Customer Reviews

Much Obliged, Jeeves

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P.G. Wodehouse was ninety years old when he published this, the second-to-last of the Bertie and Jeeves novels. Despite Wodehouse's advanced age, he managed to fill this book, also published as Jeeves and the Tie That Binds, with the sparkle and fun that characterizes all the Bertie and Jeeves novels.

There is, of course, the usual cast. In addition to Bertie and Jeeves, Aunt Dahlia is present, as is her husband, Thomas Portarlington Travers. In addition, Roderick Spode (who is now Lord Sidcup), Madeline Bassett, Florence Craye, and Bingley, who filled in for Jeeves for a short time, join us from previous novels. A Bertie and Jeeves novel wouldn't be complete, of course, without an old school chum; in this case, it is Harold "Ginger" Winship, who is standing for the seat in the House of Commons for Market Snodsbury. Add in L.P. Runkle, Magnolia Glendennon, and Bertie's marvelous narration, and you have all the ingredients for a great Wodehouse farce, as Bertie preserves his bachelorhood and all else turns out for the best.

Much Obliged, Jeeves was the second Wodehouse book I read. While I enjoyed the almost short story styling of The Inimitable Jeeves, I thoroughly enjoyed the cohesiveness of Much Obliged. Much Obliged starts with Bertie being invited to visit his Aunt Dahlia in Market Snodsbury. An old pal of Bertie's by the name of Harold "Ginger" Winship is a candidate for Parliament in the Snodsbury election. By this time, even a relatively new fan of Wodehouse, such as I am, can tell that trouble is brewing on the horizon. Enter Jeeves and the Junior Ganymede club book. The Junior Ganymede is a club of butlers; each member is obliged to write about his employer in the club book. This is done so that anyone seeking employment with a gentleman may look him up in the club book and, thus, know what they're in for. Of course, Bertie has an unusually large section in the club book. However, much to Bertie's surprise, Ginger also has quite a few damning pages in the club book as well. When the club book is stolen by a unethical, as well as repulsive, character by the name of Bingley, Ginger's chance of winning the Snodsbury election becomes uncertain and the hilarity begins. Again, another great book that leaves the reader shouting, "Good show!"

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881 to 1975) was a talented and prolific British comic writer of novels, short stories, plays, and musical comedies. He wrote 96 books, too many for most of us even to attempt to read from one author.

The Jeeves and Wooster stories are among his most popular works. They are light reading and are purely fictional comedy - based on life in Britain around or before the WWI era. There are approximately 18 books in the Jeeves series plus some short stories. All the stories are narrated by the "the wealthy, scatterbrained" Bertie Wooster and feature his butler Jeeves as a steadying force.

As pointed out by many others, "the plots are on the surface formulaic," but Wodehouse's genius lies in the ability to create a complicated web of characters and sub-plots that somehow have a happy ending. The plots often involve women, politics, and gambling. In many cases, a relative or a friend will create a situation which is inevitably solved through some unlikely and humorous set of events.

Jeeves, the butler or valet, is the most intelligent character in the stories with a superior education and intellect, far ahead of Bertie and most of the others. He seems to be everywhere anticipating problems and providing solutions. These stories are referred to as the "Jeeves" works. Wodehouse has suggested that Jeeves was not completely fictional but was based on an actual butler called Eugene Robinson, who he employed for the purpose of study. According to the author, he extricated Wodehouse from a real-life predicament.

In general, the books feature a humorous cast of characters with names that remind one of Dickens, such as Tuppy Glossop, Augustus (Gussie) Fink-Nottle, Bingo Little, Rev. Harold P. "Stinker" Pinker, Curate of Totleigh-in-the-Wold who plays rugby football, Freddie Widgeon, Harold Winship, who stands for parliament as the Conservative candidate in Market Snodsbury, Beefy Bingham, Parson in the East End, etc.

This is a quick light read of a few hundred pages. I thought it was very entertaining and had many twists and turns - as Bertie extricates himself from a potentially bad marriage engagement.

Aunt Dahila invites her nephew Bertie Wooster to her house in Market Snodsbury to help canvass for Ginger Winship, who is running for a spot in the House of Commons. Ginger happens to be an old close friend of Wooster, and his political goals are really just because his fiance is pushing him in that direction.

Naturally, where Wooster happens to be, an ex fiance or two is bound to be there too. Here it's Madeline Bassett and his cousin Florence.

A spot of bother occurs when a book that belongs to the butler's club (called the Junior Ganymede) is pinched. Apparantly, butlers are obliged to write about their employers, and other butlers use it as a reference when they're being interviewed. According to Jeevers, a line or two about each employer is sufficient, but he was obliged to write 18 pages about Wooster. His friend, Ginger, is the proud protagonist of 11.

Although most plots in the Jeeves and Wooster books are similar (ex-fiances, trying to break approaching nupitals, old friends from school, Anatole's cooking and Jeeves to the rescue), it doesn't really get to be too boring, or cliched. Crisp, witty dialogue and a couple of hours light reading are quite refreshing!

Fantastic wit! Loved it from start to finish.

My dad and I are huge Wodehouse fans and we quite enjoy trading quotes from this book.

So happy to have found P.G. alive and well on Amazon.

Great stuff.

I love all the Jeeves stories, and whilst this is not up there among my top five, it does stand out for me because as far as I remember, it is the only one in which Jeeves is actually rattled - only for a few seconds, but it really does happen!
PG Wodehouse's books are brilliant and I would highly recommend them to anyone who...well, to anyone! Go read them, now if not sooner! :-)

P.G is British humor at it's best! I've red most of his books and enjoyned each and every one of them.