Jeeves and the Mating Season

Rating:
Summary: LAUGHTER ALL THE WAY
Review: British humorist P. G. Wodehouse's most famous character invention, Jeeves, the quintessential gentleman's gentleman, has become an iconic figure. He has even captured the internet with the popular "Ask Jeeves" site.

Jeeves's gentleman, Bertie Wooster, the often wrong but always cheery has almost reached the same exalted state. They are both brought to vibrant, laughable life by the voice of Jonathan Cecil in "Jeeves and the Mating Season."

When Gussie Fink-Nottle is temporarily incarcerated, Bertie sees fit to impersonate Gussie at Deverill Hall in order to keep the engagement between Gussie and Madeline on course. No one knows Gussie at Deverill Hall, so this imitation seems possible.

No so. Not when a number of really wacky aunts and a capricious dog are involved. Leave it to Bertie to turn what seems like a plausible plot into a madcap mix-up.

It's laughter all the way and Jeeves, of course, saves the day.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: LAUGHTER ALL THE WAY
Review: British humorist P. G. Wodehouse's most famous character invention, Jeeves, the quintessential gentleman's gentleman, has become an iconic figure. He has even captured the internet with the popular "Ask Jeeves" site.

Jeeves's gentleman, Bertie Wooster, the often wrong but always cheery has almost reached the same exalted state. They are both brought to vibrant, laughable life by the voice of Jonathan Cecil in "Jeeves and the Mating Season."

When Gussie Fink-Nottle is temporarily incarcerated, Bertie sees fit to impersonate Gussie at Deverill Hall in order to keep the engagement between Gussie and Madeline on course. No one knows Gussie at Deverill Hall, so this imitation seems possible.

No so. Not when a number of really wacky aunts and a capricious dog are involved. Leave it to Bertie to turn what seems like a plausible plot into a madcap mix-up.

It's laughter all the way and Jeeves, of course, saves the day.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: LAUGHTER ALL THE WAY
Review: British humorist P. G. Wodehouse's most famous character invention, Jeeves, the quintessential gentleman's gentleman, has become an iconic figure. He has even captured the internet with the popular "Ask Jeeves" site.

Jeeves's gentleman, Bertie Wooster, the often wrong but always cheery has almost reached the same exalted state. They are both brought to vibrant, laughable life by the voice of Jonathan Cecil in "Jeeves and the Mating Season."

When Gussie Fink-Nottle is temporarily incarcerated, Bertie sees fit to impersonate Gussie at Deverill Hall in order to keep the engagement between Gussie and Madeline on course. No one knows Gussie at Deverill Hall, so this imitation seems possible.

No so. Not when a number of really wacky aunts and a capricious dog are involved. Leave it to Bertie to turn what seems like a plausible plot into a madcap mix-up.

It's laughter all the way and Jeeves, of course, saves the day.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: Do yourself a big favor and disregard the ill tempered blighter that gave this CD a poor review because of Cecil's reading...he preferred Davidson. Amazing! Yawn.....
Cecil is brilliant and far better in his interpretations than most others. Hear for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: Do yourself a big favor and disregard the ill tempered blighter that gave this CD a poor review because of Cecil's reading...he preferred Davidson. Amazing! Yawn.....
Cecil is brilliant and far better in his interpretations than most others. Hear for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Cecil still makes the best Jeeves reader
Review: In a world sorely in need of a few good innocent laughs if not guffaws, there are always the Jeeves novels of P.G. Wodehouse. For those who spend too much time driving to read actual books, many of them are now on audio tape under the Audio Partners label and the latest of them is "Jeeves and the Mating Season" (61318), complete and unabridged. (Is that last phrase a tautology?)

I have reviewed so many of these Jeeves books that I can only say they take place in a mythical time between the world wars when featherbrains like Bertie Wooster cannot survive without clever man servants like his Jeeves. Always intending the best and always creating the worst until Jeeves pulls him out of it, Bertie tries very hard to live up to the Code of the Woosters, a long list of chivalric ideals, one of which is that if a woman is convinced you want to marry her, marry her you must. So to avoid walking down the aisle with the most bubbleheaded female of them all, Bertie must make sure her present affianced does not desert to the camp of a glamorous actress. And so on.

To reveal more details can only diminish your enjoyment of this romp, but I can give the basic situation. Gussie Fink Nottle (lover of newts) is engaged to Madeline Bassett but falls into the clutches of Corky Pirbright who is engaged to Esmond Haddock (a man dominated by aunts) and whose dog has bitten Constable Dobbs who is in love with the maid and daughter of Jeeves' Uncle Charley who.... Well, you must by now know the Swiss clockwork plots of Wodehouse.

Suffice it to say that Bertie has to pose as Gussie while a chap named Catsmeat poses as.... Again, I leave it to you to sort out.And always remember, it is not only the funny situations in the Jeeves novels but Bertie's (that is Wodehouse's) funny way in which they are told. I got a good loud laugh about once a page as read by the wonderful character actor Jonathan Cecil, the best of the readers in this series.

There are six cassettes with a running time of just short of 7 hours. Very funny and highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Great book--try the Frederick Davidson version instead
Review: Jonathan Cecil isn't the best reader of this material. His Bertie is all right, but his Jeeves is all wrong. Cecil gives Jeeves an almost flamboyantly snooty accent that overplays the comedy and spoils the gentle irony of Jeeves' remarks. Also, the other male characters (besides Jeeves) sound too much like Bertie. Cecil also gives every line the same emphasis, as if he were putting an exclamation point at the end of every sentence, which becomes monotonous.

My advice: avoid Cecil and go straight to the version read by Frederick Davidson. Davidson reads this delicate material with just the right feeling. He doesn't push the jokes too hard, and lets Wodehouse's beautifully bizarre phrases do their own work. His Bertie is somehow more "real" than that of Cecil, who sometimes seems to be reading his lines one word at a time from a distant cue card. Davidson's Jeeves is far superior as well--more reserved, and at the same time much funnier. And Davidson gives each of the characters a unique, interesting, but non-irritating voice--especially the aunts. His Aunt Dahlia (who appears in some of the other books, but not this one) is astonishingly good.

I'll put it this way: if your favorite TV comedies have a laugh track, you'll probably prefer Cecil's reading. For a defter touch, I recommend Frederick Davidson.

Rating:
Summary: Great book--try the Frederick Davidson version instead
Review: Jonathan Cecil isn't the best reader of this material. His Bertie is all right, but his Jeeves is all wrong. Cecil gives Jeeves an almost flamboyantly snooty accent that overplays the comedy and spoils the gentle irony of Jeeves' remarks. Also, the other male characters (besides Jeeves) sound too much like Bertie. Cecil also gives every line the same emphasis, as if he were putting an exclamation point at the end of every sentence, which becomes monotonous.

My advice: avoid Cecil and go straight to the version read by Frederick Davidson. Davidson reads this delicate material with just the right feeling. He doesn't push the jokes too hard, and lets Wodehouse's beautifully bizarre phrases do their own work. His Bertie is somehow more "real" than that of Cecil, who sometimes seems to be reading his lines one word at a time from a distant cue card. Davidson's Jeeves is far superior as well--more reserved, and at the same time much funnier. And Davidson gives each of the characters a unique, interesting, but non-irritating voice--especially the aunts. His Aunt Dahlia (who appears in some of the other books, but not this one) is astonishingly good.

I'll put it this way: if your favorite TV comedies have a laugh track, you'll probably prefer Cecil's reading. For a defter touch, I recommend Frederick Davidson.