Customer Reviews

Jeeves in the Morning

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Jeeves and Bertie Wooster are back in this ripping novel by P.G. Wodehouse, one of the best of the Wooster-Jeeves series. The novel takes place at Steeple Bumpleigh, a place which Bertie takes care to avoid, for the Hampshire estate invaribly brings unmitigated disaster to his life. The country house visit is peopled with such Wodehousian favorites as Lord Worpleston, Nobby Hopwood, Stilton Cheesewright, Edwin the Boy Scout, and Boko Fittleworth. The plot is, of course, pure Wodehouse, a combination of convulution and well-ordered chaos which contains no aspects of reality; it is Wodehouse's "musical comedy" world, a gentle upper-class romp over the British countryside, with fancy dress balls, English estates with its varied eccentric guests, and a mish-mash of dramatic irony. Wodehouse is pure satirical farce of the first order, told from the perspecitve of one of the most loveable, yet incompetent twits in English literature, Bertie Wooster, whose mix of understatement and hyperbole, linguistic abbreviations, weird similes and metaphors, and misplaced and misquoted literary allusions endear him to Anglophiles throughout the world. As one critic puts it, Wodehouse presents "a ray of pale English sunshine into a gray world," a quotation with which no lover of Wodehouse would ever argue. "Jeeves in the Morning" is a delight and required reading for any lover of well-written British prose.

This is the culmination of the art of Wodehouse, the Mozart of formula fiction. One of the two best Jeeves novels, it really should be read after Code of the Woosters, though it can also stand alone. Nobody had Wodehouse's way with the english language, and what other farce-humor writer could equal the gleaming precision and intricacy of his plots? This novel was polished to perfection because he used the time he spent in internment during World War II to work on it, thus giving it more time than probably any of his other books. In England it was called Joy In the Morning, but by any name they don't come much funnier.

This was my first foray into the delightful world of Bertam W. Wooster and his manservant, Jeeves. I remember a specific moment in time when I realized that I held a priceless treasure in my hands. I sometimes wish that I were ignorant of the works of Wodehouse so that I might relive that magical moment- this book is that good.

It is a pleasure to revisit every now and then, to appreciate what a masterful job Wodehouse has done in constructing his characters, their relationships, and sticky situations which seem to befoul our featherbrained protagonist.

If you have not yet experienced Wodehouse and you have an appreciation of wit, I would be surprised if you do not have the same kind of epiphany I did before the conclusion of the second chapter. Enjoy!

P.G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves" books are noted for their similarity of plot but suavity of execution. Of the latter, a "Times Literary Supplement (London)" critic writes: "...there comes a stage where the [inveterate] reader . . . finds a new pleasure in seeing how exquisitely it is done." The words "facile" and "frothy" describe Wodehouse's delectable concoctions, in which aristocratic Bertram "Bertie" Wooster finds himself inevitably drawn to the rescue of young lovers, a task to which he is eminently ill-suited. (Bertie, in wave after wave of well-intentioned malapropisms, undeserved self-esteem, unintentional ironies, misquoted allusions, and suspicion-raising bungling, would be the epitome of the foolish nouveaux riches, if only his own riche were nouveau.) Instead, Bertie, appeals to the old "feudal spirit" of his cunning and erudite butler Jeeves, Bertie's superior in everything but station. It is Jeeves who really comes to the rescue, bailing Wooster `out of the soup.'

The stars of this show (as others have noted, Wodehouse wrote these adventures in a theatrical, musical-comedy style) are two pairs of "affianced" lovers; the fetching Zenobia "Nobby" Hopwood and writer Boko Fittleworth, and the intimidating couple of Florence Craye and G. D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright; as well as Lord Percy Worplesdon: Florence's father, Nobby's ward, Bertie's uncle, and young Edwin's father--more on him later--and, finally, American shipping magnate, J. Chichester Clam.

There are some annoying flaws in the book: Some fortuitous happenings that strain even the permeable bounds of farce: the unexplained acceptance of Stilton by Lord Worplesdon, an outright lie by the proper (but usually more cunning) Jeeves, and the capitol punishment meted by foot to the backside of young Edwin. The latter does not trouble his sister Florence, although we learn early on that "Florence is one of those girls who look on modern enlightenments a sort of personal buddy." This coup d'Edwin may trouble some modern day readers. Still, this is light farce and one may excuse this ugly punishment through a metaphorical reading. After all, can one really trust the narration of Bertie Wooster when he utters such gems as " . . . and already much of the gilt, I feared, must now have rubbed off the gingerbread of their romance."

Although not as well crafted as "The Code of the Woosters," this book certainly rivals the former in its rich cast and nimble dialogue, and its subtle thrashing of the manner and speech of the British aristocracy. Recommended with a hearty "Right ho!"

Reading some reviews I wonder if these readers read the same book I did. Wodehouse would seem the last author to psychoanalyze, and his books would seem the last to over-analyze, being almost the only antidote left to the over-everything of the modern (or is it post-modern world?). By the way, there is no "capital punishment" in this book, which refers to the death penalty. There is "corporal punishment" common in the Britain of Wodehouse's day and referred to often in his books as "six of the juciest" and by other sobriquets.

Anyone who's read a lot of PGW has already read this one, one of the topping best. But if you've perused one another Jeeves book, you may still think you've read this one due to the Wooster habit of referring to and reminiscing about his previous adventures.

Also, fans of the excellent Jeeves and Wooster (or is it Wooster and Jeeves?) TV series will find all sorts of bits from this book, some of them surviving intact. While I very much like the Penguin new reissue paperbacks, this edition and a few other American paperbacks feature art by Steven Guarnaccia. They are slightly larger than the pocket paperbacks, fall open nicely in the hand, and have slightly tan pages which minimize the glare when reading outside.

I think the reviewer is correct who said this is the same book as Joy in the Morning, itself a clever play on the Psalmist's "Joy cometh in the morning". The alternate editions are listed in two books (neither of which I have handy right now), Joseph Connolly's P.G. Wodehouse (Thames and Hudson Literary Lives), out of print and rather difficult to get but well worth it; and Richard Usborne's Plum Sauce (I may have misspelled both author's names). These books have helped me avoid ordering the same book under different titles, and also enable those so desiring to read PGW's output in chronological order.

This wonderfully humorous novel, published as Joy in the Morning in Britain, is perhaps the best of the Bertie and Jeeves novels, and I can think of no higher praise than that for any book.

All the elements for a successful Bertie and Jeeves novel are here: love affairs go off the rails, imperiling Bertie's status as a bachelor; Bertie's actions to right things fail; and Jeeves comes to the rescue. In addition, there are some special features: Bertie's Uncle Percival, Lord Worplesdon, the second husband of Bertie's Aunt Agatha (the one who, as I recall, "chews ground glass and conducts human sacrifices at the full moon") makes his only appearance in the Wodehouse oeuvre, as I believe is also the case for Boko Fittleworth, whose actions go awry just as often as Bertie's.

It's all held together, of course, by Bertie's extraordinary narration.

I have read this book perhaps a dozen times, and I still laugh aloud at least once on nearly every page.

Frederick Davidson does a good job reading the Jeeves books, but the reading done by Jonathan Cecil with Audio Partners is a class better! See ISBN: 1572704357.

For example: in THIS version, at times the listener can hear pages being turned; at other times, it is clear the reader reached the end of a typed line before the end of the written sentance, amking for an awkward, even jarring pause.

Previous: The Code of the Woosters

Hailed by some as the best Jeeves and Bertie novel, Joy in the Morning was published in 1947, nine years after The Code of the Woosters, and finds Wodehouse at the top of his comic form. Through circumstances beyond his control, Bertie finds himself in the last place he ever wanted to be-the dreaded Steeple Bumpleigh, home to his menacing Aunt Agatha (now Lady Worplesdon) and his former fiancée Florence Craye. This novel introduces my favorite of Bertie's normally dim-witted friends, the not-so-dim-witted Boko Fittleworth, noted novelist and all-around good egg. As is the usual formula, there are romantic attachments in danger of being squelched, and Bertie in danger of having to marry a frightening female if anything goes amiss. With poor well-meaning Boko constantly doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, Florence's young brother Edwin the Boy Scout terrifying the populace with his acts of good will, and the overzealous policeman Stilton Cheesewright, Florence's latest fiancée, threatening Bertie with bodily mayhem, comedy abounds.

Next: The Mating Season

This was a wonderfully delightful book. Charming to read from front to back. It's not a profound work of any means, but rather is an escape to a silly and funny world where a sweet English man and his literary and wise butler find themselves in all kinds of crazy predicaments!

All of the usual madcap elements for a great Jeeves novel are in place. It is simply amazing the way P.G. Wodehouse could always from the same well for his plot devises. In a sense, all of the Wooster and Jeeves stories are a variation on the same theme. When Wodehouse is at his best, these comic novels reach the level of the sublime. Jeeves and the Mating Season as an example.

This novel is very good but it lacks the way over the top element one can encounter in Wodehouse's best stories. My understanding is that Wodehouse wrote over 90 books. Like all things, some of them are better than others. Sorting out the classics will be providing me with much amusements for many years to come.

I would highly recommend any recordings by Jonathan Cecil. I have been listening to recorded books for over twenty years and he is simply the best reader that I have ever listened to. He has amazing comic timing and I think the ultimate Bertie voice. What Wodehouse is to the comic novel, Jonathan Cecil is the reading of comic novels.