P.G. Wodehouse : Five Complete Novels (The Return of Jeeves, Bertie Wooster Sees It Through, Spring Fever, The Butler Did It, The Old Reliable) [Hardcover]

P.G. Wodehouse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1995

No missing pages, Water Damage, or stains. Spine shows creasing. This is a readable copy.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 682 pages
• Publisher: Avenel Books (November 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517405385
• ISBN-13: 978-0517405383
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Even Wodehouse's Weaker Novels Are Fun . . ., September 22, 2001

By 

Allen Smalling "Constant Reader," (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: P.G. Wodehouse : Five Complete Novels (The Return of Jeeves, Bertie Wooster Sees It Through, Spring Fever, The Butler Did It, The Old Reliable) (Hardcover)

but I wouldn't want anyone basing his/her opinion of the large and largely breathtakingly wit of Wodehouse's collected work based merely on this budget anthology.

The novels are set in post-World War II England, and as such they reflect those dispiriting times. The great mansions are in ruin from confiscatory taxation, TV distracts the intellect, Hollywood (not the London theater) dominates popular entertainment, and a loyal butler like Jeeves is clearly a holdover from a different era in which his employers were not, relatively speaking, impoverished.

Wodehouse's fans (of which there are many, both in the UK and the USA) will probably want to read these novels anyway. But if you are contemplating your first exposure to Wodehouse, I'd recommend instead any of his "classic" Bertie-and-Jeeves novels from the 1920s, when social class, punctilio, pith, dry wit and a plenitude of household help for the rich were integral elements of this type of humor. CARRY ON, JEEVES! happens to be my favorite, but there are plenty of other wonderful reads from this era.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Most Curious Collection, October 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: P.G. Wodehouse : Five Complete Novels (The Return of Jeeves, Bertie Wooster Sees It Through, Spring Fever, The Butler Did It, The Old Reliable) (Hardcover)

I'm a huge Wodehouse fan, and I find this to be the oddest of all collections. Unlike anything else I've read by Wodehouse, these tales take place after WWII, imbuing the normally bucolic Wodehousian universe with a discomforting sense of dread, of post-war angst. Wodehouse, who himself had much angst following the War, seems to let it show in these stories. A Postlapsarian Wodehouse is a very shaky Wodehouse indeed; oh, for the edenic airs of Blandings Castle, or the gentle hum of the Drones in the early afternoon. The reader is better off there.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully funny, but flawed, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: P.G. Wodehouse : Five Complete Novels (The Return of Jeeves, Bertie Wooster Sees It Through, Spring Fever, The Butler Did It, The Old Reliable) (Hardcover)

I read this set of five novels over last Thanksgiving, while cooped up in a car with the 'rents on a trip to visit my sister. It was my introduction to Wodehouse, and served me well in that capacity. I very rarely laugh out loud at books, and I did so several times while engrossed in this collection. But... reading five Wodehouse novels in two days makes you realize just how formulaic the characters and plots can be. Essentially Wodehouse novels are the literary equivalent of sitcoms. Very good sitcoms, to be sure, more on the order of "Frasier" than of "Friends," but by the time you read the fifth novel in this book, you won't be surprised by any of the plot's turns. My advice -- don't read 'em all at one sitting, and you might enjoy the experience more.