Customer Reviews

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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?

"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.

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.

Just as we believe some actors were born to play a certain role or a singer was born to sing a specific song, I'm convinced Jonathan Cecil was born to read P. G. Wodehouse. The British accented Cecil voice delightfully inhabits the personas of Jeeves, Bertie Wooster and sundry other characters with charm, humor, and distinction.

My first introduction to the talents of Cecil was with his stunning reading of "Jeeves and the Mating Season." Since that time no other voice will do for the born to the purple Bertie and his long suffering butler.

P.G. Wodehouse is quite another story. Obviously, one of the greatest humorists to ever take up pen his tongue-in-cheek take on the British upper classes is pure laugh provoking perfection. With "Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves" we find Bertie returning to Totleigh Towers, a place he had hoped never to see again as it is the domain of Sir Watkyn Bassett, who lined his pockets with fines he collected. Bassett's daughter, Madeline is always on the prowl and Bertie wants no part of her.

Fortunately, Madeline has fallen for and captured another - Gussie, a friend of Bertie's. Now, Madeline is not only a huntress but she is also passionate about changing her quarry to suit her own tastes. In this case, the word "taste" may be taken literally as she wants to change the meat loving Gussie into a vegetarian, which is where most of the trouble begins. Bertie, as usual, finds himself embroiled in this sticky situation.

Alas, once again it's left up to Jeeves to come to Bertie's aid.

Wodehouse has been dubbed a "comic genius;" Cecil is his full partner in this splendid reading. Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

This unabridged audio version of "Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves" was wonderfully read by Cecil. This is not my typically genre of book and I was pleasantly impressed and surprised by this book. I have not read the prior books in this series and had no problems following along so the priors are not a necessity. In a nutshell, this book is about a dim-witted Bertie and his attempt to keep from inadvertently becoming engaged to a sappy Madeline. The dry, British humor of this story is excellently portrayed by Cecil and I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a refreshing change of pace!

Another extraordinary comic achievement from the great Wodehouse, this time written in the post-war period. Jeeves and Bertie are stuck in Totleigh Towers again and Spode is on to them. This little gem includes many of Wodehouse's best characters-the Bassetts, Gussie, and of course Stiffy. The prose shines with the same creativity and playfulness as always. Classic Wodehouse.

Selecting the best Wodehouse book is like picking the best chocolate from a sampler box; it's pretty much impossible. But "Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves," surely ranks near the top. It flows beautifully from the opening phrase: "I marmaladed a slice of toast with something of a flourish ..." The descriptions and turns of phrase are delightful throughout. I found it to be even more charming because it's one of the few novels in which one of the women is fairly positively reviewed by the forever bachelor Bertie.

Horror, of horrors, it looks like Gussie Fink-Nottle may have finally broken off with Madeline Bassett and there is little or nothing that even Jeeves can do about it. Diets, steak and kidney pie, mute lutes. Add Spode who will take anybody who makes Madeline cry and tie them into a painful knot and you have the makings of a tragic ending for poor, poor Bertie. Or do you? Either way, there is tons of fun from the first page to the last and lots of twisted plot lines, weird happenings, and buckets of hard drinking.

What could the Nobel Prize for literature signify if PG Wodehouse not only didn't win one, but never made the short-list? Good grief. What other writer living or dead, in Nobel's own words, "help[s] dreamers, as they find it hard to get on in life."

Take STIFF UPPER LIP, JEEVES, for example. If you want to read a book that'll grab you by your lapels and hoist you out this mundane, dynamite-scarred world, try this one.

Crisp dialogue, intricate plotting, witty wordplay, amusing situations, and distinct characters make this book satisfying to read repeatedly. In fact, it is astonishing that STIFF UPPER LIP, JEEVES and many other Wodehouse creations seem just as fresh the second, third, and even seventh time around.

I would liken reading this book to drinking one of Jeeves's famous pick-me-ups "and their effect on a fellow who is hanging to life by a thread on the morning after." Wodehouse writes: "For perhaps the split part of a second nothing happens. It is as though all Nature waited breathless. Then, suddenly, it is as if the Last Trump had sounded and Judgment Day set in..."

If heaven's half as delightful as reading PG Wodehouse, (should I get there) I'll be in paradise.

I love all Jeeves audio tapes. They help me forget the worries of the day and relax me enough to fall asleep each night.