom they confessed what they did not repeat to the world
“Frightful dragon, was she? Sounds a bit like my Aunt Agatha.”
You might think this joke has limits to how long it can go on for, and you'd be right; “Something Foetid” already feels like it's struggling. Probably “Cool Air” wasn't a very felicitous choice of stories to begin with—there are very few characters, so Cannon has to manufacture Parks, the valet of the narrator of that story; and there is very little incident, except the main one, so Cannon likewise manufacture pseudo-drama that never really goes anywhere or ties back into the story (the narrator claims to make a living selling stories to pulp magazines, but is really independently wealthy, which would be weird to learn about an acquaintance, but it never concretely affects anything, for example). Really missing a trick by doing this instead of “The Thing On the Doorstep,” in my opinion.
Things entirely fall apart in “The Rummy Affair of Young Charlie.” It abandons the central premise—a dumb aristocrat bumbling ignorantly through Lovecraft's fiction—and imbues Bertie with a suddenly encyclopedic knowledge of the Mythos, and the constant references (“When Aunt Agatha wants you to so a thing, you do it, or else you find yourself wondering why the Old Ones made such a fuss when they had that trouble with their shoggoths”) get tiresome very quickly. At one point he explicitly references that story he's appearing in (“If you ask me, unless he cleans up his act, young Charlie could do more harm than a resurrected wizard left alone in a sandbox of essential salts.”) which is especially grating.
The characterization becomes suddenly bizarre as well. It's easy to descend into nitpicking with this sort of thing, but here it's gratuitous. This from Aunt Agatha: “Instead of lolling about indoors this lovely morning you should be out chasing some charming girl in the park.” The idea that Bertie's Aunt Agatha wants him to hit on random women in the park is such a misreading of a character who is obsessed with her family name and people making suitable matches, that it's hard to know what to make of it. It's presumably intended as a joke, but the joke of this entire volume is that Wodehouse characters are being faced with Lovecraft situations; to make one of the Wodehouse characters unrecognizable like this is to betray the central premise of the anthology. Furthermore, Bertie's role in the story is incoherent—he's sent to Paris to “keep [Charles] out of mischief” and, finding him to be a reclusive individual who would never get into mischief, attempts to introduce him to racing and hit on random women?
But this story's greatest sin is a total abandonment of the premise. Midway though, author P. H. Cannot makes the irritating and self-indulgent decision to introduce a character of his own from his novel Pulptime*, and abandons "The Strange Case of Dexter Ward" to do “The Music of Erich Zann” instead—now Bertie and Jeeves must induce Zann to write down his music so that they can steal it, for extremely unclear reasons. Jeeves, incidentally, doesn't do anything or solve any problems in this story, a fairly significant betrayal of the Wodehouse formula.
Now on the one hand … maybe it's ridiculous to perform any sort of close reading on a story like this. But Wodehouse is so successful in part because, at his best, his stories are meticulously plotted and based on characters acting in ways that, although absurd in the real world, make sense for them. Since the author's directly inviting the comparison, it's fair to say this doesn't measure up.
Anyway, we're on page 64, and done with the stories. We round out with “The Adventure of the Three Anglo-American Authors: Some Reflections on Conan Doyle, P. G. Wodehouse, and H. P. Lovecraft,” a rather rambling thing with no real thesis or point. Much as I didn't love two of the three stories in this collection, I wasn't delighted to find that an already extremely brief volume had padded itself out in this way. The author is certainly education on all three men, but I'm sure no reader is picking this volume up to read his essay—it's inclusion is again self-indulgent.
* Poking around online suggests that he is Sherlock Holmes in disguise, which explains why Doyle is included in the concluding essay; but since he acts nothing like Holmes, he is an original character for all purposes.
“Cats, Rats, and Bertie Wooster” is the strongest of the stories because it's most pure in its central conceit; Bertie Wooster reluctantly answers a call from an old friend, Edward “Tubby” Norrys to bring Jeeves down to the site of the story and try to “get to the bottom of this mystery.” It's slightly incoherent in premise (Jeeves is going to get to the bottom of some cats acting weirdly?) but you have to accept that. The events of the story occur, narrated sometimes in a faux-Lovecraft style, sometimes faux-Wodehouse. The joke, you see, is that they're very different:
“Preserved in balladry, too … is the hideous tale of Mary de la Poer, who, shortly after her marriage to the Earl of Shrewsfield was killed by him and his mother, both of his slayers being absolved and blessed by the priest to whom they confessed what they did not repeat to the world
“Frightful dragon, was she? Sounds a bit like my Aunt Agatha.”
You might think this joke has limits to how long it can go on for, and you'd be right; “Something Foetid” already feels like it's struggling. Probably “Cool Air” wasn't a very felicitous choice of stories to begin with—there are very few characters, so Cannon has to manufacture Parks, the valet of the narrator of that story; and there is very little incident, except the main one, so Cannon likewise manufacture pseudo-drama that never really goes anywhere or ties back into the story (the narrator claims to make a living selling stories to pulp magazines, but is really independently wealthy, which would be weird to learn about an acquaintance, but it never concretely affects anything, for example). Really missing a trick by doing this instead of “The Thing On the Doorstep,” in my opinion.
Things entirely fall apart in “The Rummy Affair of Young Charlie.” It abandons the central premise—a dumb aristocrat bumbling ignorantly through Lovecraft's fiction—and imbues Bertie with a suddenly encyclopedic knowledge of the Mythos, and the constant references (“When Aunt Agatha wants you to so a thing, you do it, or else you find yourself wondering why the Old Ones made such a fuss when they had that trouble with their shoggoths”) get tiresome very quickly. At one point he explicitly references that story he's appearing in (“If you ask me, unless he cleans up his act, young Charlie could do more harm than a resurrected wizard left alone in a sandbox of essential salts.”) which is especially grating.
The characterization becomes suddenly bizarre as well. It's easy to descend into nitpicking with this sort of thing, but here it's gratuitous. This from Aunt Agatha: “Instead of lolling about indoors this lovely morning you should be out chasing some charming girl in the park.” The idea that Bertie's Aunt Agatha wants him to hit on random women in the park is such a misreading of a character who is obsessed with her family name and people making suitable matches, that it's hard to know what to make of it. It's presumably intended as a joke, but the joke of this entire volume is that Wodehouse characters are being faced with Lovecraft situations; to make one of the Wodehouse characters unrecognizable like this is to betray the central premise of the anthology. Furthermore, Bertie's role in the story is incoherent—he's sent to Paris to “keep [Charles] out of mischief” and, finding him to be a reclusive individual who would never get into mischief, attempts to introduce him to racing and hit on random women?
But this story's greatest sin is a total abandonment of the premise. Midway though, author P. H. Cannot makes the irritating and self-indulgent decision to introduce a character of his own from his novel Pulptime*, and abandons "The Strange Case of Dexter Ward" to do “The Music of Erich Zann” instead—now Bertie and Jeeves must induce Zann to write down his music so that they can steal it, for extremely unclear reasons. Jeeves, incidentally, doesn't do anything or solve any problems in this story, a fairly significant betrayal of the Wodehouse formula.
Now on the one hand … maybe it's ridiculous to perform any sort of close reading on a story like this. But Wodehouse is so successful in part because, at his best, his stories are meticulously plotted and based on characters acting in ways that, although absurd in the real world, make sense for them. Since the author's directly inviting the comparison, it's fair to say this doesn't measure up.
Anyway, we're on page 64, and done with the stories. We round out with “The Adventure of the Three Anglo-American Authors: Some Reflections on Conan Doyle, P. G. Wodehouse, and H. P. Lovecraft,” a rather rambling thing with no real thesis or point. Much as I didn't love two of the three stories in this collection, I wasn't delighted to find that an already extremely brief volume had padded itself out in this way. The author is certainly education on all three men, but I'm sure no reader is picking this volume up to read his essay—it's inclusion is again self-indulgent.
* Poking around online suggests that he is Sherlock Holmes in disguise, which explains why Doyle is included in the concluding essay; but since he acts nothing like Holmes, he is an original character for all purposes.
May 2, 2010
An interesting juxtaposition of Bertie Wooster unknowlingly doing his thing in the world of HP Lovecraft.
Would be interesting to have seen more stories, but maybe someone else will light an carry the torch.
An interesting essay of the connection between Coban Doyle, HP Lovecraft and PG Wodehouse, too.
Would be interesting to have seen more stories, but maybe someone else will light an carry the torch.
An interesting essay of the connection between Coban Doyle, HP Lovecraft and PG Wodehouse, too.
July 25, 2023
Cthulhu ftagn it! Bertie Wooster, of, as it turns out, fortunately for him, limited imagination, along his much more intelligent "man," Jeeves, find themselves involved with the things which Lovecraft wrote about -- and another writer, but we'll get to that, however obliquely.
There are three stories.
In "Cats, Rats, and Bertie Wooster," one of Bertie's equally-useless chums, citing the Code of the Woosters, drags him out to his American uncle's recently-inherited Exham Priory. Here there are strange, horrid scratching sounds in the walls and something unexpectedly nasty in the basement. (HPL's "The Rats in the Walls")
In "Something Foetid," Bertie finds himself, as one occasionally does, in New York, where he rather foolishly becomes engaged to an athletic sort of woman. A more-recent acquaintance drags him to meet the mysterious Dr. Muñoz, a man who keeps his apartment (directly above that of Randy, the acquaintance) at a nigh-Arctic temperature. When his air-cooling machinery breaks down, things go quite poorly for him. ("Cool Air")
And in "The Rummy Affair of Young Charlie," Bertie's Aunt Agatha orders Bertie to bring a young American, whom Bertie refers to as Charles "Dexter" Ward, to his senses: he has foregone college and come to Paris to study matters not generally taught, or known of, in the great institutes of higher learning. Ward tolerates Berties feckless attempts, then disappears off to the Rue Auseuil, seeking knowledge from a musician named Zann. Along with a gentleman calling himself Mr Altamont from Chicago (and there's the obliquity), Bertie manages, largely through music and incompetence, to prevent Ward from getting that knowledge. ("The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" mixed up with "The Music of Erich Zann")
Finally, we have an essay, "The Adventure of the Three Anglo-American Authors," in which Cannon reflects upon the similarities and even limited interrelatedness of Lovecraft, Wodehouse, and ... well, the creator of Mr Altamont.
The whole thing is entertaining, but every bit as negligible in the end as Bertie Wooster's intellect.
There are three stories.
In "Cats, Rats, and Bertie Wooster," one of Bertie's equally-useless chums, citing the Code of the Woosters, drags him out to his American uncle's recently-inherited Exham Priory. Here there are strange, horrid scratching sounds in the walls and something unexpectedly nasty in the basement. (HPL's "The Rats in the Walls")
In "Something Foetid," Bertie finds himself, as one occasionally does, in New York, where he rather foolishly becomes engaged to an athletic sort of woman. A more-recent acquaintance drags him to meet the mysterious Dr. Muñoz, a man who keeps his apartment (directly above that of Randy, the acquaintance) at a nigh-Arctic temperature. When his air-cooling machinery breaks down, things go quite poorly for him. ("Cool Air")
And in "The Rummy Affair of Young Charlie," Bertie's Aunt Agatha orders Bertie to bring a young American, whom Bertie refers to as Charles "Dexter" Ward, to his senses: he has foregone college and come to Paris to study matters not generally taught, or known of, in the great institutes of higher learning. Ward tolerates Berties feckless attempts, then disappears off to the Rue Auseuil, seeking knowledge from a musician named Zann. Along with a gentleman calling himself Mr Altamont from Chicago (and there's the obliquity), Bertie manages, largely through music and incompetence, to prevent Ward from getting that knowledge. ("The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" mixed up with "The Music of Erich Zann")
Finally, we have an essay, "The Adventure of the Three Anglo-American Authors," in which Cannon reflects upon the similarities and even limited interrelatedness of Lovecraft, Wodehouse, and ... well, the creator of Mr Altamont.
The whole thing is entertaining, but every bit as negligible in the end as Bertie Wooster's intellect.
May 13, 2022
If this had been written today instead of 1994, it would have been three fanfics on Archive of Our Own, rather than a published chapbook. That's not intended as a negative comment - each of those fanfics would have 1k+ kudos on them, and every reader who is a fan of both H.P. Lovecraft and P.G. Wodehouse would list them as among their favorite works, and make sure that all their friends knew about it.
This is the purest form of fanfiction. It doesn't have a lot for people who aren't already fans, and is pure catnip for people who are. Used copies of the physical book are $45 and up on ABE Books and so forth, and I can't say I'd be willing to recommend it to people at that price point, but there is a Kindle edition for $5, and if you've got an Internet Archive account, there's an online-readable version there, https://archive.org/details/screamfor...
This is the purest form of fanfiction. It doesn't have a lot for people who aren't already fans, and is pure catnip for people who are. Used copies of the physical book are $45 and up on ABE Books and so forth, and I can't say I'd be willing to recommend it to people at that price point, but there is a Kindle edition for $5, and if you've got an Internet Archive account, there's an online-readable version there, https://archive.org/details/screamfor...
November 16, 2019
'Most eldritch, sir.'
A collection of three short stories and an essay makes for fun but short reading. The stories are written in a voice straight out of Wodehouse, which I can’t complain about, but they do all lack a certain punch from the horror department (and they all end in the same unsatisfying manner). I had only a passing interest in the overlong essay included at the end of the collection, as I didn't expect its inclusion and it read as rather outdated and sexist (apparently if you’re a female fan of Wodehouse, Doyle, and Lovecraft you might as well consign yourself to the nearest freakshow). Ultimately this book is just okay, though given the endless possibilities of a Wodehouse/Lovecraft mashup, leans a bit more to the disappointing side.
A collection of three short stories and an essay makes for fun but short reading. The stories are written in a voice straight out of Wodehouse, which I can’t complain about, but they do all lack a certain punch from the horror department (and they all end in the same unsatisfying manner). I had only a passing interest in the overlong essay included at the end of the collection, as I didn't expect its inclusion and it read as rather outdated and sexist (apparently if you’re a female fan of Wodehouse, Doyle, and Lovecraft you might as well consign yourself to the nearest freakshow). Ultimately this book is just okay, though given the endless possibilities of a Wodehouse/Lovecraft mashup, leans a bit more to the disappointing side.
March 18, 2022
It was a delightful mash up of the lighthearted antics of P.G. Wodehouse and the dark deep stirrings of Lovecraft’s elder gods. If you are passingly fond of either of these authors, I’d say the book is a must read. I have a Wodehouse fanatic friend and I’m sort of insisting she give this book a try, lol. The author manages to stay true to the originals—Bertie is as inconsequential and irreverent as ever, while Jeeves—savvy to a fault—has a healthy respect for eldritch horrors while remaining a man equal to any situation, more than capable of shepherding his young charge past social and otherworldly obstacles.
January 2, 2018
A masterfully-done parody of Lovecraft works reimagined in the comic style of Wodehouse, sure to please fans of both! And if, like me, you're not too familiar with either, this slim volume will serve as a most enjoyable introduction, pointing the way toward further delights, albeit potentially in opposite directions.
January 17, 2018
Great parody
Author really nailed Wodehouse in his parody, and does a great job inserting Bertie and Jeeves into Lovecraft's tales. Well worth a read.
Author really nailed Wodehouse in his parody, and does a great job inserting Bertie and Jeeves into Lovecraft's tales. Well worth a read.
August 4, 2023
Autographed by both the author and the illustrator.
Entertaining combination of P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and his servent, Jeeves mixed up in H.P. Lovecraft inspired shenanigans.
Entertaining combination of P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and his servent, Jeeves mixed up in H.P. Lovecraft inspired shenanigans.
April 20, 2025
Loved it, wish there were more stories!
June 2, 2019
Clever enough mashup, and obviously loving, but the prose misses the mark on every page, jolting us out of Plum's dreamworld without even sending into Howard's nightmarish one. (It might seem shallow to judge something on the prose alone, but you can't have Jeeves without perfect pitch, it consists in comic timing and music; if you come at the master you best not miss.)
Critical essay linking Wodehouse, Lovecraft and Doyle is also clever. W and L we're both fantasy authors you see.
I realise there's a lot of Jeeves homage going around, published and Authorised, and so not looking like the fanfiction it is.
Critical essay linking Wodehouse, Lovecraft and Doyle is also clever. W and L we're both fantasy authors you see.
I realise there's a lot of Jeeves homage going around, published and Authorised, and so not looking like the fanfiction it is.
May 20, 2022
A light but fascinating attempt to reconcile the quick, humorous prose of Wodehouse and the slow, halting style of Lovecraft. I'm reminded comedy is often a way to make the serious inconsequential and horror a way to make the innocuous have consequence. The way the author bridges the gap in order to have Bertie Wooster and Jeeves occupy the same space as gibbous moons and unfathomable terrors is admirable.
May 3, 2013
A top drawer idea to combine the world's of Lovecraft and Wodehouse. Thrill to Jeeves and Wooster's trip to Exham Priory to visit Bertie's old school chum Tubby Norris! Even Sir Reginald Glossop would want a cat along for that trip. Chill to their trip to NYC where they get the cold shoulder from a certain Dr. Munoz! It beats a weekend out at Pauline Stokers on Long Island! Learn what horrors come about when Bertie allows himself to be accompanied Eric Zann on a rousing rendition of Sonny Boy . If those names don't mean anything to you then this may not be your cup of tea. If you do have the appropriate level of "thingness" AND "thing-on-the-doorstep-ness" then these shorts will be certain to bring a smile.
December 22, 2019
As expected, this was quite silly. Three Lovecraft tales ("The Rats in the Walls," "Cool Air," and "The Music of Erich Zann") are reimagined with Bertie Wooster as their narrator. There's no real through-line or point - it's more of an experiment to replicate Bertie's trademark voice as the teller of these eldritch tales. And as far as it goes, it's successful.
I might have been more wild about this if I were more of a Wodehouse fan. I'll probably give old Jeeves another shot after reading this.
NB: A good portion of the book consists of an essay about Lovecraft, Wodehouse, and Arthur Conan Doyle. It was somewhat interesting, but not what I picked this up to read.
I might have been more wild about this if I were more of a Wodehouse fan. I'll probably give old Jeeves another shot after reading this.
NB: A good portion of the book consists of an essay about Lovecraft, Wodehouse, and Arthur Conan Doyle. It was somewhat interesting, but not what I picked this up to read.
Read
January 24, 2016Absolutely delightful. I recommend re-reading the three Lovecraft tails "retold" here before reading this book, because the. You can really see how masterfully Cannon tells his Wodehousian stories. I only wish there had been more -- not a bad way to feel! Oh, and the essay at the end comparing Lovecraft, Wodehouse, and Arthur Conan Doyle is very interesting indeed, and has pointed me to some more reading to do.
June 1, 2016
I think this is a pretty passable pastiche of the Wodehouse style with only a few slips of the mask. I know enough about Lovecraft to enjoy the references but not enough to know if there are any howlers in there for the aficionado. It's funny and doesn't outstay it's welcome. The book is pretty hard to come by but if you find a copy at a reasonable price, scoop it up!
October 4, 2015
Does require a working knowledge of the Lovecraft stories used to get the full effect but a very enjoyable pastiche of both authors plus nice essay on Wodehouse, Lovecraft and Conan Doyle at the back.
July 20, 2009
Very fun. I do wish there was a second volume though. It would be fun to see Bertie in the really famous stories. Cthulu, Innsmouth, and Madness. Oh well...
March 5, 2009
Great parody mixing the styles and characters of Wodehouse, Lovecraft and Doyle. 3 short pieces and a very interesting essay comparing the 3 authors. Unfortunately hard to find these days ...
August 1, 2009
I love Wodehouse. I love Lovecraft. Who knew the styles could be mixed so VERY well? A treasure of a book.
October 6, 2010
Very, very funny and well-conceived parodies of classic Lovecraft stories featuring Bertie and Jeeves.
August 8, 2012
Here we have Mark Twain's humourist who is really funny... the pioneer of horror pastiche - great stuff
October 22, 2016
A mashup between P.G. Wodehouse and H.P. Lovecraft in three short stories. The bare bones elements of both authors are indeed there, but Cannon does not have the stylistic flair of either.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews