Jeeves and Wooster (novel): Difference between revisions

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The plots tend to follow a set formula: life would be just about perfect for our single and very wealthy young man-about-London-town were it not for his inability to say no when his even goofier friends and/or imposing aunts come asking favours. Most often these are tied into typically Wodehousean love affairs, rife with comic misunderstanding and convoluted scheming, meaning that Bertie generally finds himself 'accidentally engaged' at least once or twice a book (in a couple cases, on and off over the course of several books). Of course, always the perfect gentleman (as the stern Code of the Woosters dictates), he would never correct a lady...

The Jeeves stories were also the basis and inspiration for an [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]] musical, ''Jeeves'', which was released in 1975 and failed so spectacularly both critically and commercially that it's still thought of as Webber's only real flop. However, in 1996 the musical was reworked, rewritten and re-released as ''By Jeeves'', which was far more successful and got generally positive reviews.

 

 

In 2008, a josei manga adaptation of the Jeeves novels, called ''Please, Jeeves'' and drawn by Bun Katsuta, began serialization in Hana to Yume's ''Melody''.

 

 

* [[Accidental Art]]: In one of the stories, a pal of Bertie's is having trouble. He want's to paint portraits, but can't get a commission to paint one because he hasn't painted any. He finally gets a commission to paint a portrait of his uncle and benefactor's first baby. It's so horrible that the uncle calls it a fugitive from the funny papers, and cuts the painter off. Jeeves gets the idea that the character in the portrait could be the root of a series on the funny papers entitled, "The Adventures of Baby Blobb". It's a hit and the painter becomes rich.

* [[Accidental Athlete]]: In ''The Inimitable Jeeves'', a boy is found to be a remarkable runner after he insults someone and has to run from a beating.

* [[Compromising Memoirs]]: Sir Watkin writes his Memoirs and several parties take offense at the depiction of the now respectable pillars of society as the kind of roaring youths that would not have gone out of place in the Drones Club. Oddly enough, this does not include most of the people so depicted, who seem to like the idea that the youth may realise that they too were young once.

* [[Cool Old Lady]]: Bertie Wooster's Aunt Dahlia Travers, whom he pointedly refers to as "my good aunt".

* [[Dark Secret]]: Jeeves reveals wannabe Fascist leader Roderick Spode's terrible secret to Bertie: {{spoiler|Spode also owns a popular ladies' lingerie boutique}}. Even Bertie quickly catches on to the possibilities for blackmail.

* [[Embarrassing First Name]]:

** Many members of the Drones Club go by nicknames, often for excellent reasons; in ''Thank You, Jeeves'', "Chuffy" Chuffnell has gone his whole life concealing that his first name is Marmaduke.

** Mr. Trotter avoids knighthood for fear of having his first name exposed to public view (it's Lemuel). Rumour has it that his author, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, avoided knighthood for the same reason.

* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: Bertie's middle name is Wilberforce, his Uncle Tom's is Portarlington, and Mr. Trotter's is Gengulphus.

* [[Evil Matriarch]]: The horrendous aunts.

* [[Extreme Doormat]]: Bertie lets himself be talked into just about anything, and usually on the flimsiest of pretexts. "But, Bertie, we were at school together!"

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Bertie and Jeeves, their official relationship notwithstanding. Several stories open with Bertie defending his habit of deferring to his valet by saying that he considers him more as a 'guide, philosopher and friend'. And when Bertie overhears Jeeves disparaging his intelligence in one story, his reaction is exactly that of a wounded best pal.

** We're used to watching Jeeves employ ruthless tactics against Bertie to get his way, but in "Bertie Changes His Mind", as we're getting the story from Jeeves' POV, we're also shown a moment when he almost wavers in his plan out of affection for his boss:

* [[Hideous Hangover Cure]]: In the first story, Jeeves gets the job by curing Bertie's hangover, and afterwards often dispenses the concoction following Bertie's latest night on the town. As in ''[[Cabaret]]'', Jeeves' mixture includes eggs and Worcestershire sauce.

* [[Honor Before Reason]]: An attitude that gets Bertie into constant trouble.

** In-canon, during ''The Code of the Woosters''. Specifically, "Eulalie." It's revealed at the end of the book.

** Subverted when Bertie takes every opportunity he can to tell you what happened that night with Tuppy Glossop and the swimming baths.

* [[Operation: Jealousy]]: Bertie attempts this on more than one occasion, usually with disastrous results.

* [[Opposites Attract]]: To Bertie's constant annoyance, high-powered and brainy women seem to find him, or at least the prospect of whipping him into intellectual shape, romantically irresistible.

** In the introduction to ''The Code of the Woosters'', Alexander Cockburn mercilessly mocks "naso-labial curvature" as used by one analyst of the books. It describes a smile.

* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: In an early chapter of ''Jeeves In The Morning,'' a house burns down. This is barely mentioned throughout the rest of the novel, not even by the owner.

* [[We Named the Monkey "Jack"]]: Bertie's [[Embarrassing Middle Name]] is the name of a horse his father won money on.

* [[World of Snark]]: A more idealistic example than most, but ''still''. Even Bertie gets to snark.

[[Category:Comic Literature]]

[[Category:Long Running Book Series]]

[[Category:Literature]]