Right Ho, Jeeves

Rating:
Summary: The Old Feudal Spirit
Review: "You silly a . . . " is a phrase often repeated by Bertram (Bertie) Wooster's favorite Aunt Dahlia in describing him in this country romp of romance and gastronomy gone wrong. And that's the nicest thing she has to say about him in this story.

Bertie's main redeeming quality to his friends and family in this story is his manservant, Jeeves. Over the years of their relationship, everyone who knows Bertie comes to realize that Bertie is a bumbling fool and that Jeeves is a problem-solving genius. The parallels to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are unavoidable in one's mind, except these stories are played out as comedy along the lines of A Midsummer Night's Dream rather than as serious business. Like Dr. Watson for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Bertie is the narrator of this novel.

Bertie, as a gentleman, feels that it is important to keep Jeeves in his place. He looks for the old feudal spirit of serf to master from Jeeves. When Jeeves challenges Bertie's decision to wear an informal jacket in the country that he brought back from Cannes, Bertie decides to put Jeeves in his place.

In Right Ho, Jeeves, everyone is looking for solutions to their problems from Jeeves. The fly in the old ointment though is that Bertie tells Jeeves to stifle himself while Bertie tries to save the day. As you can imagine, each Bertie wheeze (or plot) turns out to be a blunder instead that makes things much worse. Then Bertie tries again, with even worse results. And so on.

As background to the story's beginning, Bertie is just back from two months in Cannes on the Riviera with Aunt Dahlia, his cousin Angela, and her friend, Madeline Bassett. Aunt Dahlia recruits Bertie to give the prizes at the local school, while Bertie scrambles to avoid the appearance. His old pal, Gussie Fink-Nottle, a newt expert, has fallen for Madeline Bassett but he is too shy to propose. Bertie works on Gussie's resolve. Tuppy Glossop, another pal, is engaged to cousin Angela until they have a row about double chins and sharks. Bertie tries to bring reconciliation to the warring parties. Aunt Dahlia's domestic peace depends on the gourmet cooking of Anatole, which is essential to get money for her magazine out of her dyspepsic husband, Uncle Tom, to offset what she lost at the casino. Bertie's misconceptions soon have Anatole in despair, and contemplating departure. Aunt Dahlia is shaken to the core.

Things look glum indeed for the young lovers, Aunt Dahlia, and for Bertie. How will the day be saved?

The book is wonderfully read by Alexander Spencer, my favorite narrator of these P.G. Wodehouse stories and novels. Wodehouse intended these to be read as musical comedy, rather than considered as being drawn from life. With the proper narration, with an appropriate English accent, the tales are much enhanced.

Why, then did I rate the book down one star? First, the plot does go on and on through its complications. A good editor could have chopped this down by about 25 percent and made a much better novel. Second, there is a reference to people of color beginning with the letter "n" that will offend many, and certainly offended me.

A better offering in this series are the stories in the audio cassettes entitled, Jeeves and the Old School Chum. You might start there if you don't know Bertie and Jeeves yet. Only after you have used up the five star Jeeves audio tapes should you listen to this one. And you should do so only if you are fully compelled to have more of Bertie and Jeeves.

After you have finished this book, consider whether you have ever failed to take good advice. If you have avoided that, was false pride involved? If so, how can you overcome that misconception and self-deception in the future?

What?

Rating:
Summary: The Old Feudal Spirit
Review: "You silly a . . . " is a phrase often repeated by Bertram (Bertie) Wooster's favorite Aunt Dahlia in describing him in this country romp of romance and gastronomy gone wrong. And that's the nicest thing she has to say about him in this story.

Bertie's main redeeming quality to his friends and family in this story is his manservant, Jeeves. Over the years of their relationship, everyone who knows Bertie comes to realize that Bertie is a bumbling fool and that Jeeves is a problem-solving genius. The parallels to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are unavoidable in one's mind, except these stories are played out as comedy along the lines of A Midsummer Night's Dream rather than as serious business. Like Dr. Watson for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Bertie is the narrator of this novel.

Bertie, as a gentleman, feels that it is important to keep Jeeves in his place. He looks for the old feudal spirit of serf to master from Jeeves. When Jeeves challenges Bertie's decision to wear an informal jacket in the country that he brought back from Cannes, Bertie decides to put Jeeves in his place.

In Right Ho, Jeeves, everyone is looking for solutions to their problems from Jeeves. The fly in the old ointment though is that Bertie tells Jeeves to stifle himself while Bertie tries to save the day. As you can imagine, each Bertie wheeze (or plot) turns out to be a blunder instead that makes things much worse. Then Bertie tries again, with even worse results. And so on.

As background to the story's beginning, Bertie is just back from two months in Cannes on the Riviera with Aunt Dahlia, his cousin Angela, and her friend, Madeline Bassett. Aunt Dahlia recruits Bertie to give the prizes at the local school, while Bertie scrambles to avoid the appearance. His old pal, Gussie Fink-Nottle, a newt expert, has fallen for Madeline Bassett but he is too shy to propose. Bertie works on Gussie's resolve. Tuppy Glossop, another pal, is engaged to cousin Angela until they have a row about double chins and sharks. Bertie tries to bring reconciliation to the warring parties. Aunt Dahlia's domestic peace depends on the gourmet cooking of Anatole, which is essential to get money for her magazine out of her dyspepsic husband, Uncle Tom, to offset what she lost at the casino. Bertie's misconceptions soon have Anatole in despair, and contemplating departure. Aunt Dahlia is shaken to the core.

Things look glum indeed for the young lovers, Aunt Dahlia, and for Bertie. How will the day be saved?

The book is wonderfully read by Alexander Spencer, my favorite narrator of these P.G. Wodehouse stories and novels. Wodehouse intended these to be read as musical comedy, rather than considered as being drawn from life. With the proper narration, with an appropriate English accent, the tales are much enhanced.

Why, then did I rate the book down one star? First, the plot does go on and on through its complications. A good editor could have chopped this down by about 25 percent and made a much better novel. Second, there is a reference to people of color beginning with the letter "n" that will offend many, and certainly offended me.

A better offering in this series are the stories in the audio cassettes entitled, Jeeves and the Old School Chum. You might start there if you don't know Bertie and Jeeves yet. Only after you have used up the five star Jeeves audio tapes should you listen to this one. And you should do so only if you are fully compelled to have more of Bertie and Jeeves.

After you have finished this book, consider whether you have ever failed to take good advice. If you have avoided that, was false pride involved? If so, how can you overcome that misconception and self-deception in the future?

What?

Rating:
Summary: "Right ho, then."
Review: A highly comic romp with the English gentry, you know, those fellows of Eton, living in Manors (and having impeccable ones,I am told), with little to do but receive social approval for whatever they do; all with the quietly dignified, prescient aid of their butler. Pleasant enough, but P.G. Wodehouse masterfully parodies the upper crust and their sometimes foolish pretenses as he skewers one Bertram "Bertie" Wooster ("A lesser man, caught in this awful snare, would no doubt have ceased to struggle; but the whole point about the Woosters is that they are not lesser men."); often through the verbal and psychological ingenuity of "Jeeves," the almost obedient servant who masters the master ("I fear, sir, that I was not entirely frank with regard to my suggestion of ringing the fire bell").

Wodehouse (who belongs with those other two-initialed humorists of the era, A.J. Leibling, S.J. Perelman, and T.E. White) created icons and, perhaps, an entire genre through Bertie and Jeeves. The dialogue is, as they say, splendid: Droll and dry, understated yet preposterous. Perhaps nowhere else have the strictures of etiquette been exposed with such wit: "A touch of salmon?" "Thank you" "With a suspicion of salad?" "If you please." Wodehouse manages this satire through the first-person narrative of the object satirized-no mean feat, what? (You may find yourself uttering Wodehousian English phrases for a few days after reading this.) The plot is a bedroom farce without the bedroom, with lots of the usual twists and turns, but the ending is a little too neat. One reads Wodehouse, however, mostly for his delicious language, his assortment of odd, engaging (and oddly engaged) personalities, and, above all, his adroit sense of humor and timing. Right ho! Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Six stars minimum...
Review: All other reviewers have touched aspects (quite right), and raised opinions (right again) about the CLEVER use of the language... only to be compared with ANATOLE's French Cuisine... (if you follow me...).
All in all... how could it be so few reviews...

RIGHT HO! JEEVES is the absolute english literature gem (sorry for the bard of Avon...), the Gussie Fink-Nottle "SPEACH" at the prize giving ordeal is ABSOLUTLY THE FUNNIEST PIECE OF ENGLISH ever written... forget about the plot, forget about Bertie&Jeeves, forget about the masterful use of prose... all this is an artifice to ridiculize the awfully pompous ceremonies we all have been through in our youth...

GENIALITY IN PURE FORM... (Bravo PLUM et encore!)... I am against compulsory reading... (just make them read by example!)...but with that particular book I have strong doubts if I am not slightly mistaken in that opinion...

IF YOU HAVE NOT READ IT (WHY?!) WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?, to be sure even your local library must have a copy... GO, RUSH FOR IT!, and if I am not right, you can always go back to this page and vote "no" on the helpful advice score below...

Rating:
Summary: A corker
Review: An ideal gift for any post-adolescent speaker of English who isn't already familiar with Wodehouse. (If he is familiar with Wodehouse -- well, it's impossible to read just one, so you likely would be too late.) Order several copies today -- you'll avoid the Christmas Eve rush, and your recipients will be grateful ever after.

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the Funniest Book in the English language
Review: I truly can't recall ever reading a funnier book - and I have read it many times over the years, and laughed as hard each time as I did the first. In fact, some passages have been known to set me giggling when they popped into my mind months after the last reading. A joyful, witty, wonderful book. Impossible to describe; it has to be experienced.

Rating:
Summary: Jeeves & Bertie #5
Review: Previous: Thank You, Jeeves

One of the most popular of the Jeeves novels, Right Ho, Jeeves brings us to Brinkley Court, the lair of Bertie's Aunt Dahlia, who is by far my favorite secondary character in all the books. This book is overshadowed by a decidedly antagonistic relationship between Jeeves and Bertie over a certain white jacket with brass buttons, and one can practically see Jeeves snickering in the background when his brilliant solution to the problems at hand is accomplished at Bertie's expense. Nevertheless, he does "rally round" when needed, and saves Bertie from a fate more hideous than death, viz. marriage to the loony Madeline Bassett. There are moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity in this book, notably Gussie Fink-Nottle's prize-giving at the local grammar school after drinking a jug of spiked orange juice, Bertie's very ill-timed question about haggis (a personal favorite of mine-the line, not haggis), and Aunt Dahlia's calm suggestion that Bertie go out to the garden pool and drown himself. This is comedy at its brilliant best. A wonderful beginning to a chain of events and characters that will follow in many books to come.

Next: The Code of the Woosters

Rating:
Summary: Wodehouse at his best
Review: This is a favorite of all Jeeves and Wooster fans, and it features one of the most memorable scenes in the Wodehouse canon: Gussie Fink-Nottle's presentation of awards at a grammar school, after drinking a double-spiked orange juice. This is Wodehouse at his best - and that's saying plenty.

Rating:
Summary: I ran out of more stars!
Review: This is one of Wodehouse's very best efforts. The ever disaster prone Bertie is asked to deliver a lecture at a grammer school which he is very afraid to do.So he gets Augustus-Fink Nottle to do the honours and when he(Gussie) ultimately delivers the speech and delivers the speech - it is a moment every Wodehouse fan will never never forget!Gussie just plainly rakes up Bertie's rather eventful past after getting drunk for the first time.A very good novel,indeed!Must read!

Rating:
Summary: Humor and Language at it's finest
Review: Wodehouse is a legendary figure in British writing. I still find it amazing that many book-lovers in the US have yet to read him. All I can say is that a whole world, the world of Bertie Wooster, Lord Emsworth, Psmith, can open up for their enjoyment.Right-Ho Jeeves (originally called Brinkley Manor) was my very first book written by Wodehouse. I consider it his best work. It combines two elements that are hard to do - humor and language. No word is out of place, every word, every phrase carefully chosen, and the end of every chapter delivers a new twist to an ever-growing complicated, but airtight, plot. I've read this book a few dozen times, and it still seems fresh and funny and downright farcical at times. In terms of style, the closest American author I've read is Carl Hiaasen. The concept of a burglar-turned-environmentalist (as in Hiaasen's Native Tongue) is very Wodehouse-ian. Needless to say, I rate this book in my top 5 of all time.