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Summary: Bertie Brandishes His Brain About Blushing Brides and Babes
Review: If you do not know the Jeeves stories, you are in for a wonderful treat. If you do, your appreciation will grow with the witty reading by the marvelous Alexander Spencer in this unabridged audio cassette version of four wonderful short stories. P.G. Wodehouse conceived of these stories as being in the musical comedy style, and as such they work better when read aloud. These stories make for hilarious listening and are just the right length for short car trips. Take them along to cut the tedium of traffic during your next "rush" hour crawl. Bertram (Bertie) Wooster is the narrator in three of the four stories. Bertie is longer on connections and money than brains. Seldom out of bed before late morning, his idea of a busy day is rallying around to his club to see if anyone wants to tour the nightclubs. He is an English gentleman, and strives to play the part in a languid way that doesn't require too much effort on his part. But the brains of every story is Jeeves, his gentleman's gentleman (a combination of valet and butler). Jeeves is one of those brainy chaps who can always find a way. He tries to save Bertie from himself (especially when it comes to unsuitable fiancees and clothes), and always succeeds. Sometimes Bertie feels rebellious and indulges himself anyway in his taste for "far out" clothes. That can put a dent in their relationship, but Bertie always repents and does it Jeeves' way in the end. Bertie has two redeeming qualities. He loves to help his cronies, who are a disaster at romance. How will the species be propogated? In a funk, they come to Bertie for help. He usually summons Jeeves. The resulting schemes are always full of hilarious plot complications. Bertie may be trying to convince a fiancee's father that his friend is crazy. He may be inadvertently kidnapping children to help attract the girl for a friend. Or he may be in the middle of explaining all about men's fashion and helping pals avoid their wives embarrassing them in public. He does his best to entertain a lot of very conservative relatives and other people, whom he mostly alienates. Even his favorite aunt calls him a "fathead." In these four stories, Bertie shows unexpected independence. Annoyed by his friends' preference for Jeeves' ideas, Bertie decides that he will cook up the solutions instead. This leads to no end of additional complications beyond the normal Jeeves stories. To me, the height of all of the short stories I have read that contain Bertie and Jeeves comes in the fourth story of this group, Bertie Changes His Mind. Jeeves is the narrator for a change, and we get his perceptions of Bertie in undiulated fashion. If you like the Jeeves stories, you've missed an enormous treat until you read or hear this one! Bertie's other redeeming quality is that he sincerely appreciates Jeeves in the end. To which Jeeves always replies, "Thank you, Sir." Jeeves has to put up with a lot in these stories before he gets to say his closing line, and you'll appreciate his stiff upper lip. This reading beautifully captures the flightiness of Bertie and the subtle maneuvering and nuances in Jeeves. You'll feel like you are in the room as unexpected events intervene, and you can't think of what to do any more than Bertie can. Thank God for Jeeves! The reading also makes wonderful use of the dated language and customs to give the listener a sense of a distant time. These quaint anachronisms become quite charming in this context. After you finish enjoying these droll tales of human fallibility, I suggest you think about all of the places where seeking advice before going ahead can help you achieve more. You may not be able to find Jeeves, but you may be able to eliminate some of your own mistakes this way. Now, be a good chum and follow this advice!
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