Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves

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Summary: Classic Wodehouse giving classic Wooster
Review: "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.

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Summary: The quintessential Wodehouse..
Review: Bertie Wooster's bachelorhood is under threat and this forces an unwelcome return to Totliegh Towers. A great Wodehouse cocktail follows.. But this one might not reach up to the high standards set by Wodehouse himself.

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Summary: Bertie Wooster a.k.a. Alpine Joe is in the soup again
Review: 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.

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Summary: Terrifying Trials at Totleigh Towers!
Review: 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?

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Summary: Jeeves & Bertie #11
Review: Previous: How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing)

This volume of the series sees young Bertram Wooster deeper in the soup than ever before, when his desperate measures to salvage the floundering Fink-Nottle/Bassett romance fail utterly. Although Jeeves's solutions are always brilliant, this one is probably the most ingenious (and for a moment, shocking) of them all. While the plot is beginning to feel a bit contrived (it is, after all, basically the same as all the others), there are always enough eccentric characters (notably Captain Plank, who has Bertie nailed as a villain named Alpine Joe), lively interaction between the two principals (this time over a blue alpine hat with a pink feather), and wonderful, Woosterian language to keep us laughing along the way. Not the best of the lot, but certainly good enough!

Next: Jeeves and the Tie that Binds (Much Obliged, Jeeves)