P._G._Wodehouse (Pelham Grenville Wodehouse) created perhaps the most memorable two characters of 20th century humour – Bertie Wooster and his gentleman’s personal gentleman (he was NOT a butler!), the inimitable Jeeves. There have been movies of the two, television series, Broadway plays, video tapes, an Internet site called “Ask Jeeves” and worldwide acclaim, punctuated with Wodehouse fan clubs of every type imaginable. The humor of Wodehouse is timeless because he observes the silliness of human behavior and merely writes about it. Wodehouse worked practically every day of his life, is probably the most prolific writer of the 20th century, and passed away on February 14, 1975 (at the age of 93), after having just been Knighted by Queen Elizabeth. Despite his personal accolades, the characters and stories he created will live on in the hearts and minds of those who come into contact with them. Source
See also “PG Wodehouse and the Berlin Broadcasts”
Wodehouse Bibliography
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The Jeeves canon consists of 35 short stories and 11 novels (or 24 short stories and 12 novels, depending on whether The Inimitable Jeeves is considered a novel or a collection of linked stories):
SHORT STORIES
The Man With Two Left Feet (1917) — One story in a book of thirteen
“Extricating Young Gussie” — The first appearances of Jeeves and Bertie
My Man Jeeves (1919) — Four stories in a book of eight, all four reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves. The non-Jeeves stories feature Reggie Pepper.
1 “Leave It to Jeeves”, was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves as “The Artistic Career of Corky”
2 “Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest”, was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves
3 “Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg”, was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves
4 “The Aunt and the Sluggard”, was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves
The Inimitable Jeeves (1923) — Originally a semi-novel with eighteen chapters, it is normally published as eleven short stories:
1 “Jeeves Exerts the Old Cerebellum” with “No Wedding Bells for Bingo” (together “Jeeves in the Springtime”)
2 “Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind” with “Pearls Mean Tears” (together “Aunt Agatha Takes the Count”)
3 “The Pride of the Woosters Is Wounded” with “The Hero’s Reward” (together “Scoring Off Jeeves”)
4 “Introducing Claude and Eustace” with “Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch” (together “Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch”)
5 “A Letter of Introduction” with “Startling Dressiness of a Lift Attendant” (together “Jeeves and the Chump Cyril”)
6 “Comrade Bingo” with “Bingo Has a Bad Goodwood” (together “Comrade Bingo”)
7 “The Great Sermon Handicap”
8 “The Purity of the Turf”
9 “The Metropolitan Touch”
10 “The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace”
11 “Bingo and the Little Woman” with “All’s Well” (together “Bingo and the Little Woman”)
Carry on Jeeves (1925) — Ten stories:
Read by Frederick Davidson
Produced by Blackstone Audiobooks
1 “Jeeves Takes Charge” – Recounts the first meeting of Jeeves and Bertie
2 “The Artistic Career of Corky”, a rewrite of “Leave It to Jeeves”, originally published in My Man Jeeves
3 “Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest”, originally published in My Man Jeeves
4 “Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg”, originally published in My Man Jeeves
5 “The Aunt and the Sluggard”, originally published in My Man Jeeves
6 “The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy”
7 “Without the Option”
8 “Fixing It for Freddie”, a rewrite of a Reggie Pepper story, “Helping Freddie”, originally published in My Man Jeeves
9 “Clustering Round Young Bingo”
10 “Bertie Changes His Mind” — The only story in the canon narrated by Jeeves
Very Good, Jeeves (1930) — Eleven stories:
1 “Jeeves and the Impending Doom”
2 “The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy”
3 “Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit” (US title: Jeeves and the Yuletide Spirit)
4 “Jeeves and the Song of Songs”
5 “Episode of the Dog McIntosh” (US title: Jeeves and the Dog McIntosh)
6 “The Spot of Art” (US title: Jeeves and the Spot of Art)
7 “Jeeves and the Kid Clementina”
8 “The Love That Purifies” (US title: Jeeves and the Love That Purifies)
9 “Jeeves and the Old School Chum”
10 “The Indian Summer of an Uncle”
11 “The Ordeal of Young Tuppy” (US title: Tuppy Changes His Mind)
Plum Pie (1966) — One short story in a book of nine “Jeeves and the Greasy Bird”
A Few Quick Ones (1959) — One short story in a book of ten “Jeeves Makes an Omelette”, a rewrite of a Reggie Pepper story originally published in My Man Jeeves
NOVELS
Thankyou Jeeves
Right Ho Jeeves
The Code of the Woosters
Jeeves in the Morning
Jeeves and the Mating Season
Jeeves in the Offing
Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen
Something Fresh
Laughing Gas
1 1933 Thank you, Jeeves
The first Bertie/Jeeves novel. Jeeves gives his notice because of the banjolele, J. Washburn Stoker traps Bertie on board his yacht, Bertie blackens up with shoe polish to escape.
The Movie show
This first novel was turned into a movie in 1934 that starred a very young David Niven as Bertie Wooster, and Arthur Treacher as Jeeves. The plot of the movie was nothing like novel. What little bits of the original story the Movie Moguls kept was altered. The movie opens with Bertie banging a full drum set not a banjolele. There was a single black (not a minstrel show) but he was a musician (saxophone). Apart from that, if you saw the movie and said it reminded you of any of the Bertie stories you would be stretching the imagination. Also, Arthur Treacher evidently didn’t bother reading any of the Bertie/Jeeves stories, or he would have played Jeeves in his quiet “stuffed frog” character. Treacher’s Jeeves was loud, vociferous, frenetic, outspoken, and the total opposite of how Bertie describes his demeanor in the stories.
1934 Right ho, Jeeves (US title: Brinkley Manor)
Cast: Bertie, Jeeves, Aunt Dahlia, Angela, uncle Tom, Tuppy Glossop, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Madeline Bassett, Anatole the chef. Summary Source
Story Highlights: show
* Gussie in his scarlet tights going to a party dressed as Mephistopheles.
* Bertie and Madeline scene as he tries to plead Gussie’s cause with her.
* The late-night gathering around the kitchen table, as Tuppy tries to sneak some steak and kidney pie, complete with Uncle Tom entering, brandishing his pistol.
* The splintering crash of the “well-kicked plate of ham sandwiches” Angela brought Tuppy.
* Probably the funniest scene I have ever witnessed – Gussie addressing the Market Snodsbury youths, stewed to the gills.
* The sight of Gussie on the roof, looking through the window, with Anatole shaking his fist at him, and screaming oaths in his Bingo-cum-Maloney enhanced French.
Plot: show
This is the story that introduces the ongoing Gussie/Madeline/Bertie mixup and affair. Bertie spent several months on the French Riviera with Aunt Dahlia, her daughter, Angela, and her friend, Madeline Bassett. Bertie found himself staring at Madeline in disbelief that someone so goofy could roam the earth without a keeper. She misinterpreted this as his staring at her with longing and passion.When Bertie cornered Madeline out in the garden, to plead Gussie’s cause with her, Madeline of course thought Bertie was pleading his own, reflecting on the times he stood staring at her. She apologetically stated that she loved another (Gussie), but if anything were to go phut with this, that he was next on the boards to escort her down the aisle.
Angela, Bertie’s cousin, and her bethrothed, Tuppy Glossop, have the subplot as she accuses Tuppy of being too enamored of food, making him take umbrage and lower the status of her shark to a flatfish playing. Tuppy thinks that Angela’s affections are now transferred to another, and takes on Bertie, then Gussie, as his way of getting revenge. Bertie slides out of it by using the Madeline misunderstanding as his confession of love for someone other than Angela. Tuppy then decides Gussie is the culprit, and chases him all over the grounds, culminating in Gussie being on the roof, staring down Anatole’s skylight window.
The most hilarious scene is when Gussie, after Bertie and Jeeves have filled him with alcoholic drinks, goes to hand out prizes at the Market Snodsbury school gathering. From calling the school headmaster a “silly ass,” to his questioning the Scripture Knowledge winner if he knows anything of “what’s his name, who begat thingummy,” Gussie goes onto to misquote the jokes and phrases that Bertie and Jeeves gave him, then brings the whole scene to a close by implying that the mother of G. G.Simmons (one of the prize winners) had some illicit affair going on with the headmaster, so that he would “cook the marks” for her son.
Jeeves, of course, saves the day with his “ringing the fire bell” alternative scheme, which requires Bertie to ring the fire-alarm bell, bringing everyone outside on the lawn at 12:30 a.m. Jeeves then suggests Bertie as the person who should ride 9 miles on a bike to the party where the maids and butlers are cavorting, in order to get the house key from Seppings.
When Bertie returns some hours later, he finds that all is well, all breakups have been reconciled, and it is a veritable garden of happy endings.
1938 Code of the Woosters
1 Code of the Woosters show
2 Code of the Woosters show
3 Code of the Woosters show
4 Code of the Woosters show
The first story of the infamous Silver Cow Creamer. Bertie goes to Sir Watkyn Bassett¹s Totleigh Towers to pinch the Cow Creamer, that Sir Watkin slighted from Uncle Tom.Features Madeleine Bassett, Sir Roderick Spode, Gussie Fink-nottle, Aunt Dahlia. Summary Source
1946 Jeeves in the Morning (US title: Jeeves in the Morning)
Features Percy Worplesdon, Aunt Agatha, Boko Fittleworth, Stilton Cheesewright, Florence Craye, Edwin the Boy Scout. Edwin burns Bertie¹s cottage, Boko manufactures the break-the-window scheme, and Old Worplesdon dons Bertie’s favorite Sinbad Sailor costume and goes to the fancy ball. Summary Source
Plot: show
Here are the zany misadventures of foggy-minded aristocrat Bertie Wooster and his sharp-witted valet, Jeeves. They visit Steeple Bumpleigh, home of Bertie’s Uncle Percy, also the home of Bertie’s ex-fiancée, Florence, and her new fiancé, Constable Stilton Cheesewright. In addition, Bertie’s cousin, Nobby, wants Bertie’s help in gaining Uncle Percy’s approval of her writer fiancé. To complicate the romantic antics, Stilton thinks Bertie wants to reconcile with Florence (as does Florence) and threatens bodily harm. Into the muddle comes Jeeves, who, as always, saves the day. It’s hard to improve on this treasure, but Jonathan Cecil does it with an impeccable, wildly funny narration.
1949 Jeeves and the Mating Season 
Published by Unabridged Audio Partners
Bertie goes to Deverill Hall, in place of Gussie. Very similar to Without the option, in which Bertie goes to a stranger’s estate masquerading as Sippy, who biffed a cop. The Hall is filled with disapproving aunts. Features the actor, Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright, and his sister, Corky. Summary Source
Bertie Wooster’s friend Gussie Fink-Nottle is sentenced to 14 days for wading in the fountain at Trafalgar Square. Bertie is worried that Gussie’s fiancé Madeline will be angry because she has a distressing habit of turning her attentions to Bertie when her fiancé upsets her. Bertie has the bright idea of impersonating Gussie, and showing up at Deverill Hall. The situation is wonderfully comical when Gussie shows up, posing as Bertie. Only Jeeves, arriving in his own disguise, can sort out this mess. (Publishers summary)
1955 Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (US title: Bertie Wooster Sees It Through)
Bertie grows a mustache and Jeeves disapproves. Also, Florence Craye, Stilton Cheesewright, and Aunt Dahlia. Bertie goes to Mottled Oyster with Florence, and it gets raided. Bertie helps Florence to escape, and gets pinched himself. Summary Source
1960 Jeeves in the Offing (US title: How Right You Are, Jeeves)
My first Bertie/Jeeves story. Features Roberta (Bobbie) Wickham, Reginald (Kipper) Herring, and Sir Roderick Glossop who impersonates a butler so he can observe Willie, son of the female detective novelist, Adele Cream. Summary Source
1963 Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
Sir Watkyn Bassett, Spode, Madeleine Bassett, Major Plank, Aunt Dahlia, and the green amber statuette. Jeeves impersonates Scotland Yard Inspector Witherspoon. Bertie bumps into the grandfather clock in the dark of the night. Madeleine puts Gussie on vegetarian diet. Gussie elopes with Amber Stoker. Summary Source
1971 Much Obliged, Jeeves (US title: Jeeves and the Tie That Binds)
Bingley (formerly Brinkley), who burned the hut in Thank you, Jeeves, pops back up in the Junior Ganymede Club of Jeeves, and pinches the club book that tells stories of Bertie’s mishaps. Summary Source
1974 Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (US title: The Cat-nappers) 
Aunt Dahlia wants the competitor’s stable cat kidnapped to nobble the horse that likes it. Features Vanessa Cook, Orlo Porter, Major Plank, Pop Cook. Summary Source
Ring For Jeeves
This is the only story that Bertie Wooster does not appear in. The book was actually not written originally by Wodehouse, but by his playwright pal, Guy Bolton, who wrote the play ” Ring for Jeeves.” Wodehouse took the play and put it into prose form, but it lacks something because it does not possess the inimitable Wodehousian farce and wit of plot. A reasonable, passable story, but not one of Wodehouse originality. Summary Source
Laughing Gas
Read by Simon Prebble
Published by Recorded Books; Unabridged edition (1995)
Laughing Gas is a comic novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on September 25, 1936 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on December 4, 1936 by Doubleday Doran, New York. It is set in Hollywood in the early 1930s (the Depression is mentioned twice) and is a light-hearted and exclusively humorous look at the film industry and in particular at child stars.
Plot: show
Reginald Swithin, the third Earl of Havershot (“Reggie”) is 28, unmarried, and has a face like a gorilla. As the new head of his family, he is assigned a delicate task by his Aunt Clara and by Plimsoll, the family lawyer: He is to go to Hollywood and look for Aunt Clara’s son, his cousin Eggy, who it seems has got himself into trouble over there, and bring him back home. In particular, Reggie is to prevent Eggy from getting engaged, let alone married, to some American gold-digger that would undoubtedly be far beneath the titled family.
On the train from Chicago to Los Angeles, Reggie meets the famous film actress April June, and immediately falls head over heels in love with her. Once in Hollywood, he completely forgets to look for Eggy until, one night, he bumps into him at a party April June is giving. What is more, Eggy is accompanied by Ann Bannister, Reggie’s ex-fiancée who is now engaged to Eggy. According to Eggy, Ann wants to reform him: make him drink less and get him a job as well. As the host of the party, the seemingly wonderful, tender and caring April June (“Money and fame mean nothing to me, Lord Havershot”) is difficult to get hold of. When he finally succeeds in doing so and is just about to propose to her, Reggie’s tooth — in the nick of time, as it turns out later — starts hurting so badly that he has to postpone all his plans, hurry home and make an appointment with a dentist.
On the following afternoon, he is in I.J. Zizzbaum’s waiting-room when he gets to know Joey Cooley, the 12 year-old movie star and darling of all American mothers. He is also going to have a tooth out; but Joey is going to be operated on by B.K. Burwash, Zizzbaum’s rival — they have a common waiting-room –, exactly at the same time as Reggie. Presently reporters storm the dentist’s practice in order to take photos of the kid suffering from toothache and interview him.
Both Reggie and Joey get laughing gas as anaesthetic. When Reggie regains consciousness again he finds himself spoken to by B.K. Burwash, and also in the latter’s chair. He concludes that there has been a switch in the fourth dimension: Joey’s and his souls have changed bodies. Before he can clear up the situation, he is shoved into a car and brought “home”. Mayhem ensues…
Something Fresh
Read by Jonathan Cecil
Published by Chivers Audio Books; Unabridged edition (2007)
Something Fresh is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse. The story first appeared as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post between June 26 and August 14, 1915. It was first published as a book in the United States, by D. Appleton and Company on September 3, 1915, under the title Something New, and in the United Kingdom by Methuen & Co. on September 16, 1915. The novel introduces Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle, whose home and family reappear in many of Wodehouse’s later short stories and novels; Wodehouse later dubbed this series of stories “the Blandings Castle Saga” in the 1969 preface to this book
Plot: show
Young neighbours and fellow-writers Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine, newly met and both in need of a change of direction, find themselves drawn down to Blandings, for various reasons attempting to retrieve a scarab belonging to an American millionaire, absent-mindedly purloined by Lord Emsworth. Once within the Castle’s idyllic walls, despite impersonating servants, romance cannot help but blossom; meanwhile, Freddie Threepwood, engaged to the millionaire’s daughter, is worried about some incriminating letters….
The novel begins with Ashe Marson, a young writer employed by the Mammoth Publishing Company, the creator of the popular Gridley Quayle detective novels, doing his daily exercises. Joan Valentine, a young girl living in the same apartment building, looks on and laughs at him. Thus she and Ashe meet, discover that they work for the same publishing house, and Ashe is encouraged to look for a new opportunity among the newspaper ads.
Meanwhile, we find out that Freddie Threepwood, the younger son of the 9th Earl of Emsworth, is engaged to be married to Aline Peters, the daughter of American millionaire J. Preston Peters. Freddie pays a visit to his friend R. Jones, hoping to “recover” some letters he sent in the past to a certain chorus-girl, feeling they might be dangerous in her hands, especially following the recent embarrassment of his cousin Lord Percy Stockheath. He pays Jones £500 to sort things out for him.
Clarence Threepwood, the elderly Earl of Emsworth, calls on J. Preston Peters, Aline’s father, a passionate collector of Egyptian scarabs. Peters shows him the most precious piece in his collection: a 4th dynasty Cheops. Mr. Peters is called to the telephone, and the absent-minded Earl, forgetting all about the scarab, puts it in his pocket.
Aline Peters has lunch with her old friend George Emerson, a Hong Kong police officer who wishes to marry her. He proposes to her once more, and tells her that, having befriended Freddie Threepwood, he has been invited to Blandings.
Mr Peters discovers the disappearance of his scarab, and suspects the Earl, but cannot confront him for fear of endangering his daughter’s marriage. The Earl has already forgotten everything that happened, and thinks the scarab was a gift of Mr Peters.
R. Jones finds the address of Freddie’s ex-sweetheart, Joan Valentine, who tells him she has long since destroyed any letters she may have had from Freddie. As he is leaving, Aline Peters, a close friend of Joan, arrives on a visit, allowing the suspicious Jones to listen at the door. He hears Aline’s father is offering £1,000 to anybody that can retrieve his scarab. Joan decides that she will go herself to Blandings Castle, posing as Aline’s maid, recover the scarab and scoop the reward.
Ashe, following Joan’s advice, scours the adverts in the newspaper, and seeing one which grabs his attention, he goes along to an interview with Mr. Peters, who is looking for somebody to pose as his valet and steal the scarab. Ashe, showing Peters some pep, gets the job.
Ashe tells Joan about this, and they both take the train to Blandings. During the trip Joan warns Ashe of the highly complicated system of etiquette observed among servants of a large house. She hopes her words will persuade him to give up his quest, but he resolves to do his best.
After their arrival, Ashe meets Baxter, the Earl’s efficient and suspicious secretary, on the way to Mr Peters’ room, addressing him in a highly un-valet-like manner. He finds that Mr Peters, like Beach, has problems with his stomach, so persuades him to do some exercise and stop smoking cigars.
At night, Ashe and Joan are both trying to get at the scarab when the watchful Baxter hears them. Ashe, with his prepared excuse of reading to the insomnia Mr Peters, helps Joan escape. Next morning, Ashe and Joan decide to become allies and, after flipping a coin, that Ashe will take first try at steaing the scarab.
Aline is following the same diet of her father, composed mainly of legumes, and George, worrying she is suffering from malnutrition, prepares a feast to bring it to her at night. As he makes his way to her room, he and Ashe in the dark hall of the castle, and start a noisy fight. Baxter rushes in, but by the time the lights come on Ashe and George have fled, leaving Baxter surrounded by food and broken china. He is blamed for waking everyone and roundly criticised by his employer Lord Emsworth.
The next night is Joan’s turn, but the scarab is already gone. The following morning, Ashe finds that Freddie needs money to pay R. Jones for the letters to Joan; he confronts Freddie, who confesses, and Ashe gets the scarab and gives it to the rightful owner, Mr Peters.
George Emerson, recalled to Hong Kong, sadly wishes Aline good luck with Freddie; Aline, her mothering instinct finally aroused by his disappointment, decides to leave Freddie and elope with him. Ashe and Joan finally realise they are made for each other, and enter Mr Peters’ employ. Lord Emsworth agrees to let Freddie return to London, on condition he doesn’t make a fool of himself again.
Characters:show
* Ashe Marson, a writer of detective novels
* Joan Valentine, Ashe’s neighbour, who edits a gossip magazine
* Aline Peters, an old friend of Joan Valentine
o J. Preston Peters, Aline’s father, a wealthy Scarab collector
* The Earl of Emsworth, absent-minded master of Blandings
o Freddie Threepwood, his younger son, engaged to Aline
o Lady Ann Warblington, Emsworth’s widowed sister, chatelaine of Blandings
* Rupert Baxter, Lord Emsworth’s very efficient secretary
* Sebastian Beach, dignified head butler at Blandings Castle
o Mrs Twemlow, housekeeper at the Castle
* George Emerson, a Hong Kong police officer, in love with Aline
* R. Jones, an obese bookmaker, a friend of Freddie Threepwood
