P. G. Wodehouse

Ring for Jeeves

Gavin

Quite different from the prewar entries; much more focus on American foibles (there's a Bob Hope joke!) and there's an element of self-parody / Flanderisation. (e.g. Jeeves responds to highly surprising events by "twitching three hairs of his right eyebrow". It was a screenplay by someone else originally, which might explain its relative lack of subplots and higher-order intentionality.

  "Faute de what?" 
"Mieux, m'lord. A French expression. We should say 'For want of anything better.'" 
"What asses these Frenchmen are. Why can't they talk English?" 
"They are possibly more to be pitied than censured, m'lord. Early upbringing no doubt has a lot to do with it."



It's surely not coincidence that Jeeves' master in this is named Rowcester (pronounced "Rooster").

  “Mr Wooster is attending a school which does not permit its student body to employ gentlemen’s personal gentlemen.”
“A school?”
“An institution designed to teach the aristocracy to fend for itself, m’lord. Mr. Wooster feels that it is prudent to build for the future, in case the social revolution should set in with even greater severity. Mr Wooster... I can hardly mention this without some display of emotion... is actually learning to darn his own socks.” 



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Classification:

Rowcester's taboo: mauve pyjamas
Triangle: Jill - Bill - Rosalinda - Biggar.
Subplot: The Derby, Biggar's romantic code, .
Aunt: none! Rory has the same role.
Antagonist: None really, but briefly Captain Biggar the White Hunter and Chief Constable Wyvern.
Expedient: invented ghosts, a ginger moustache and eyepatch, dancing so hard your partner's jewellery falls off.

Connor 

3.5 for general Wodehouse-ian hijinks; fun, but I prefer when Jeeves is paired with our blathering Bertie, I think.

Sarah Sammis

A Jeeves novel Captain Biggar, big-game hunter and all round tough guy, should make short work of the two bookies who have absconded with his winnings after a freak double made him a fortune. But on this occasion Honest Patch Perkins and his clerk are not as they seem. In fact they're not bookies at all, but the impoverished Bill Belfry, Ninth Earl of Rowcester and his temporary butler, Jeeves. Bertie Wooster has gone away to a special school teaching the aristocracy to fend for itself 'in case the social revolution sets in with even greater severity'. But Jeeves will prove just as resourceful without his young master, and brilliant brainwork may yet square the impossible circle for all concerned.

Ring for Jeeves

Reviews