How Right You Are, Jeeves

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Tale of Comic Mix-Ups
Review: Bertie is dreading the annual vacation of his butler Jeeves. But when Aunt Dahlia offers to let him stay with her, he thinks his problems are solved. Until he reads that day's paper. Seems he got engaged and no one bothered to tell him. Now he needs to straighten out this romantic entanglement. Meanwhile, one of the other guests at his aunt's might be a thief. A friend has just accidentally libeled someone. And her butler isn't who he claims to be. Jeeves might just have to cut his vacation short and help out his employer.

I remember reading a Jeeves short story in college and enjoying it. But I've never read any more of the books. Obviously, this was a mistake since I enjoyed this book so much. The characters are shallow, but they're supposed to be and that's where the entertainment comes in. This is showcased by the ending. While it felt a little short, it was also brilliant in its simplicity.

This book on tape is a great way to "read" the book. Ian Carmichael gives a fine performance, bringing the characters to life. Occasionally the dialogue is a little hard to follow since it was written to be read, but if you give it a few seconds, you can figure out what happened with no loss of the story.

If this is an example of the fun that the Jeeves stories are, I can't wait to read more of them. Don't miss out on this light-hearted, entertaining series.

Rating:
Summary: Bertie Soldiers on During Jeeves's Vacation
Review: Bertie Wooster is one of P.G. Wodehouse's greatest comic characters. He is normally balanced by the quick wit, aplomb and shimmering progress of Jeeves, his butler. But even butlers need a vacation. So Bertie bids good-bye to Jeeves for the year . . . and promptly faces all sorts of unexpected problems.

The troubles begin a most distraught telephone call to Bertie from Lady Wickham. She sobs between words as she demands to know if "this awful news is true." The awful news is in this morning's Times. When Bertie opens the Times, he finds an announcement of his engagement to Lady Wickham's daughter, Bobbie, a woman to whom he has tried to become engaged to in the past. Darned if Bertie can figure out what it's all about. Bobbie, although beautiful, is one of those women who want to improve their men, and Bertie isn't up for such improvements. The path to solving the challenge leads him to his aunt Dahlia's country home, Brinkley Court, to help her entertain Homer Cream, an American tycoon who is doing a deal with her husband, Tom, where Bobbie is also staying. Bertie's old headmaster is also in residence, which leaves Bertie quaking. But the lure of Anatole's delightful cooking draws Bertie to Brinkley.

Once there, events become ever wackier. Sir Roderick Glossop, who thinks Bertie is dotty, is posing as the butler to evaluate a fiancé.

As usual, romance, plots to gain funds, weird collections and mistaken identities quickly twist the story into unexpected complications and directions.

The pages are filled with original similes and metaphors that will delight any student of the English language. This story has great fun with the fish theme. Bertie's great friend Reginald Herring has the nickname of "Kipper." At one point, Bertie says coldly that "I have every right to goggle like a dead halibut . . . ." Elsewhere, Bobbie's motives are described as, "She wanted you to see the big fish . . . you must have been surprised to see Kipper . . . ." Cream and cream pitchers are also done well in this story.

But the best schemes of Bertie and Kipper come a cropper, and Jeeves has to be called back to make a miraculous recovery for the causes of love and the old feudal spirit.

Right ho!


Rating:
Summary: Wodehouse Comes Through Again
Review: How Right You Are, Jeeves, while not rivaling The Mating Season and Jeeves in the Morning for the distinction of being the best Bertie and Jeeves novel, is nonetheless extraordinarily funny and well-written. Wodehouse wrote this book in his very late seventies (he was seventy-nine by the time it was published), and he had already written ten Bertie and Jeeves novels. Yet there is new material here: Sir Roderick Glossop reveals hitherto-hidden aspects of his character and Bertie's former schoolmaster Aubrey Upjohn appears in person for the first time.

Wodehouse's books, however, are not appropriate subjects for this sort of detailed criticism. Suffice it to say that I roar with laughter every time I re-read How Right You Are, Jeeves. It would be impossible to improve on the plot, the characters or the language. Read and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: A notch below other Audio Partner Jeeves releases
Review: Perhaps I have audited too many Jeeves novels lately or more possibly even Wodehouse began to run out of steam as those novel-length tales went on and on, but I found the Audio Partners tapes of "How Right You Are, Jeeves" not quite up to the standard set by the previous releases. Not only are several of the plot twists the same--this is a given in the Jeeves saga, since the events seem to happen chronologically and there are constant references to past events in other tales--but even Bertie has a case of deja-vu during some of the repetitions. For example, the very female who had induced Bertie to burst a few hot water bottles in an earlier story is back again goading him on to other break-ins to find the very cow creamer that formed the nucleus of an earlier story. And like that. (By the way, the original title of this 1960 novel is "Jeeves in the Offing.")

Perhaps, also, my letdown was partially caused by the surprisingly straightforward reading of none other than Ian Carmichael, who actually played Bertie many decades ago on the telly. Unlike other readers of the Jeeves novels for Audio Partners, Carmichael does not assume the various voices; and a good deal of the fun is thereby diminished.

Now, please, understand that there is still a good deal of fun in this reading. I merely have to point out that the material and the reading suffer by comparison mostly and not altogether from any intrinsic defects. So let us give it 4 out of 5 stars, and still recommend it with only some reservations. There are 4 cassettes with a running time of 4 hours, 49 minutes.

Rating:
Summary: A notch below other Audio Partner Jeeves releases
Review: Perhaps I have audited too many Jeeves novels lately or more possibly even Wodehouse began to run out of steam as those novel-length tales went on and on, but I found the Audio Partners tapes of "How Right You Are, Jeeves" not quite up to the standard set by the previous releases. Not only are several of the plot twists the same--this is a given in the Jeeves saga, since the events seem to happen chronologically and there are constant references to past events in other tales--but even Bertie has a case of deja-vu during some of the repetitions. For example, the very female who had induced Bertie to burst a few hot water bottles in an earlier story is back again goading him on to other break-ins to find the very cow creamer that formed the nucleus of an earlier story. And like that. (By the way, the original title of this 1960 novel is "Jeeves in the Offing.")

Perhaps, also, my letdown was partially caused by the surprisingly straightforward reading of none other than Ian Carmichael, who actually played Bertie many decades ago on the telly. Unlike other readers of the Jeeves novels for Audio Partners, Carmichael does not assume the various voices; and a good deal of the fun is thereby diminished.

Now, please, understand that there is still a good deal of fun in this reading. I merely have to point out that the material and the reading suffer by comparison mostly and not altogether from any intrinsic defects. So let us give it 4 out of 5 stars, and still recommend it with only some reservations. There are 4 cassettes with a running time of 4 hours, 49 minutes.

Rating:
Summary: Jeeves & Bertie #10
Review: Previous: Bertie Wooster Sees it Through (Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit)

Despite a few disappointments, this book is a wonderful read and a worthy successor to the top-notch Bertie Wooster Sees It Through. The tried and true formula is here-romantic entanglements gone awry, stolen objects, a friend in need-as is the wonderful, clever writing. While there are not as many laugh-out-loud moments as in the previous book, there are plenty (we mustn't be greedy, after all). How Right You Are, Jeeves finds us once again at Brinkley Court, that haven of rest-or, in this case, like something out of Edgar Allen Poe. Add to the usual mix a certain Bobbie Wickham, a former dreaded headmaster with a grudge, a kleptomaniac playboy who reads poetry and rescues drowning dachshunds, and the loony-doctor Sir Roderick Glossop incognito as a butler named Swordfish, and you have a tale of true genius.

The primary disappointment is the lack of Jeeves, who is only present for a very small fraction of the book, depriving us of the delightful interaction between the two principals that we have come to treasure so much. However, Bobbie Wickham's exasperating sense of humor and Bertie's new friendship with Sir Roderick make this one a pure gem. And most significantly, the writing is Wodehouse at his best-and that, after all, is what we love about him.

Next: Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves

Rating:
Summary: A classic Wodehouse
Review: This is a complete Jeeves and Bertie novel. I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but, then again, who can pick a favorite?!?! If you know and love Wodehouse, buy this book. If you're looking for an entertaining read and classic British humor, buy this book. Cheerio.