Jeeves and Wooster - has it aged well?

Laura Freeman’s ‘The Reading Cure’. One of my favourite books - a real book-lovers book.

My goodness, I love this thread, particularly Harriet766’s contribution. Made me feel quite teary.

Certain Wodehouse phrases have made it into my idiolect, because as well as being a linguistic genius, he was quite the observer of human nature. Up there with Shakespeare, I’d say. My most often-used phrase is,

“Sooner or later, out pops the cloven hoof.”

Closely followed by,

”It’s got in amongst me, rather” when my anxiety flares up. Just having dear old Plum’s words in my head soothes me.

It’s the lightness of touch on big topics that I just adore. His skewering of Oswald Mosley in the form of Roderick Spode (would-be fascist dictator and designer of ladies’ lingerie) is just a joy to behold.

”The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting "Heil, Spode!" and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: "Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?”

It’s music, is what it is.

One warning - the n-word does pop up, once or twice.It was a shock to me when I first read it, so a chat with your lad about historical and social context might be worth it before he dives in.

I think he’s quite good with women - so many of them are smart, capable and exceptionally determined :)

I read it recently for the first time and enjoyed it.

They are marvellous. Blandings and the Psmith ones are my favourite. I have some from audible for long journeys

He's a writer who can genuinely heal you. I remember reading about a lady who'd suffered anorexia. While she was ill, she decided to read all of Dickens' novels. She swore that doing so saved her life. Dickens' descriptions of food and eating were so joyful and exuberant that it worked on her subconsciously. By the end, she began to think of eating in a whole new way. If I had had a breakdown, and was recovering from depression, I'd force myself to read a Wodehouse novel out loud

Wodehouse is so underrated as a stylist. He wasn't a silly upper class twit. He was a serious craftsman. Wodehouse re-read all of Shakespeare's plays every year, and the novels are full of clever little allusions to Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Milton, Tennyson, Browning, even Swinburne, not to mention philosophers like Spinoza.

I can't resist a couple more quotes:

"'Yes, here I am,' I responded, buttering a nonchalant slice of toast"

"As is so often the case with these stolid, beefy birds, he had always had a yearning for higher things"

"It seemed to me a fair cop, as I believe the expression is, and I saw nothing to be gained by postponing the inevitable. I rose, and wiped the lips with the napkin, like a French aristocrat informed that the tumbril is at the door."

"I dare say you have frequently, when strolling in your garden, seen a parched flower beneath a refreshing downpour. It was of such a flower that Uncle Percy now reminded me."

Or this sublime interaction with Jeeves

"Miss Hopwood addressed him as Stilton.
Big chap?
Noticeably well-developed sir.
With a head like a pumpkin?
Yes sir. There was a certain resemblance to the vegetable"

Or this description of a village:

"A picturesque settlement, yes. None more so in all Hampshire. It lay embowered, as I believe the expression is, in the midst of smiling fields and leafy woods, hard by a willow-fringed river, and you couldn't have thrown a brick in it without hitting a honeysuckle-covered cottage or beaning an apple-cheeked villager."

I love a bit of Wodehouse and theres quite a few on YouTube which are well worth a listen, especially read by Jonathan Cecil. Joyous stuff.

Jeeves doesn’t just ‘enter’ a room, he ‘floats’ or ‘shimmers’ in,

The descriptions of Jeeves entering a room are some of my very favourite parts of Wodehouse. I used to collect them but have forgotten most. I think at least once he is described as 'materialising like a sort of gas'.

Although I must also put in a word here for DL Sayers, who in Gaudy Night, has one character describe a vampish young woman as 'undulating into the room'.

I have recently reread them all and found that they had aged well. Bertie is a harmless loveable chimp, and Jeeves' plots and schemes are so clever. Do it!

Definitely!

Also, if they are still enjoyable but have some outdated themes etc is that a problem?

Surely that could become a great learning tool and maybe opportunity for debate. You learn so much about history from books written in different eras. Then we can better understand where we are today.

Anyway, I think the humour in Wodehouse still shines through today!

Richard Usborne compiled a book that he calle Wodehouse Nuggets - quote after quote of PW. Haven't looked at it for ages but IIRC the intro complained about having to make a selection of quotes when they come one after another on every page of his books.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wodehouse-Nuggets-Richard-Usborne/dp/0870080733/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1I4SRQYGK6QV0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.W5k-5R-XUXb39PXw_rjrMZOJCgNd3HddwQPySM627lDp7OUU3vBD-9eBfLCdDs8jon9KTNVz5NdnDdlj5YXceOJlSoku9Dy7saqvs9DiELfPxr0l3-6o4WHu-qe2EpxeNX8Z9lIQUBcEZp3N7bQXdGTgwSO9eSPIBmiJC7LfdMmqDVfVBlWfEwOMOWrw0DnmMCvt3GSVlTI8bqBxvcYURDNd0Ae_nPrxAo_gqZfDoG4.Pc4a-AmYfKjZnFbkjh7-woQfmMvl1EBTGF9S93FdH2I&dib_tag=se&keywords=richard+usborne&qid=1716814067&s=books&sprefix=richard+usborne%2Cstripbooks%2C205&sr=1-2

My copies of Wodehouse are filled with passages I’ve marked in pencil:

”A wooden expression had crept into his features, and his eyes had taken on the look of cautious reserve which you see in those of parrots when offered half a banana by a stranger of whose bona fides they are not convinced.”

Or this, where Bertie describes his awful ex:

”Her laugh was like a steam-riveting machine, and from a child she had been a confirmed back slapper.”

Or Bertie describing a happy friend:

”Her eyes were shining like twin stars, and she greeted me with one of the heartiest pip-pips that ever proceeded from female throat.”

Bertie’s uncle is furious and is compared to

“a short-tempered tiger of the jungle which has just seen its peasant shin up a tree.”

Jeeves doesn’t just ‘enter’ a room, he ‘floats’ or ‘shimmers’ in, and people don’t just shake their head, they “oscillate the bean.”

I read that aloud to DH in bed the other night to explain why I was laughing out loud.

This quote was on the back of all the Wodehouse books I read as a teen. As a 12 year old I didn’t really get what he was saying about generations, irksome captivity etc, but in retrospect, it’s rather lovely to see quite how true it has proved:

“Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.”
Evelyn Waugh, in a BBC broadcast

I found Blandings Castle in a charity shop yesterday & was laughing all afternoon.

It includes a story from Bobbie Wickham’s viewpoint, which was a novelty. It made me think there could have been a space for an anthology of stories through the eyes of Bobbie, Stiffy Byng & the other women who played Bertie like a stringed instrument.

Genuinely, thank you for this thread, Got all my old Wodehouses out again and am reading them.
The Adventures of Sally is an entertaining read without being especially Wodehouse-y, if Jeeves and Wooster are not your thing.

😄Oh yes!

I love the tv series but the books have all the amazing language that cannot be translated to screen. I don’t think they were ever realistic - they are very much in their own world. One of my favourite descriptions:

“She fitted into my biggest arm-chair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing arm-chairs tight about the hips that season.” Carry on, Jeeves!

Can I be Aunt Dahlia? I want to enjoy Anatole's cooking on a regular basis.

Prompted by this thread, I picked up my copy of Carry On, Jeeves to reread.

My DH would like to register his complaints which whomever is in charge, as I’ve woken him by laughing for two nights running.

Yes, same here. I want to wake up to Jeeves opening the curtains, serving me a cup of tea and telling me the weather is “inclement”.

I read every one my (excellent) public library had the summer I was 22. It was a glorious summer, and Wodehouse inevitably reminds me of sunny days.

I remember snorting laughing on the bus to and from work so often the bus driver eventually asked what I was reading every morning.

If one could live in literature I’d choose to live in a Wodehouse novel.

Such wonderful books. Love them, this is a great thread, am definitely going to download them all now ready for my holiday next week.

Thanks OP.

I had a very difficult time as a teen in the late 80s, 90s and i am remembering now how the wonders of Wodehouse brought me through so much. His writing is just joyous and funny and a celebration of being human. I now must rush off and order some for my kids.