Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was an English humourist. He was one of the most beloved and most popular writers of the twentieth century. He was born in Guildford in 1881, educated at Dulwich College, married in 1914, and later moved to America and gained citizenship there in 1955.

Bertie Wooster- The Idle Rich

Bertram Wilberforce Wooster is a young, wealthy, incompetent bumbling buffoon of a bachelor who lives in his London flat with his valet, Jeeves. Bertie always seems to be on the run from his formidable Aunt Agatha, or when that isn’t the case, caught in a spot of bother usually due to the mishaps of his friends such as Bingo, Tuppy or Sippy, or his enemies, Sir Roderick Glossop and his daughter, Honoria. And then it’s up to Jeeves to think up a plan to save the day, usually involving a hilarious and cleverly thought out scheme with unexpected twists.

The stories were written as first person memoirs by Bertie himself; some of the Jeeves and Wooster novels were episodic, such as Carry On, Jeeves, Very Good, Jeeves, and The Inimitable Jeeves, which were compilations of short stories that were not nessecerely connected, but would occasionally refer back to each other. Other novels like Right Ho, Jeeves, and Much Obliged, Jeeves were complete novels rather than several separate stories.

Bertie and Jeeves were first introduced in Extriciting Young Gussie, a short story which first appeared in The Man With Two Left Feet-a compilation of thirteen stories published in 1917. Though in this story, Bertie's surname in Mannering-Phipps.

Bertie is also a member of the Drones Club. A drone is a male bee that doesn't do any work, which is suitable to describe the Drones Club's wealthy, lay-about members.

Reginald Jeeves- The Gentleman's Gentleman

If he has been eating plenty of fish, as no doubt he would at a seashore resort, his brain will be at the top of its form, and when Jeeves's brain is at the top of its form, all you have to do is press a button and stand of out the way while he takes charge.

Jeeves’s noggin seems to contain all the knowledge in the world, and then some, and is the ultimate problem solver. Bertie would never get by without Jeeves rescuing him from trouble, saving him from a potentially disastrous marriage, giving him (sometimes unwelcome) fashion advice, or possibly most important, making him tea in the morning.

Bertie first meets Jeeves (after sacking his former valet for pinching socks) when Bertie has a terrible hangover, and Jeeves appears with his personally devised miracle working hangover cure. Raw egg, Worcester sauce, and pepper, which he presents to Bertie, who then immediately accepts his service.

Plot Summary

The stories of Jeeves and Wooster are formulaic in such a way that they typically start and end in similar situations, with relatively similar plot lines involving elements such as misunderstandings, quirky situations, and Bertie’s equally half-witted friends, or his aunts Agatha or Dahlia.
To give an example of the humour and style of the stories, here is plot summary of a story which appeared in The Inimitable Jeeves.

One day, Bertie runs into his friend Bingo Little and Bingo tells that he has taken a job at Ditteredge where he is tutoring young Oswald Glossop. Bingo tells Bertie that he has fallen in love with Oslwald’s adult sister, Honoria.

Bertie had previously met Honoria, and he describes her as ‘nothing more nor less than a pot of poison’.

Bertie is surprised at this, but dismisses it, and goes on to lunch with his Aunt Agatha.
Over lunch, Aunt Agatha informs Bertie that she has found just the wife for him and that her name is Honoria Glossop, and he is invited to Ditteredge tomorrow to meet her!

Bertie is extremely distressed at this, but there is no way for him to worm out of it, and the next day he arrives at Ditteredge and he meets Bingo, who is accompanying Oswald while he is fishing off a bridge.

‘This is Oswald,’ said Bingo.

‘What,’ I replied cordially, ‘could be sweeter? How are you?’

‘Oh, all right.’ said the kid,

‘Nice place, this is.’

‘Oh, all right’ said the kid,

‘Having a good time fishing?’

‘Oh, all right.’

So then, Bertie hatches a plan for Bingo to win Honoria’s heart. Bertie will push Oswald off the bridge while Bingo waits in the bushes, and when Oswald falls in, Bingo will leap out and off the bridge after him, pulling him from the water, and impressing Honoria.

So when Honoria arrives, she and Bertie are conversing, and she mentions that she wishes Oswald wouldn’t sit on the bridge like that, for he could fall in. So Bertie says that he will go tell him.
Bertie goes to Oswald, making small talk and puts his hand on Oswald’s shoulder, and then ‘accidentally’ pushes him over.

But Bingo never shows up, and Bertie has no choice but to jump in himself to save Oswald. And when he does so, Honoria catches him in the act, and she is amused at Bertie’s attempt to impress her!

All while Bingo was distracted by Honoria’s friend, Daphane Braythwayte! Bingo later explains to Bertie that Honoria was nothing but mere passing whim, and that he is now solidly in love with Miss Braythwayte! And so Bertie ends up engaged to Honoria Glossop.

The next part of the story includes Bertie’s younger cousins Claude and Eustace, along with their friend, Lord Rainsby. They tell Bertie that they and their Lord Rainsby are joining a club at Oxford called The Seekers, and they are in London on related business and they ask Bertie to loan them a fiver, and Bertie complies quickly and hurries back to his flat where he is entertaining Sir Roderick Glossop, Honoria’s father, for lunch. Sir Roderick is a ‘loony doctor’ and is intending to scrutinize Bertie for any ‘cerebral excitement’.

During the meal, Sir Roderick is telling Bertie how earlier, someone driving past in a car snatched his hat from his head, and then tells Bertie that he just heard a cat meowing nearby.
Bertie dismisses it at first, saying it was probably a taxi on the street, but when it happens again, he then consults Jeeves on the matter.

Jeeves informs Bertie that there are three cats in Bertie’s bedroom, along with a salmon under the bed.
Sir Roderick becomes angry at this, and begins to leave, and as he reaches for his coat, and also finds his stolen hat!

Thinking Bertie is the theif and a loony, Sir Roderick storms off explaining that he prefers to spend his time in less eccentric society.

Later, Claude and Eustace’s friend, Lord Rainsby, comes by to retrieve the fish, cats, and the hat that they had left there earlier. Lord Rainsby explains that to be elected to The Seekers they must each pinch an item or souvenir of some sort. The cats were his, and the fish was Eustace’s and the hat was Claude’s.
Bertie explains that the cats ate the fish, and then escaped, and the man that they took the hat from was the one who was just at lunch.

No wedding bells for Bertie, so he and Jeeves decide to book tickets for New York to escape from Aunt Agatha’s wrath.

Other Characters

Bingo Little

Gussie Fink-Nottle

Madeline Basset

She was a pretty enough girl in a droopy, blonde, saucer-eyed way, but not the sort of breath-taker that takes the breath.

Madeline Basset is the daughter of Sir Watkyn Basset of Totleigh Towers. She is described as being 'soppy'. And she is of the opinion that ‘stars are God’s daisy chain.’

When Gussie Fink-Nottle breaks off their engagment, Bertie, to his utter dismay, finds himself engaged to Madeline when she is under the false impression that Bertie is in love with her. But Jeeves comes to the rescue, and Madeline gets engaged to Roderick Spode, the 8th Earl of Sidcup.

The Travers'

Aunt Agatha

My Aunt Agatha, the one who chews broken bottles and kill rats with her teeth.

Agatha Gregson, later Lady Worplesdon, is Bertie’s severe, formidable aunt who dislikes Jeeves and frequently attempts to engage Bertie in marriage. She is married to Spenser Gregson, in most stories, but he later dies, and she marries Percy Craye, who is the Earl of Worplesdon. Bertie was engaged to Craye’s daughter, Lady Florence.
Aunt Agatha has one son, Thomas Gregson, or Thos. And a butler, Purvis.

Claude and Eustace

Television Adaptations

In the 1960s, there was a BBC television series titled The World of Wooster which starred Ian Carmichael as Bertie, and Dennis Price as Jeeves. Later, in the 1990s, there was an ITV television series titled Jeeves And Wooster. Bertie Wooster was portrayed by Hugh Laurie, and Stephen Fry played Jeeves.

Also, from 1972 to 1981, BBC Radio 4 aired What ho, Jeeves! in which Bertie and Jeeves were voiced by Richard Briers and Michael Hordern.

The Books

• The Inimitable Jeeves-1923
• Carry On, Jeeves- 1925
• Very good, Jeeves- 1930
• Thank you, Jeeves- 1934
• Right Ho, Jeeves-1934
• The Code of the Woosters- 1938
• The Mating Season- 1949
• Ring For Jeeves- 1953 US title: The Return of Jeeves
• Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit- 1954 US title: Bertie Wooster Sees it Through
• Jeeves in the Offing-1960 US title: How Right You Are, Jeeves
• Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves-1962
• Much Obliged, Jeeves-1971 US title: Jeeves and the Tie That Binds
• Joy in the Morning-1971 US title: Jeeves in the Morning
• Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen-1974 US title: The Catnappers

PG Wodehouse died February fourteenth, 1975. He was knighted earlier that same year. He said he had no ambitions left, now that he was knighted and had a waxwork of him in Madam Tussauds.

I believe there are two ways of of writing novels. One is mine, making a sort of musical comedy without music and ignoring real life all together; the other is going deep down into life and not caring a damn...