Hutchinson Heinemann Jolly Festive, Jeeves.

by P.G. Wodehouse

Jolly Festive, Jeeves ABISBOOK Hutchinson Heinemann.

Genres: Fiction, Christmas, Humor

329 pages, Hardcover

Published November 2, 2023

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

[Somrwita Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking for a good laugh or some escapism you should definitely consider reading this delightful collection of thirteen short stories conforming to the spirit of the months, starting from December. This well-designed book will make an ideal festive gift.
The book begins with the Christmas story ‘Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit’, where Bertie Wooster refuses to go to Monte Carlo because he wants to spend the Christmas at Skeldings with Miss Roberta Wickham with whom he has fallen in love and also take his revenge on young Tuppy Glossop who played a trick on him. Miss Wickham comes up with a strange idea of puncturing Tuppy’s hot water bottle with the help of a long stick with a darning needle tied at its end while he is asleep in bed. Bertie tries to follow Miss Wickham’s advice but it takes a hilarious turn as things do not turn out the way it was expected.
The assortment of stories features several well-loved Wodehouse characters such as Bertie and Jeeves, Bobbie Wickham, Lord Emsworth, Ukridge and Mr Mulliner among others. This book will certainly be enjoyed by Wodehouse fans all over the world and the younger generation of readers will also get a chance to experience the idyllic comical world of PG Wodehouse. After all Christmas is incomplete without a dollop of Wodehousian humour. These light-hearted witty stories are extremely entertaining—a comforting read for stressed times.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting, outdated language...'thither', 'peon', 'knickerbockers'...I found some of the stories mildly entertaining.
The red book cover and book shop marketing presented this collection as a seasonal/Christmas read, when only two of the stories are set in December. I found the structure hard to follow, and the stories tricky to properly get into.
I read until the end, but found this slightly disappointing overall.

[Sue Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories

A collection of stories not Christmas stories. But listed through the months of the year. One of them a Jeeves story was disappointing in that at the end of the May section it said continued in Chapter Two of them lists a Jeeves title. So I felt short changed. As I did not get the whole story. But a nice taster of his work.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jolly Festive Jeeves looks like it should be a Wodehouse Christmas collection, but it is, in fact, a short story for every month of the year (two for December). If you've already read most of Wodehouse, you'll recognize at least of a few of the stories.

But Wodehouse is always delightful, whether it's a re-read or your first time through.

[Wendy Charlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a fan then this collection is great for season reading with the same naivety of Bertie and the worldliness of Jeeves. I know that some will struggle with the material and its style but it worth persevering as for me they are period classics.

[Ida · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd been curious about trying some PG Wodehouse for a while, but on the back of this I'm not sure it's for me. Only a couple of the chapters are tangentially festive so the title isn't quite right either.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Wodehouse but this is bad collection of his work - some of it not even short stories but chapters pulled out of whole works.

Smacks of commercialism rather than trying to create a genuinely good book!

[Bob Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can’t go wrong with a Wodehouse short story selection, even if some of the language is of its time.

[Alex Tarbox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously great, really enjoyed dipping in every month

[Felicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stories, but not the collection of Christmas Jeeves and Wooster stories I was expecting.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Tooba Haleem · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved these short stories so much. Loved the comedic aspects of each of these stories (also kinda crazy that I finished it a day later from when I started!)

[Mathilde]

Dreadful