Reading the 20th Century discussion
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Carry On, Jeeves
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Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (December 2025)
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It's interesting to read these early J&W stories as it's so early in the duo's development and regular readers can observe how P.G. Wodehouse is starting to get ideas about their respective characters which become more pronounced as the years roll by. His descriptive writing is also not quite fully formed yet either. That said, there are plenty of glorious and wonderful examples of Wodehouse's peerless art to enjoy. Guileless but well intentioned Bertie, or one of his pals, finds himself in the soup and thus effortlessly efficient Jeeves appears with a wheeze to extricate Bertie or his pal. Some of the recurring series characters also appear, not least Bertie's nemesis Sir Roderick Glossop in the two best stories: "The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy" and "Without the Option".
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Oh, then I must have read that as I seem to recall a potent hangover cure. Not that it matters, I'll happily read this again.
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Interesting to see that Bertie is dependent on his uncle Willoughby for his income at this stage. And Lord Em gets a mention in the memoirs!
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Always such a joy to be in this world. I'm in New York now with J&W. Feeling sprightly
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Wikipedia says the Lindy Hop first developed in the Black community in Harlem in 1928. It seems to have taken hold in white culture in the late 30’s.In any case it’s a little too late for these stories.
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That would be my guess
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This is a fun second story with more adversity than usual and one of Jeeves's schemes backfiring spectacularly
Still it all turns out alright in the end, you won't be surprised to learn
I found this so tedious last time through I abandoned the book. It didn’t help I’d just read My Man Jeeves, which has slightly different versions of many of these tales.
Which brings up questions I’ve wanted to ask here. What’s the purpose of publishing revised versions? Is it just money, or is there artistic merit in doing so this soon after the earlier version? Which version works better for you? Does it vary story by story?
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In answer to your question, the stories from My Man Jeeves were amended for Carry On, Jeeves primarily to feature Bertie Wooster as the narrator and main character consistently throughout the collection, as he had become the established and popular protagonist of the series.
In the earlier collection, My Man Jeeves (1919), only half of the eight stories featured Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. The other stories centred on an earlier proto Bertie character called Reggie Pepper.
By the time Carry On, Jeeves was published in 1925 (and the stories had appeared in magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and The Strand), Bertie had been firmly established as the narrator in the widely popular The Inimitable Jeeves (1923).
Wodehouse revised the Reggie Pepper stories (and the existing Jeeves and Wooster stories) to integrate them more cohesively into the developing "Jeeves canon" ensuring all ten stories in Carry On, Jeeves focused exclusively on the dynamic between Bertie and Jeeves.
Also Wodehouse was still refining his writing style and the characters' voices in the earlier stories. For example, in the original magazine version of one story, Jeeves refers to Bertie as "the guv'nor," a term he doesn't use in the revised, more formal Carry On, Jeeves version, where he consistently uses "Mr. Wooster".
The character of Reggie Pepper was entirely replaced by Bertie Wooster in the revised tales, such as "Helping Freddie" which became "Fixing It for Freddie".
Many of the stories had appeared in magazines first and were subsequently touched up or revised by Wodehouse for book publication. This practice of rewriting and reusing plots was common for Wodehouse to meet the demands of both British and American publishers for distinct book collections.
But the main reason for the revisions was to create a more consistent, polished, and characteristic Jeeves and Wooster experience that aligned with the successful formula Wodehouse had developed by the mid-1920s.
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I'm looking forward to getting to my two favourites in this collection...
The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy
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Without the Option
Both, from memory, feature Bertie's nemesis Sir Roderick Glossop
Ah bliss
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That's fascinating, I didn't know any of that. But I still wish that as part of this revision we'd had some crossovers with Blandings, especially given the brief teasers here.
I looked for a different audio reader, and I enjoyed this story much better this time. It also helps that now it's been long enough from my last listen to My Man Jeeves that I no longer remember the details of how the two versions differ.
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Jonathan Cecil narrates a lot of the PGW books on Audible and always delivers.
I’ve just enjoyed my two favourites in this collection….
The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy
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Without the Option
The combination of Bertie and Sir Roderick Glossop always makes for a mirth fest
I do like his narration of PGW. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have recorded this volume. Or, at least it’s not available to me via Hoopla or Libby, and does not show up when I look on Audible. This time I went with Frederick Davidson i forget who I tried a few months ago.
Reading the 20th Century
Books mentioned in this topic
My Man Jeeves (other topics)Carry On, Jeeves (other topics)
Carry On, Jeeves (1925)
by
P.G. Wodehouse
All are welcome, come one, come all
The titles of the first story in this collection—'Jeeves Takes Charge'— and the last—'Bertie Changes His Mind'—sum up the relationship of twentieth-century fiction's most famous comic characters. In between them, the various feeble-minded men and lively young women who populate Wooster's world appeal to Jeeves to solve their problems and are never disappointed.