Extricating Young Gussie

by P.G. Wodehouse, David Ian Davies (Narrator)

Short story, first published in The Man with Two Left Feet (1917). The story introduces Jeeves, Bertie, and Aunt Agatha, though Bertie's surname may be Mannering-Phipps rather than Wooster.

Annotated with biography about the life and times of P.G. Wodehouse.

Genres: Humor, Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Audiobook, Comedy, British Literature

1 pages, Audiobook

First published September 18, 1915

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

[Connie G]

Extricating Young Gussie is an entertaining short story that was first published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1915. Bertie's formidable Aunt Agatha sends him on a mission to bring his cousin Gussie back to London. Gussie has fallen in love with someone quite unsuitable in New York City. The story is humorous, and it was fun to see where the Jeeves and Bertie stories started.

[Shoa Khan]

My first (and also the absolute very first) Jeeves and Wooster! 🥇🤩

[Cheryl]

Delightfully funny short story. It can be read for free here: http://americanliterature.com/author/...

[Asa J H]

"Extricating Young Gussie" is a 1915 short story by P.G. Wodehouse that introduces the comedic duo Bertie Wooster and his resourceful valet, Jeeves. Sent to New York by his formidable Aunt Agatha to prevent his cousin Gussie from marrying a vaudeville artist, Bertie ultimately relies on Jeeves to navigate the hilarious family complications.

[Samantha]

“It’s a funny thing about looking for things. If you hunt for a needle in a haystack you don’t find it. If you don’t give a darn whether you ever see the needle or not it runs into you the first time you lean against the stack.”

[James]

Under instructions from his Aunt, Bertie, heads to the U.S to bring home his cousin, Gussie. Gussie plans to be on stage and falls in love with a singer. Bertie inlists Gussie’s mother’s help, alas, things don’t necessarily always go according to planned.

Quite a short story, well written, read better.

[Laurel Burgess]

This is a great short comedy! (Found online free). Even though it was written in the 1900s, the main character was relatable and the plot had twists. I think it was clean too, besides one use of donkey (but that wasn't a curse word in the day).

[Gary Vassallo]

Another great story about the exploits of Bertie. Some very funny moments in this quaint little story with a fun twist at the end. Highly recommended for Wodehouse and Bertie fans.

[Jerry]

The first of Wodehouse's 'Jeeves' series. However, Jeeves only has a few lines early on in the story. The story centers on Bertie who has been asked by his aunt Agatha to check in on his cousin, Augustus Mannering-Phipps. Upon arriving in New York, one turn after another leaves Bertie in a whirl. By the end of the story, he wonders if he can ever return to England.
The story is well-written and is about 40 minutes long. The story progresses in such a way with twists and turns that you feel as the story is just passing by but you catch every bit of it. Mr. Wodehouse's stories are very well-written and are detailed and jotted with bits of comedy that keep you reading and listening for more.

[Karan Mathur]

This is the first, and thankfully by no means the last, short story of the Bertie-Jeeves series.
It predominantly revolves around Bertie (Jeeves being confined to a tertiary character), an unabashedly idle rich Englishman who travels to New York, to rescue his cousin from committing something which could greatly upset their uptight Aunt and tarnish the family name and honour, or so she believes.
This is Brit Humour at its finest and the private musings of Bertie, interspersed amongst the Seinfeld-like situations is an absolute delight.
A must-read!

[Caleb Marcoux]

I did not like Jeeves as well as the Blandings Castle books, overall. They are still pretty good/enjoyable.
I was originally planning to write one review for the collection I listened to, but I couldn't actually find it, so now I need to late-review estimate each story. Some I liked better than others, but this was best, and longest. I have a suspicion that I just like the extra length for things to get more intricate, rather than many short stories.
I had decided to rate the collection (as a whole) as 3 stars, but it's somewhere between 3 and 4.

[Zoë]

Not a lot of Jeeves is this one, but it is good background for how Bertie came to be in America

Read as part of the Letters Regarding Jeeves series on Substack, which includes all of the Jeeves literature by P. G. Wodehouse that is currently in public domain — the first 25 short stories, as well as the entirety of the novel ‘Right Ho, Jeeves’ — over the course of one year.

[Paul Barnes]

[Standard Ebooks L3C] (ND). EB. 19 Pages.

"Extricating Young Gussie" introduced Jeeves (however briefly) and Wooster.

Its first U.K. appearance was in The Strand Magazine (January 1916).

The story was subsequently collected in "The Man with Two Left Feet" (1917).

One for completists alone. In PGW's sparkling literary canon, it's a weak, early offering.

[Nandhini Narayanan]

I kept waiting for a Jeeves resolution to the Gussie problem, but I like the open ending; of leaving them be. Not much of Jeeves in this one, for those who read the stories for Jeeves' silent unknotting.

[Monique]

This was the first short story I read by Wodehouse in the 8th grade. The under rated humor hooked me, and he's definitely one of my fav authors.


It does surprise me that it really was a short story, I always wanted to know the rest of it!

[Phyllis]

In which we are introduced to Jeeves and Bertie (when Bertie was a Mannering-Phipps!). This first installment of the twittishly hilarious Bertie and the great, all-knowing Jeeves and the adventure of extricating Gussie from foolish decisions. Quite a romp!

[Ruth]

I love how Joe expresses his love by giving her all sorts of food. Its also interesting that the first inclination we get of Gussie is him being Bertie's cousin and wanting to get into singing. I think I prefer the Gussie Fink Nottle who loves newts and is painfully awkward.

[Diane]

Fun little story about good old Bertie Wooster.

[Rob]

Working on my British English fluency.

I've read Chinese texts that were easier than this.

[Leslie]

Fun listen! I love to listen to these books on tape. Library loan.

[Fauzia Lakh]

Revisiting a favorite childhood author. Love his writing and his humor. This is no exception.

[Niki]

I enjoyed this I enjoyed this short story very much. This was funny.

[Luiz Santiago]

3,5

[Janice]

Usual wonderful Wodehouse!

[Gabrielle]

2.5 stars.

A fun short story but the pacing felt slightly off. It was over before it really began.

[Ellie]

An early prototype of the Jeeves series. Bertie has a different last name and Jeeves is barely in it, but it’s the same characters we know and love. Great ending.

[Paul]

Very clunky early Wooster without Jeeves. Wodehouse hadn’t fully developed the character quite yet.

[Jill Bowman]

Cute, and a nice setup for the Jeeves stories. I tried to find it narrated by my absolute favorite narrator, Jonathan Cecil, but no… this narrator sounds about 30 years too old to be Bertie. 😒

[Harrison Okins]

An immensely charming short story of that age old tale: a cage fight between the aristocracy and true love.

[Alexis]

An interesting little story. It does make me want to see what else the author has written.