Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves [Paperback]

P.G. Wodehouse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2000

A Bertie and Jeeves classic, featuring an Alpine hat, a black amber statuette, and the dreaded Totleigh Towers.

In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, Bertie's newt-breeding friend Gussie Fink-Nottle must marry Madeline Bassett or Bertie will be obliged to take his place. Understandably, Bertie is aghast. It seems like certain suicide, but Jeeves must find a way to save his employer from the clutches of the drippy Madeline. If he fails, Bertie's bachelor days -- not to mention Jeeves's leisure time -- will be at an end.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Christopher Buckley author of Little Green Men It is impossible to be unhappy while reading the adventures of Jeeves and Wooster. And I've tried.

Kurt Andersen author of Turn of the Century Wodehouse can be extremely funny, of course, and Bertie and Jeeves are echt-Englishmen, but the surprising and surpassing pleasure of these books is their cheerful humanity. Reading Wodehouse always makes me feel good.

David Foster Wallace author of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men Timelessly funny and mean.

From the Publisher

"It is impossible to be unhappy while reading the adventures of Jeeves and Wooster. And I've tried."--Christopher Buckley, author of "Little Green Men"

"Wodehouse can be extremely funny, of course, and Bertie and Jeeves are echt-Englishmen, but the surprising and surpassing pleasure of these books is their cheerful humanity. Reading Wodehouse always makes me feel good."—Kurt Andersen, author of "Turn of the Century"

"Timelessly funny and mean."—David Foster Wallace, author of "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men"

"Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in."—Evelyn Waugh

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743203607
• ISBN-13: 978-0743203609
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #549,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrifying Trials at Totleigh Towers!, January 22, 2005

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (Paperback)

Dante had his Inferno. Odysseus had to get past Scylla and Charybdis. And Bertie Wooster has to darken the dangerous halls of Totleigh Towers again to avoid the unwelcome bands of matrimony with Miss Madeline Bassett.

Madeline's engagement to that world-class newt lover, Gussie Fink-Nottle, is on the rocks when Madeline insists that the meat-loving Gussie become a vegetarian. That's dangerous because Madeline has always made it clear that she will have no other man than Bertie as her husband if Gussie isn't available. So Bertie volunteers to enter that place where all others abandon hope in order to try to repair the engagement. But he's soon in trouble because Emerald Stoker, daughter of the American millionaire, has taken a temporary job as the cook at Totleigh Towers and is tempting Gussie with steak and kidney pie and ham sandwiches. Soon love is following the growls of Gussie's stomach, and Gussie insults the sunset and Madeline's favorite fictional character.

At the same time, Stiffi Byng's engagement to Stinker Pinker is on the rocks as well because Pop Bassett won't come through with the vicar's job that Stinker needs to be able to afford to marry. A rocky day at the school treat makes progress even more problematical.

Jeeves is the source of the all the solutions as he often is, but relations are strained even there by Bertie's new hat which Jeeves feels is unsuitable.

Stiffi also takes to absconding with Pop Bassett's prize gee-gaw, which Bertie's Uncle Tom covets, and matters develop to make Bertie look like a thief again. Can Bertie escape the goal?

In the best of the Jeeves stories, the plot unfolds in a fairly straightforward fashion that holds Bertie at ransom to fate. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves has such a plot. I highly recommend this book to you.

This book should also remind you to read the Jeeves books in order of their publication. Many of the best are sequels to the finest of the early stories. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is one of those sequels. Enjoy!

Are you ready for something to wet the old tonsils?

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Wodehouse giving classic Wooster, January 20, 2004

By 

Paul Donovan (London, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (Paperback)

"Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves" is an example of Wodehouse at his best - to paraphrase Evelyn Waugh, cramming three original similes onto every page. The book continues the saga of the Wooster / Bassett / Fink-Nottle "love triangle", and Wodehouse as ever handles the problem of filling in new readers with aplomb (though it is undoubtedly better to have read the preceding volumes - after all, why wouldn't you want to read the preceding volumes?). Bertie is once again at Totleigh Towers where "only man is vile", desperately trying to avoid imprisonment, dismemberment at the hands of Spode (now under the alias of Lord Sidcup) while failing spectacularly to act as raisonneur to the Madeleine / Gussie relationship -which now appears to be floundering on the insurmountable obstacle of vegetarianism. Bertie gets some good one-liners, and the dialogue is excellent as always. Though writen post-war, after what many consider the Wodehouse golden-age of the 1930s, this remains an example of Wodehouse at his best.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bertie Wooster a.k.a. Alpine Joe is in the soup again, January 24, 2001

By 

Robert P. Grosso Jr. (Avon, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (Paperback)

Bertie Wooster, equipped with alpine hat, is in trouble again. He must again travel to the dreaded Totleigh Towers to patch up the engagement between Gussie Fink-Nottle and Madeline Basset, lest he be forced to fill the vacancy. Great fun! Contains the same wonderful cast of characters we've come to know and laugh at as in "The Code of the Woosters," the ever-dangerous Roderick Spode, the magistrate Sir Watkyn Basset, the oozing Madeline Basset, the capricious Stiffy, her would-be husband, "Stinker" Pinker, and her carniverous dog, Bartholomew. Jeeves' indomitable wisdom and wit will be tested to the utmost.