Just Enough Jeeves: Right Ho, Jeeves; Joy in the Morning; Very Good, Jeeves

by P.G. Wodehouse, Robert McCrum (Introduction)

Irresistible comic masterpieces―two novels and a story collection―from the author Christopher Hitchens calls "the gold standard of English wit." Of course there can never be enough Jeeves for die-hard Wodehouse enthusiasts. But this selection brings old favorites to those fans in a sparkling package and will introduce new readers to the funniest writer in the English language. Right Ho, Jeeves ; Joy in the Morning ; and Very Good, Jeeves follow the adventures of two magnificently improbable characters. Bertie Wooster is an amiable young gentleman of excellent and ancient family―so he says―with plenty of money and no professional ambitions. Jeeves is his gentleman's gentleman, the soul of discretion, and a deep thinker, at least compared to Wooster. Jeeves brings tea and hangover cures in the morning, tempers his master's dubious taste in clothes, and invariably manages to extricate Wooster from fantastic predicaments of his own devising. Without Jeeves, Wooster would either be in jail or married to one or another terrifying young woman of his Aunt Agatha's choosing. Unlike life, a Wodehouse story always works out well in the end.

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

712 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2010

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

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everywhere you go, you are surrounded by idiots. Driving around town, in the grocery store, at work, at play, in the restaurants, in banks, on television, at the movie theater, at school, sadly, sometimes, in your very own home. Is there nowhere one can be safe from this infestation of low intelligence?

Luckily for us all, there is one man who stand against this tide of cretinism. That man is Jeeves. And Jeeves is a man among men. If you are among those afflicted, rush out and purchase this book, Just Enough Jeeves. Yes, it is large. Yes, it is yellow. Yes, it is told backwards. Perhaps there is a reason for this. In any case, you certainly need this book. Take it home. Breathe it in. Admire the cover. Reassuring images of Jeeves will remind you that yes, there is sanity in the world. There he is - Jeeves, holding an umbrella, answering the telephone, reading the newspaper, protecting you from the dark forces of stupidity that threaten our very existence.

And that's only the cover. Just think what awaits you when you begin reading. No matter how idiotic your acquaintances are, no matter how asinine your friends or coworkers, they can't begin to approach the antics that are contained in the book itself. Not so much from Jeeves esteemed employer, I hasten to say. Bertram Wooster, while no daring intellectual, is positively brimming with gray matter compared to his bosom pals of the Drones club. But of others - well, when I say Jeeves is their only hope, I state only the plain and honest fact.

This book will give you hope for the future of humanity. You owe it to yourself to own a copy. Give one to similarly afflicted friends and share the joy.

[Jill H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

P.G. Wodehouse represented, without doubt the 20th century zenith of satirical, biting wit and mastery of the English language. I was hooked the first time I picked up his books and have continued to enjoy re-reading his short stories for more years than I care to admit.

This volume is a three story Wooster and Jeeves adventure......dim,well meaning Bertie Wooster with more money than ambition and his brilliant manservant, Jeeves. Wooster/Jeeves stories are the epitome of high camp, with a plethora of "Right hos", "Whats", "Cheerios" and Jeeves "shimmering" out of the room. Additionally the character names are as absurd as any ever created....how many people do you know named Catsmeat Purbright? If you want to laugh out loud, or at least chuckle audibly, pick up this book and begin your trip to a world that only existed in the mind of Wodehouse.....and thank heavens for that.

[Karina · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very entertaining. It seems I've previously read the short stories in this volume (I could recall some details though not everything), but the novels were new to me.

There were some very weird abbreviations -- but most of them I am proud to say I was able to decipher (as an example, that old joke by Kipling about the f. of s. being more d. than the m.)

The telegram exchange in "Right Ho, Jeeves" (p. 508ff) was hysterical, very silly, and I had to reread it, like the next day for a good laugh again.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intro + 3 books in 1 big paperback. This was my introduction to P.G. Woodhouse and I was a little intimidated by the door-stopper size of the volume -- until I started it. Then it was lots of fun, a good exteneded chuckle, refreshing.

[Analie · Rating 5 out of 5]

After being a long-time fan of the BBC series, I finally read one of the books. It was perfection! Just the right ratio of bossy aunts, clueless young men with great names like Gussie Fink-Nottle, and the brainpower of Jeeves the butler to save the day.

One of Aunt Dahlia's shining moments: "To look at you, one would think you were just an ordinary sort of amiable idiot-certifiable, perhaps, but quite harmless. Yet, in reality, you are worse a scourge than the Black Death." (p. 674)

[CJ Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cracking good stuff. I snorted in my chair dozens of times, even at the stories I had read time and again. Wodehouse was one of the great masters of humor, and his every analogy and metaphor a sight to behold.

This is a newly combined volume from WW Norton, putting together Joy in the Morning, Very Good, Jeeves, and Right Ho, Jeeves together in one volume, giving you, as the title indicates, just enough Jeeves. Spanning the heart of Wodehouse's productivity, these three volumes gives us Jeeves at his finest, with one of the very best Jeeves novels in the lead-off spot, sandwiching the short story collection Very Good, Jeeves, and finishing with one of the most famous novels, Right Ho, Jeeves. Wodehouse's biographer Robert McCrum ably introduces these and other salient facts, and gives us a quick sketch of Wodehouse himself in order to launch the thing. Once his agreeable intro has been digested, the fun begins, and doesn't stop until page 712.

[Ray Hu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, easy, delightful, witty, smart, refreshing, brilliant...basically, the amount of adjectives I could apply to PG Wodehouse and his characters are endless, vast, infinite - you get the picture, it's great! Such fun!

[Murray Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A recent New Yorker article made me realize I have never read any P.G. Wodehouse. I’m very familiar with the name, but have never experienced his writing directly. I figured it was time to fix that. After completing this omnibus, containing three full books, I don’t feel like I need to read any more.
It’s not that I can’t see why many people are fans of Bertie Wooster and his man servant Jeeves. There is a certain comfort in the predictability of these stories, both in the characters and the plot lines. Wooster gets in trouble, Jeeves bails him out. It’s just the details which vary from book to book. Spoiler alert (not really): Bertie will remain single (in a way, Wodehouse is the anti-Austen, in that the goal of many stories is for Bertie to avoid getting engaged to the wrong woman, and every woman, apparently, is the wrong woman), and the two will flee the country until whatever trouble has been stirred up blows over.
My problem is that the antics of Bertie and his friends start out mildly amusing, but quickly grow tiresome. Part of this is that nothing is really at stake. These are the ultra rich, the elite very upper crust of British society, and everything can be smoothed over. Witness the regular fleeing to the south of France. While I am sure this part of the charm of these books to their fans, I end up wish for something of real consequence to happen to Bertie. That would make an interesting book.
In the end, the books are like old sitcoms, where you know and love the characters, and the plots are predictable, but the entertainment lies in the details of how it all unfolds. The thing is, I hardly watch sitcoms.

[NCHS Library]

From the Publisher
Right Ho, Jeeves; Joy in the Morning; and Very Good, Jeeves follow the adventures of two magnificently improbable characters. Bertie Wooster is an amiable young gentleman of excellent and ancient family--so he says--with plenty of money and no professional ambitions. Jeeves is his gentleman's gentleman, the soul of discretion, and a deep thinker, at least compared to Wooster. Jeeves brings tea and hangover cures in the morning, tempers his master's dubious taste in clothes, and invariably manages to extricate Wooster from fantastic predicaments of his own devising. Without Jeeves, Wooster would either be in jail or married to one or another terrifying young woman of his Aunt Agatha's choosing. Unlike life, a Wodehouse story always works out well in the end.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pleasure to jump back into the idle, wealthy, breezy world of Jeeves and Wooster, though it dates itself (1930’s) with some offhanded Indian and black caricature. If you can acknowledge those as a representation of time and place, the three novels are a loony and enjoyable romp through British humour.

[Fastidiously Facetious · Rating 5 out of 5]

In case somebody thinks I never read anything lighthearted, this is proof to the contrary.

This delightful collection of two novels and 11 short stories is a hilarious read. If you’ve never heard of Jeeves and Wooster, I highly recommend you watch at least one of the episodes that was produced on the BBC. Then read the stories because I found it much easier to get the right tone and pace of the stories from the show.

Bertram “Bertie” Wooster is a good-natured fool who has more money and time than brains. He narrates all of the stories in which he comes up with (what he thinks) are genius plans for getting a friend in or out of an engagement, getting himself out of an engagement, or just resolving general silly situations. But his plans are idiotic. Jeeves, his brilliant and formal servant, always works things out behind-the-scenes to resolve every situation in spite of Wooster’s bungling.

I highly recommend any of the stories if you’re looking for a witty and intelligent comic read.

4.5 / 5 stars

[Aimée · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old-school humour that holds up!

[Triss · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing better than watching the show Jeeves and Wooster, is reading their exploits in this book.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Times like these help me understand why Wodehouse took refuge in Edwardian era comic fantasies and never came out.

[Kanishka Bhati]

This will leave you laughing at the amazing sense of humor of the author. Fantastic style of writing, already a fan of Wodehouse:)

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe just a touch too much Jeeves.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joy in the Morning - ⭐⭐⭐
Very Good, Jeeves - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Right Ho, Jeeves - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny, easy reading for the brain of a language-loving but surgery-addled Anglophile.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hysterical. Lovely language, with the bizarre twist that the author rather frequently abbreviates words. You can usually figure out what he means - but something I've never seen before.

[Phillip Fitzsimmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It is great, great, great.

[Marty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first book, Joy in the Morning. It took a while to read it, but was a cuter farce, like the Play / Movie Noises Off (which was hilarious). Joy in the Morning, was cute.

[Tim Evanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of three P.G. Wodehouse novels: Very Good, Jeeves (1930), Right Ho, Jeeves (1934); and Joy in the Morning (1947). There are 16 Jeeves & Wooster novels, although some of these are really story collections.

Wodehouse worked on a novel for up to two years, mostly writing a story treatment that outlined characters, plot elements, and funny scenes or jokes. He'd then take three to six months to actually write a novel based on this treatment.

Probably the best and weakest of the three novels in this collection is Very Good, Jeeves, a collection of 11 short stories (two-thirds of them written from September 1929 to April 1930) reworked into a novel format. It's the best of the three novels, in a way, because Wodehouse was much better as a short story author (in my opinion) than he was as a long-form novelist. His vapid high society fashion-plate, Bertie Wooster, is best taken in short doses, and the episodic nature of this "collected novel" works to the advantage of both character and plot. The "inimitable" butler, Jeeves, usually arrives on the page at the last second, instantly rights Bertie's ship, and departs with a wry smile. In a long-from novel, Jeeves often disappears, but in this "collected novel" Jeeves reappears at the end of each chapter. It feels more balanced. Yet, this "collected novel" is the weakest of the three, because it feels so vignette-y.

Right Ho, Jeeves is far and away the best of the novels in this collection. While there's less Jeeves, Bertie Wooster comes off much more balanced -- if dull-witted, and hence prone to comic failure -- and therefore much more readable and enjoyable than in either Very Good, Jeeves (where his idiocy is heightened for the short story) or in Joy in the Morning (more on that later). I found myself laughing out loud at Gussie Fink-Nottle's drunken awards speech, and no wonder: It's considered a masterpiece of comic literature. Like most of Wodehouse's writing, Right Ho, Jeeves is a comedy of errors. Misunderstandings, embarrassment that leads a character to misstate the truth or avoid speaking it, and the purposeful misunderstandings of (primarily) the female characters in order to manipulate men and get their way are piled on in the novel.

Joy in the Morning is inferior to the other two novels here. Wodehouse was working on it in 1940 in France when Nazi Germay invaded. Wodehouse dithered; for a week, as France collapsed, he neither sailed across the Channel for England nor fled south with his wife. He was captured on May 22, and imprisoned in various locales until June 21. Taken to Berlin, he agreed to make five humor broadcasts on Nazi radio. He was excoriated in Britian for this. Wodhouse remained in Berlin until September 1943, when he was allowed to return to Paris. He was in the city when it was liberated on in August 1944.

Wodehouse had been at work on Joy in the Morning when captured. He wrote Money in the Bank (a non-Jeeves novel) while in prison before going to Berlin. He finished Joy in the Morning while living in Berlin.

The novel suffers, I think, from not only being interrupted for two years (a serious break for Wodehouse and his working style) as well as from the circumstances under which it was written. Wodehouse, by all accounts, was as apolitical as anyone could be, and supremely ignorant about the political implications of what he did in Berlin. His broadcasts were funny, not propaganda, and managed to include subtle digs at his captors. But in wartime, there is nothing that is apolitical. And despite all the claims about how apolitical Wodehouse was, it beggars the imagination to see him as a naif who had no understanding of either Nazi politics or what war meant. If we accept the view that Wodehouse was a bonehead, it becomes hard to reconcile with his excellent writing. On the other hand, if one assumes that he understood what he was doing (broadcasting in order to improve his living conditions in Berlin) but willfully wished away the possible consequences, then I think we have to also come to the conclusion that it influences his writing in Joy in the Morning.

I think Joy in the Morning suffers. The plot is thin. Plot holes are painfully obvious. The chapters seem so episodic as to be disconnected. Jeeves is almost completely missing from the work, and certain humorous elements fall so flat that you can hear the "splat" as they do so.

Joy in the Morning is enjoyable, but certainly not, in my opinion, anywhere nearly as good as other Jeeves & Wooster novels.

[Oldroses · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have never read anything by P.G. Wodehouse, this book is an excellent place to start. It contains two novels and a collection of short stories, all featuring Bertie Wooster and his omniscient manservant, Jeeves. The stories collected here span most of Wodehouse’s career, from among the first Jeeves stories to the last.

One drawback to reading an anthology like this is that it is much like watching a "House" marathon on television. The plotlines are all the same. In House’s case, the first 15 minutes are devoted to the setup, introducing the new patient, his/her misdiagnosis and the friends and family surrounding him/her. The next forty minutes see House and his team pursue various clues while making wildly wrong diagnoses until in the final ten minutes House has an epiphany and comes up with the correct diagnosis. The fun, of course, is in the byplay between the characters and like any good mystery, guessing which are the real clues and which are the red herrings.

Wodehouse’s Jeeves stories are much the same. Each story starts out with Bertie and his friends and relatives faced with a seemingly insurmountable personal situation, which after much drama is neatly solved by Jeeves. The fun in these stories is the dry, English humor and guessing what solution Jeeves will come up with. "Drama" is relative. Like "Seinfeld", these stories are about "nothing". Nothing important (to anyone but the rich, selfish characters) ever happens. No one ever dies or is seriously hurt. Yet to the characters in the stories, the situations in which they find themselves, are of vital importance. Only Jeeves can save them.

All the stories are told from Bertie’s point of view. We are never privileged to enter into Jeeves character or thinking other than to hear his explanations of the solutions he comes up with to solve the dilemmas of the idle rich. His simple but effective answers to their seemingly insurmountable problems, offers him an opportunity to comment on their ignorance without actually calling them morons. Bertie and his friends and family remain blissfully unaware that he is mocking them.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is as light reading should be: delightful, fun and smart!

Wodehouse has created a beautiful mixture of formulaic plot and unexpected outcomes driven by a cast of characters who are too infuriating to be figments of fiction.

Bertie Wooster is the bumbling playboy wreaking havoc in his friends' and family's lives. Jeeves is the straight-faced, somewhat arrogant but perfectly loyal butler whose nearly transcendent intelligence saves Bertie time and again, usually with a solution steeped in irony and karma.

The dialogue and banter is hilarious, and Aunt Dahlia steals the show with her stinging, yet loving, rebukes directed at Bertie. (Like this one: " 'What a pest you are, you miserable object,' she sighed. 'I remember years ago, when you were in your cradle, being left alone with you one day and you nearly swallowed your rubber comforter and started turning purple. And I, ass that I was, took it out and saved your life. Let me tell you, young Bertie, it will go very hard with you if you ever swallow a rubber comforter again when only I am by to aid.' (p. 677) "

A favorite line: "She came leaping towards me, like Lady Macbeth coming to get first-hand news from the guest room (p. 187)."

This edition is a compilation of three books: Joy in the Morning, Very Good Jeeves, and Right Ho, Jeeves. Admittedly, I started slow with Joy and I struggled to glean the personalities of each character. Nearly disappointed after having read such raving reviews and not not quite feeling it, I was relieved when I came to the short story section and found that I was in love.

(My recommendation is to start with the first short story in Very Good Jeeves. Read the short stories until you understand and love the characters, and then return to Joy in the Morning. Though this places some events out of sync chronologically, this will help the characters shine.) (The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy was my favorite of the short stories.)

Note: Though Hugh Laurie is well cast in the television version, in my readings I continually saw Hugh Grant as the perfect Bertie Wooster.

[Stuart Lutzenhiser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sometimes envy other readers. There is much joy in reading again a beloved book, but there is nothing to match the enjoyment of when you read that book for the first time. Each successive reading brings new insights, new appreciation of the author's craftsmanship, new details that you missed. However, I envy those who have not yet met Jeeves and Wooster on the printed page. They are in for a treat! These three works, collected into an omnibus edition, are an excellent first journey into this world. Two are full length novels and one is a set of shorter stories. I think "Joy in the Morning" is just about the finest novel in this style, that is a universe that is peopled by well-to-do gentlemen about town with their gentleman's gentleman. They have nothing better to do than to dabble in an occasional project and to flit from party to party, the city to the countryside. The plots are well crafted, but predictable. Bertie Wooster, or one of his many friends, lands in the "soup" and Jeeves, his man about the house, must rise to the call and find a way out of the mess. It always works out, but with hilarious results.
Again - I envy you if you haven't read these stories. You'll never get to read them for the first time again - but you will enjoy them none the less.

[Timothy Tobolski · Rating 4 out of 5]

After months -- if not years -- of reading far more fantastical fare, I decided to delve back into something a bit more down-to-earth. And you can't get more down-to-earth with pie-in-the-sky ambitions that Wodehouse's stories. Doesn't hurt that I've been watching Fry and Laurie's 'Jeeves and Wooster' series for the past three weeks. I'm particularly excited to check this collection out as it seems to be the basis for most of the adaptation.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank goodness for P.G. Wodehouse. I'd forgotten all about him, but turn to him now particularly for bedtime reading. The reading is pure pleasure because of the craft of his sentence structure and style, interspersed with the chuckles elicited by the inconsequential antics of the lovable twit Bertie Wooster and his gravely wise valet Jeeves.

[Marcel · Rating 5 out of 5]

After my introduction to P.G. Wodehouse by reading "The Code of the Woosters", I wes in heaven to find "Just Enough Jeeves". My hunger for more houmor is satisfied, for now, by the book, an omnibus, cantaining a collection of Bertie & Jeeves adventures. As with "Code of the Woosters", I can't put the book down.

[Darcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This is the first time I read a book that isn't in the GoodReads system. I read the first edition of Joy in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse, not this collected edition.

Anyway, I have hope for the human race when I read such glorious prose as Wodehouse produced in this novel.

[Kevin Kizer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I'm never let down by Wodehouse.

Honoria Glossop's laugh was alternately compared to "a squadron of cavalry cantering over a tin bridge", "a steam-riveting machine" and "waves breaking on a stern and rockbound coast".