Carry On, Jeeves - PG Wodehouse

Published by Arrow Books: London, 2018 (2008).
First published 1925.

After the last few Alphabet Soup books it seemed time to read something a little bit lighter. I've have Wodehouse recommended to me before, so decided this was the perfect opportunity to find out a bit more about him. Wodehouse wrote in the genre of comedy, and if the quotations from various famous comedians within the cover are anything to go by, he is one of the better comedy writers to have written comedy!

Carry On, Jeeves is a collection of 'Jeeves' stories released by Wodehouse. I thought it was the first collection to be released (as the first story tells of Jeeves being hired), but apparently it is not. Each chapter is its own self-contained story, telling of some problem arising for Wooster (Jeeves' employer) which Jeeves invariably helps solve. Jeeves is Wooster's personal man-servant, who is not above showing his disapproval of Wooster's poor dress sense, nor even of undermining his employer when he feels he knows better, yet he always does it in a way that shows he has Wooster's best interests at heart. In a few stories Jeeves 'goes too far' and Wooster fires him, yet always by the end of the story Wooster, who narrates all but one of the stories, has seen the error of his ways and rehired his servant.

The stories are well written and quite funny. Even in describing a scene, Wodehouse can turn a phrase to make it both descriptive and humorous, eg: "It was one of those still evenings you get in the summer, when you can hear a snail clear its throat a mile away." (page 28) The only thing that frustrated me slightly was the repetitiveness of the set-up of some stories - however, this is probably more due to the fact that they are a collection of stories grouped together rather than having been written as a single unit.

A good introduction to a fun author I may read again.

Completed 17 April 2022.



(Alphabet Soup Books)

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