The Best of Jeeves and Wooster - A Classic Collection

by P.G. Wodehouse

P.G. Wodehouse, the master of British humor, produced dozens of books and hundreds of short stories in his long and prolific career. But none of his creations captured the world's imagination quite as much as his bumbling, empty-headed, man-about-town Bertie Wooster and Bertie's faithful, knight-in-shining tuxedo Jeeves. 




Collected here are eleven of Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster" short stories (comprising all of the Jeeves tales from "Carry On, Jeeves" and "My Man Jeeves") as well as the complete novels "Right Ho, Jeeves" and "The Inimitable Jeeves." Along with Jeeves and Bertie, we are introduced to an entire cast of beloved Wodehouse  Gussie Fink-Nottle, Madeline Bassett, Bingo Little, James "Corky" Corcoran, Tuppy and Honoria Glossop, Rockmetteller Todd, and the terrifying and bombastic Aunt Agatha. This collection even contains the one-and-only story narrated by Jeeves himself! 




This entire, one-of-a-kind collection is presented here in its original and unabridged form.

Genres: Humor, Audiobook

775 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 8, 2022

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

[Ron Peters · Rating 1 out of 5]

Humor is subjective and, in the past couple of years, having given it my best shot, I find I have no taste for the British variety. I tried Billie Liar, Cold Comfort Farm, Lucky Jim, Three Men in a Boat, etc.

This is the first book in years that I gave up on before finishing it. It was my fault that I bought a collection of four books. I forced myself to finish the first one but couldn’t look at the rest.

There’s nothing wrong with Woodhouse, and his material did raise an occasional smirk, but I don’t find this stuff laugh-out-loud funny. I even watched part of one episode of the TV series but that didn’t do it either. Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams are hilarious but that’s as far as I go. I’m officially done with British humor.

Are there any funny Russian or Chinese novels?

[Nadia Zeemeeuw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess if Jeeves and Wooster is something you have to discover this collection is a great place to start.
I had a great time with it though in my case this collection might be a great place to finish with this story. I kind of took everything from it what I possibly could.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 stars, I enjoyed read/listening to the book. I have also watched the shows. But I am not sure if I would say all the stories in here were the best but that is just me.

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I may come back to these gently risible stories, but after several hours, I have had my fill of Bertie for a while.

[Maritza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything that I can say about "The Best of Jeeves and Wooster" will never, ever reflect the joy, the wit, the speed of thought, the situations, all that these lively stories are. I am so impressed as how the characters, their entanglements, the high society, the ridicule, the errors here blend in such a way that bring so much joy and marvel. The audiobook version narrated by Kevin Theis still merrily resonates in my mind. It is so natural and naive and so so genuine and funny. A must re-read to bring instant joy !!!

[Theda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still have trouble imagining what Jeeves looks like when "he shimmers in" - haha.

Quotes:
-- It was one of those still evenings you get in a summer, when you can hear a snail clear its throat a mile away.
-- If ever I find this slimy, slithery snake in the grass.... I am going to turn him inside out and make him swallow himself.