Rating: 
Summary: Vintage Wodehouse!
Review: "Carry On, Jeeeves," a collection of ten short stories first published in 1925 involving the adventures of Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, provides an excellent introduction to the world of P.G. Wodehouse. The collection contains the first Jeeves' story, in which the valet comes to work for Bertie replacing a valet named Meadowes, evidentally a hypocrite who converted to evangelism (as we find out in the story "The Aunt and the Sluggard".) At any rate, Meadowes was sacked by Bertie when the valet was caught stealing his silk socks. The stories take place in New York, briefly in Paris, and, of course, in London, although Wodehouse, as usual, does not delineate any part of New York except to place Bertie in a flat on 57nd Street and mention Washington Square as a place of Bohemianism, and Long Island as rural countryside. The stories contain the usual Wodehousian social parasites living off wealthy aunts, and develops such characters as Aunts Agatha and Dahlia, Bingo Little, Sir Roderick Glossop (the loony doctor) and several of Jeeves' numerous relatives, including a relatively incompetent constable and female model and partime "actress." The charm of the Jeeves-Wooster stories, I have always thought, comes from Bertie as speaker, and Bertie narrates the action in nine of the ten stories. Wodehouse is at his best in characterizing Bertie: Wooster's prose tends to be rich in unusual similes, metaphors and 1920's slang; there is a cadence to Bertie's narration, as well as a refreshingly humorous charm to his perception of the world. Bertie has been termed "a useless blot on the fabric of society" by his former valet, and a "wooden-headed blighter" by others. Bertie, himself, admits to having "half the amount of brain a normal bloke ought to possess." Even the discrete Jeeves considers Bertie "mentally negliable," although, of course, this is an unspoken thought. (In the final story in this excellent collection, Wodehouse uses Jeeves as narrator, an unusual occurence in Wodehouse, but one which enriches the character of Jeeves and makes him more meaningful in later works. Wodhouse seemed to have exerted more care in the Jeeves' stories throughout his writing career. Wodehouse admits that he always took particular care to be especially humorous and witty in these stories because he thought that the reader demanded more with Jeeves and Wooster. "Carry On, Jeeves" is a highly recommended introduction into the world of Wodehouse; a first-time reader may, like most of us, become quickly addicted to Wodehouse and further explore the richly humorous world of this marvelous author. Longtime admirers will, of course, return frequently to these miniature gems.
Rating:
Summary: Quite clearly Wodehouse at the height of his powers of farce
Review: A humorous collection of the the many travails of the millionaire intellectually challenged hero Berti and of his formidable butler Jeeves. Fast paced and absorbing with twists and turns in every page. Larger than life characters and style of writing that truly captures the mood and period of aristocratic life in the 20s.
Rating:
Summary: Audio edition a perfect reading
Review: By some wild chance, the appearance of the Audio Partners reading of "Carry On, Jeeves" is coincidental with the appearance of a musical about this very same very British gentleman's gentleman as well as the first two seasons of the British television series on DVDs. Having already reviewed the Audio Partners complete reading of "The Code of the Woosters," I am happy to report that "Carry on Jeeves" (41109) is even a tad more successful. Any Jeeves fan must have noticed that the full novels are really a series of wild incidents put in to to stretch out a pretty flimsy plot premise. In the short stories, we have the typical pattern of Bertie Wooster ordered (by an aunt) to or tricked (by a friend) into helping out in some manner usually concocted by Jeeves with the ability of a master chess player who can see a dozen moves in advance. The original collection of stories under the title "Carry On, Jeeves" contains 10 independent episodes, of which eight have been chosen for this recording; and each fits the expected pattern. We start with Jeeves' first appearance "Jeeves Takes Over." The other stories seem all to take place in New York City; and in two of them, Bertie is required to relinquish his flat so that some elderly relative of a friend will think it is the flat of the nephew. Telling the truth never seems to be the first course of action in any Jeeves story. The titles alone tell the story: "The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy," "Clustering Round Young Bingo," "The Artistic Career of Corky" are the ones that name the blighters who are thrust upon Bertie's good intentions and wallet. "Without the Option," "The Aunt and the Sluggard," "Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest," "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg" are almost indistinguishable from the rest in plot and character, except that in the last one, the young man is actually admirable in his refusal to accept help from the Wooster largesse. Actor Marlin Jarvis does as good a job as did Jonathan Cecil in the earlier Jeeves recording, neatly adjusting his voice for each character; and indeed I would have thought I was hearing Ian Carmichael had I not known better. Another nice feature about these 4 tapes is that no story goes onto another cassette; and in only two of them do you have to turn the cassette over to hear the ending before the next story starts. Very considerately thought out by the producers.
Rating: 
Summary: hoity-toidy humour brings smiles but few laughs
Review: Carry On, Jeeves is my first P.G. Wodehouse work I've read and, overall, I am not particularly impressed. This collection of short stories about a rich young man, his valet (Jeeves), and his equally rich (and hapless) buddies. Jeeves is the savior to his rich employer whenever called to rescue him (and his friends) from some silly calamity. The stories are contrived and seem cast from the same mold, the setting is the hopelessly obscene upper-class 1920s society of New York and England (where no one works and everyone seems dependent on financial handout by some rich aunt/uncle), and one has to wonder why a clever domestic servant such as Jeeves puts up with such blithering ninnies. Having said all this, there are some clever comedic moments which are generally derived by the clever delivery of quips by Jeeves. One can have a pleasurable time reading Carry On, Jeeves. However it is little more than junk food for the brain, and much of this P.G. Wodehouse material has not aged well.
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Summary: Jeeves shimmers in
Review: Gets the ball of wax rolling, don't you know? Please don't be alarmed by the first story, which finds Bertie uncharacteristically smitten with the f. of the s. You've got to give the egg some slack for what he may have stumbled into whilst Jeeves-less. Still, it'll all come right in the end, what?
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Summary: You cannot get a better introduction to English!
Review: I am not a native English speaker, so my vocabulary consists of what I learned in school (a long time ago), what I hear on movies/TV, and what I read. Books and films most often these days come from America, of course, so that is the version of English that I speak (albeit with an accent). Reading P.G. Wodehouse, this or any other book, shows that the English language is not confined to the transatlantic variant; it can be so much richer! Add to that the wonderful, sarcastic sense of humour the man had and you end up with a truly sensational reading experience. Of course, you do need to know a bit of the society of which he writes. It makes me wonder what youths in e.g. the U.S. today would think if they read this book. I am still looking forward to many hours of delightful reading, as I have only read a few books yet. My own introduction to Bertie, Jeeves, and the others in fact came from the excellent British TV series starring Hugh Laurie (as Bertie) and Stephen Fry (as Jeeves). If you get the chance to see it, do so.
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining!
Review: I highly recommend this book. It's very funny and entertaining!
I'd give it more stars if I could.
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining!
Review: I highly recommend this book. It's very funny and entertaining!
I'd give it more stars if I could.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic. Hilarious. Never mean.
Review: I've read almost every book P.G. Wodehouse has written. Never a dull moment, and this one is no exception. Bertie, though perhaps mentally slower than others, is continually gotten into situations by those he loves and wants to help. It is their fault, not his, that he's continually in the soup! Bertie is blameless, and wonderful! Wish Wodehouse could have written another 100!
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Summary: a balm and a comfort
Review: It's almost impossible to write funny about humor, and anyone who writes seriously about it is doomed to come off as a fuddy duddy. E.B. White, a funny writer himself, once said that analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog, in that the thing tends to die in the process and the results will be interesting only to the purely scientific mind. -Andrew Ferguson, Divine Comedy : P.G. Wodehouse's perfect pitch Two things the critics generally agree on are that : (1) P. G. Wodehouse is one of the funniest writers in the English language; and, (2) it's almost impossible to explain why. Among the various authorities cited for the difficulty in analyzing humor are Evelyn Waugh and Sigmund Freud, themselves authors of hilarious fictions. Suffice it to say, and I mean this in the very best sense, the enjoyments of the Jeeves and Wooster stories are much the same as those of the great TV sitcoms. Wodehouse created these two great comic characters, surrounded them in each story with oddballs, plunked them all down in trying situations, and then had the inimitable Jeeves extract Bertie and his upper-class nitwit friends from their difficulties through various stratagems and diversions. Though Andrew Ferguson and others deny that there is any deeper meaning or political content to the stories, it is at least notable that the finest young gentlemen in all of England are hopelessly overmatched by life unless Jeeves steps in to save them. The resulting stories have a certain sameness to them--of course, just try watching ten episodes of Cheers in a row and see if it's still fresh and amusing in hour five--but read in moderation they are immensely enjoyable and their very familiarity becomes quite comforting. GRADE : A+
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