Joy in the Morning [Hardcover]

P. G. Wodehouse (Author)

Book Description

Series: Collector's Wodehouse | Publication Date: May 9, 2002

Joy in the Morning finds Bertie Wooster trapped in the countryside with his bossy ex-fiancé and her fire-breathing father, frightful brother, and beefy new betrothed. Uproar ensues until Jeeves arrives to save the day.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A brilliantly funny writer--perhaps the most consistently funny the English language has yet produced. -- The Times (London)

The works of Wodehouse continue on their unique way, unmarked by the passage of time. -- Kingsley Amis

Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale....He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. -- Evelyn Waugh

From the Publisher

Fans of P.G. Wodehouse's comic genius are legion, and their devotion to his masterful command of the hilarity borders on obsession. The Overlook Press is pleased to feed their obsession by returning his funniest books to print: Heavy Weather, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Mating Season, Laughing Gas, Lord Emsworth and Others, Meet Mr. Mulliner, The Clicking of Cuthbert, and more.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover (May 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585672769
• ISBN-13: 978-1585672769
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #516,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond brilliant, October 29, 2004

By 

Dr. Emil "Tom" Shuffhausen (Central Gulf Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joy in the Morning (Hardcover)

P.G. Wodehouse could write a phonebook and make it brilliant. But this story is so incredibly good that words fail me. He weaves farce upon satire upon mystery upon suspense upon hilarious premise and delightful payoff until the reader is dizzy with laughter and awe. The usual suspects are here: Bertie Wooster and his butler, Jeeves, plus frightening debutants, pompous authority figures, shrill relatives, troublesome children, and yet another pleasant English country village...pleasant, that is, until Bertie & Co. come along. Wodehouse was the absolute master of the English language, of humor, and plot construction. This book is as good an example of his mastery as there is. My only regret is that the reading experience passes by too quickly.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Master at his Best, April 25, 2003

By 

Athulan Vijayaraghavan (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joy in the Morning (Hardcover)

I would not willingly try to judge which is Wodehouse's best book, for it is a hard task, as each of the Master's works shine in thier own special way. But if i had to, and there was no other way, then it would have to be Joy in the Morning.
This is a classic story of Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, his valet, or as Jeeves puts it "his gentleman's gentleman". There are several books featuring Bertie and Jeeves and like all the others this one is a cracker.
Bertie has to go to Steeple Bumpleigh, the lair of his horrendouns Aunt Agatha, to assist his uncle pull of a tricky business deal. Confusion ensues when he gets engaged to the wrong girl - the overbearing, always-moulding Florence Craye. The situation is especially hard for him, as also in the cast of characted is Stilton Cheesewright, who thinks Bertie as a snake and butterfly, and wants to clobber him.
Add to this a business magnate from Long Island, an eccentric author, and a boy scout bent (pun intended, read the book and you shall find out) on helping all around him, and its a recipie for the worst kind of disaster for Bertie. Thank god he has Jeeves on hand to extricate him from all the doodah.
A superb read. Dont give this one a miss. Remember, a man who is tired of Wodehouse, is a man who is tired of Life.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stern Whacks in Steeple Bumpleigh, December 5, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Joy in the Morning [UNABRIDGED] (Audio Cassette)

Joy in the Morning is one of those marvelous country comedies satirizing the English gentry that P.G. Wodehouse excelled at. The satire takes the familiar path of the nobility having more money and breeding than brains, while the ordinary folk are plagued by their nonsense.

Wodehouse once noted that you could either do fiction starting from real life or start from the perspective of musical comedy. He chose the latter approach. Woolly-headed Bertram (Bertie) Wooster finds himself inevitably drawn into the lair he most fears, the country home of his demanding Aunt Agatha in Steeple Bumpleigh. He is ambivalent about Aunt Agatha, both fearing her, and relying on her for substantial funds.

Unfortunately for him, his gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves, is the cause of the entrapment in Steeple Bumpleigh this time. So there is no escape, because Bertie would never be able to outmaneuver Jeeves. The cause of the geographic diversion on this occasion is that Jeeves would like to do a spot of fishing there, and you know how it is when Jeeves wants something. On the surface it looks like Uncle Percy merely needs a favor, but Jeeves is obviously working both sides of the street for his own benefit.

Bertie has never had any good fortune in Steeple Bumpleigh. His Aunt Agatha has always been stern and strongly disapproving of him, while being very overbearing in her demands. Recently, she has remarried to Perceival, Lord Worplesdon, who once chased Bertie for a mile successfully brandishing a riding crop on Bertie's backside as a result of a youthful misunderstanding. Percy's son, Edwin, is worse than any juvenile delinquent you can imagine, because he operates under the cover of a do-gooding Boy Scout in creating his mayhem. Uncle Percy's daughter, Florence Craye, had once been engaged to Bertie, and he had barely avoided her unwanted grasp. No wonder Bertie avoids Steeple Bumpleigh like the River Styx.

The potential horrors of Steeple Bumpleigh for Bertie are fortunately reduced in this story by the absence of Aunt Agatha and her son, Thos., who is suffering from the mumps. But Aunt Agatha imposes on Bertie in her absence to bring down a gift for her step-daughter, Florence Craye, and thus the complications begin. Before long, Bertie is at loggerheads with the usual suspects and at risk of wedding bells. In the meantime he does his best to secure wedding bells for the right couples, avoid them himself, and help out Aunt Agatha and Uncle Percy. And that's a big order, indeed, this time in Steeple Bumpleigh because matters become quite messy.

Bertie usually makes his own trouble, but Jeeves, Edwin, and his old pal, Boko Fiddleworth, provide it in spades in this engaging story. Bertie soon feels like he has the proverbial tyre tracks on his body from being run over by misfortune at their hands.

But after having satisfied his fishing yen, Jeeves saves the day with a brilliant and audacious improvisation, as he often does in these hilarious stories.

I found the plot line to be even more charming and fun than the usual Bertie and Jeeves tale in this story. Bertie's character works better as an innocent dupe (his role in Joy in the Morning) than as an arrogant bumbler, as he is sometimes portrayed in others of these stories.

Because of the musical comedy air of the novel, it is vastly improved by being heard in a good recording. This one is performed by Jonathan Cecil who is well known for his readings of Wodehouse stories for television, radio, and as audio books. Although I like his readings just a little less than those of Alexander Spencer, they are very witty and well done in capturing the mannerisms of the speakers.

After you have finished this story, I suggest that you think about where reticence about sticking up for your rights can land you in the hash, as it were. When someone presumes to make a demand upon you, when is it right to remonstrate and refuse . . . and when not? Certainly, miscommunication is Wodehouse's stock in trade, but it need not be yours.

What? What? What? What? What? What? Oh, what ...