Customer Reviews

The Mating Season

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Previous: Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning)

This is the classic volume in which Bertie finds himself at a place called Deverill Hall pretending to be Gussie Fink-Nottle, and Gussie Fink-Nottle shows up pretending to be Bertie. Bertie must do all he can to keep the Fink-Nottle/Bassett romance intact (for we know the fate that awaits Bertram otherwise), and this, complete with two other rocky romances, keeps Bertie on his toes throughout this hilarious book. Jeeves is absent for much of this book, and thus it is short on the interaction between the two that makes the books so charming, but he shows up to save the day when the time is right. Notable in this story is the oppressed Esmond Haddock who cowers under his five aunts, the relationship between Bertie's old chum Catsmeat and a parlormaid named Queenie which nearly ends in very foreseeable disaster, and the presence of Jeeves's Uncle Charlie.

I must add that this is the book I read on the plane when I had to fly home for a sudden funeral, and in the midst of the somberness of the occasion, this book was a tangible ray of sunlight. Although I will probably always remember it within that rather unfortunate context, perhaps that is not a bad thing. It worked its magic, and kept me laughing.

Next: Bertie Wooser Sees it Through (Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit)

Evelyn Waugh, a tight man with a compliment for his fellow authors, referred to P.G. Wodehouse as the Master, and nowhere are the reasons more apparent than in The Mating Season.

There is never a dull moment as Bertie Wooster impersonates Gussie Fink-Nottle, Claude Cattermole ("Catsmeat") Pirbright impersonates the non-existent Meadowes, to appear at Deverill Hall as Gussie's personal gentleman (Bertie is impersonating Gussie at the time), Gussie impersonates Bertie, with Jeeves in tow, no fewer than four pairs of sundered hearts are re-united, as Bertie once again escapes the matrimonial trap, and Esmond Haddock, the landed proprietor of Deverill Hall, defies his five aunts to marry Claude's sister, the celebrated Hollywood actress Corky. With all this action and imposture, however, Wodehouse's writing is so skillful that the reader, with no effort, keeps the characters and action straight. There is, of course, time for Wodehouse's unexcelled magic with the English language. To put it more briefly, this novel provides one whale of a good time.

Wodehouse wrote dozens of hilarious, wonderfully-written, and intricately-plotted novels. It is high praise indeed to note that The Mating Season would almost certainly rank in the top five in any poll of Wodehouse fans.

It is a novel characteristic of Wodehouse. The plot is very complicated and filled with unlikely events. The main characters are Bertie and Jeeves. Other characters: Gussie, Corky, Catsmeat, Madeline Bassett, Esmond Haddock and many-many aunts. The novel is very good and among the funniest that I've ever listened to. The vocabulary is tremendous and very funny.

P.G. Wodehouse's _The Mating Season_ is very entertaining. Wodehouse's wonderful, comic writing is sure to bring smiles and laughter. _The Mating Season_ is filled with hare-brained schemes plotted by the likes of Bertram Wooster and his chronies, disguises and impostors, and tales of weak-willed men, who quail in the presence of imposing Aunts and fall in love (in swoons) with precisely the wrong young women. And, of course, there is the resolute, unflappable man-servant Jeeves. Jeeves "shimmers" in and out of the book at just the right moments, devising ingenuis solutions to extricate Bertie and his friends from their troubles.

As the other reviewers have noted, the story is intricate with four romantic plots and four characters--Berties, Jeeves, Gussie Fink-Nottle, and "Catsmeat" Pirbright--variously impersonating each other at Deverill Hall, an estate dominated by five Aunts. Bertie, the narrator, helps the reader keep track of the story by explaining to characters how things stand as the plot twists and turns. In the final chapter, Bertie gives the reader a final chart, hilariously assembled, of how Jeeves has managed to sort out "the great web."

There are many wonderful scenes, including one where Jeeves literally plays the "deus ex machina" with a "blunt instrument knowns as a cosh" and another where Bertie, mistaken as a burglar, is nearly shot. There are hilarious, laugh out loud sentences like this description of Rev. Sidney Pirbright: "A tall, drooping man, looking as if he had been stuffed in a hurry by an incompetent taxidermist." Bertie's way of telling the story, peppered with latin phrases and exclamations of "Right Ho!," is always funny.

For readers unfamiliar with Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster characters, I would recommend as a starting point the anthology _The World of Jeeves_, a great collection of Jeeves short stories. These stories introduce all of the major and minor characters, including the unforgetable Aunt Agatha.

About ten years ago, my uncle lent me his copy of the _World of Jeeves_ before a long summer trip abroad. Not only did I enjoy the stories immensely, but my friends loved them, too. Living without TV for a few months, these stories became like episodes of _Seinfeld_ to us. I'm still "borrowing" my uncle's book.

This is one of the lightest and brightest of the Jeeves and Bertie novels, from 1949, smack dab in the middle of Plum's acquaintanceship with the half wit and his gentleman's gentleman. Other reviewers have capsuled the insane plot admirably; let me add a few happy notes. The author limns a number of his ensemble cast quite handsomely in this book, but one who takes center stage, literally, and steals the show is Bertie's lifelong female friend, now a famous Hollywood star, the beautiful willful handful, Cora "Corky" Pirbright. I am madly in love with this character, and not just because she's a gorgeous celluloid ingénue. Her ferocity of purpose is matched only by the nonchalance with which she pursues it. For instance, the way she gets Gussie to do her bidding would be cruel were it not carried off with such whimsy. Her honest friendship with Bertie, whom she clearly likes, is as refreshing as a spring breeze. Corky is actually kind. She tolerates an endless visit with a matronly fan, only later revealing to Bertie that the woman is the final and interminable authority on Hollywood. "She even knows how many times Artie Shaw has been married, which I bet he couldn't tell you himself. She asked if I had ever married Artie Shaw, and when I said No, seemed to think I was pulling her leg or must have done it without noticing. I tried to explain that when a girl goes to Hollywood she doesn't HAVE to marry Artie Shaw, it's optional..."

As the story's climax approaches, Wodehouse takes the reader inside a small English village amateur show, a benefit for an extraordinarily tired church organ. The account is almost as long as the show; the master really takes his time. The funny thing is: every line. It's a tour de force, and exemplifies why we read PG Wodehouse. Not to rush to the finale, not to find out what happens, but to sit as one sits before a warm clear sunrise, to take in every word and phrase and let it slowly bring its own chuckling light into your heart.

OK, I'll put a sock in it now. By the way, Plum uses that phase in this book just the way we use it today. I wonder if it's his creation.

When I recently read that Chris Hitchens was a Wodehouse fan, I wondered that if Wodehouse could lighten the spirits of someone as dyspeptic as Hitchens, that he might do wonders for me as well. I'm glad I thought of it. The Mating Season is, thus far, my favorite in the Jeeves series. These are the first person accounts of Bertram Wooster, a brain dead British aristocrat who can't tie his own shoes without the help of his butler, Jeeves. He and his friends get themselves into hilarious predicaments and Jeeves unfailingly bails them out.

Wodehouse is a wonderful stylist and almost unbelievably funny. This is addictive stuff so take care.

If laughter is indeed the best medicine, then the collected works of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse should be prescribed by doctors as a matter of course. Like the proverbial pair of slippers or a warm cup of tea on a gray, rainy afternoon, the Jeeves & Wooster series is balm to any soul. One opens a Wodehouse like a bottle of something vintage: ready to be soothed and satiated. A snivelly critic once accused Wodehouse of publishing a book with all the "Wodehouse types" given new names. Wodehouse responded:

"A certain critic-for such men, I regret to say, do exist-made the nasty remark about my last novel [Heavy Weather] that it contained `all the old Wodehouse characters under different names'. He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha; but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have outgeneralled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy."

How can you resist Wodehouse? So far as I'm concerned, he smote that critic's ruin on the mountainside. We don't read Wodehouse for his plots, though he does have a deft talent for keeping a story zipping along. Wodehouse is less concerned with what the story is about than with how he'll be about it. The Mating Season happens to find that classic duo, Wooster and Jeeves--the airheaded English aristocrat and his genius "gentleman's gentleman," respectively--holed up for a spell in the foreboding Deverill Hall, seat of five formidable aunts. Wooster confesses:

"On the cue `five aunts' I had given at the knees a trifle, for the thought of being confronted with such a solid gaggle of five aunts, even if those of another, was an unnerving one. Reminding myself that in this life it is not the aunts that matter but the courage which one brings to them, I pulled myself together."

It may be difficult to write a gut-wrenchingly tragic book, but I dare say it's even more difficult to write a gut-bustingly funny one. No doubt that is why (to the great consternation of his contemporaries) Hillaire Belloc proclaimed Wodehouse the finest prose stylist of his epoch. Writers like Dostoevsky mirror the human heart. Writers like Wodehouse make the human heart rejoice. They are different but equal geniuses.

You can guess from the title this is about men and women! And the farce it is to all except those involved - add to that farce Wodehouse's keen eye, ready wit, and social satire - and you have the Mating Season! Full Marks for Wodehouse! You will love this book!

For more fun and games with one of Wodehouse's best woman read:

The Adventures Of Sally: Three Volumes Of Sally In One Book - A British Humor Classic

Enjoy!

or a sunny one for that matter. P.G always delivers!! If you haven't read him don't wait!

If there is a master of the feel-good book - one of those novels that elevates your mood every time you read a page - it must be P.G. Wodehouse. Yes, his stories may not be deep, but they are always delightfully entertaining. And nowhere is Wodehouse better than with his incomparable Jeeves and Wooster tales.

These stories are typically narrated by Bertie Wooster, a well-meaning but not-too-bright fellow who tries to enjoy the life of the idle rich. Since he isn't all that sharp, he constantly gets into trouble, which is where his valet Jeeves steps in. In any crisis, the omniscient Jeeves is unflappable.

The Mating Season again puts Bertie in the soup. This time, he is coerced by his fearsome Aunt Agatha into visiting Deverill Hall, a mansion filled with a bunch of elderly aunts; they aren't Bertie's aunts, but Agatha has given him a phobia about all such relations. Bertie's friend, Gussie Fink-Nottle, is also supposed to attend, but an unexpected incarceration spoils that. This threatens Gussie's engagement to Madeline Bassett, and Madeline has made clear that she intends to marry Bertie if ever Gussie doesn't work out. For Bertie, there is only one choice: he goes to Deverill Hall impersonating Gussie.

Complications, of course, ensue. First of all, Gussie gets out of jail early and goes to Deverill Hall impersonating Bertie. Meanwhile, there is a tangle of romances that could still well-endanger Bertie's beloved bachelorhood. Corky Pirbright wants to be with Esmond Haddock, who in turn is wooing his cousin Gertrude (to make Corky jealous) who in turn is in love with Corky's brother, Catsmeat. Gussie falls for Corky, Catsmeat gets mixed up with the maid Queenie who is on the outs with the police constable Dobbs.

This comic soap opera plays out perfectly with Wodehouse's adept plotting and even more adept use of language. The only bad part is it eventually must end. But until that conclusion is reached, there are few reading pleasures quite like a Wodehouse book.