Jeeves 03: Very Good, Jeeves (Penguin)

by P.G. Wodehouse

Paperback, 1975

Status

Available

Call number

823.912

Publication

Penguin (Non-Classics) (1975), Paperback, 252 pages

Description

Jonathan Cecil, described as having "one of the best-loved voices in audiobooks" by the P. G. Wodehouse Society, narrates this collection of brilliantly entertaining stories featuring Jeeves and Wooster.

User reviews

LibraryThing member ctpress

Ah, nothing like a little dose of Jeeves and Wooster. It surely can brighten my day.

Bertie are always ending up in hopeless situations when he tries to help his friends out of scrapes - or do favors for aunt Agatha. In these short stories we meet Old Sippy, Tuppy Glossup and Bingo Little, and of

course aunt Agatha.

My favorites? Difficult to pick. But I would go with “Jeeves and the Old School Chum” - where Bertie tries to help Bingo Little who’s wife has suddenly banned alcohol, cigars and meat from the household due to some bad influence from an old school friend. What a hilarious twist in the end - and “Episode of the Dog McIntosh” - horror of horrors when Bertie has to take care of aunt Agatha’s dog.

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LibraryThing member thorold

This 1930 collection contains some of the very best Jeeves short stories. What more can you say? Wodehouse pretty well at the top of his form. Some would argue that Bertie's finely judged rambling works best when it has the freedom to roam over the wider expanses of a novel, but it's probably just

a matter of taste. A collection that includes pocket masterpieces like "Jeeves and the song of songs", "The spot of art" and "The ordeal of young Tuppy" is definitely worth deux-et-six of anyone's money. I'd even be prepared to splash out the full cinq roberts.

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LibraryThing member beserene

I love the Jeeves stories. Yes, I know that it's really the same story told over and over again in the same book and in different books and the only things that change -- occasionally -- are the character names, but still... it's funny every damn time.

And that is why, when I really need something

sharp to make me chortle, I turn to Wodehouse's Jeeves. Those who do not appreciate British humor or who don't have any understanding of the old class system will probably lose patience with these books quite quickly, but for the rest of us, there is no one like Jeeves. And, of course, our ridiculous narrator, Bertie Wooster. The antics of the aforementioned individuals -- though "antic" really only describes one of them -- inform a hundred other novels and authors, from Evelyn Waugh to Terry Pratchett to Connie Willis. Anyone who thinks the classics are stuffy should read a good bit of Wodehouse. Recommended.

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LibraryThing member John5918

Another brilliantly funny collection of short stories demonstrating the stupidity of the British aristocracy and the intelligence of the gentleman's gentleman.

LibraryThing member DoskoiPanda

Another outstanding Wodehouse collection in which Jeeves suavely saves his hapless gentleman, Bertie Wooster, from such varied horrors as Aunts (always a menace. Even the good sort.), a mischevious red headed vixen, the duplicitious Tuppy, a Mooning Sippy, starvation for the physical betterment of

Bingo Little, geese and, of course, the vague, but ever-present threats of marriage (Bertie's own person, as well as the Aunt-inspired halting of an inappropriate marriage of his titled Uncle, George.)

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LibraryThing member Jellyn

Well, again, more of a collection than a novel. Though I felt this hung together better than the earlier ones. Plus, no stories I'd read already.I'm starting to tell the Sippies and Biffies and Buffies apart.I do think I'll be taking a break though. It'd be really dumb to blow through all of them,

when I have a whole lifetime to read them.I may switch to watching some of it. But new television started, so perhaps not.Not much of a review, but there you go!

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LibraryThing member clq

Unsurprisingly, this Wodehouse book contains short stories in which Wooster and his friends get helped out with their problems by the Gentleman's man-servant, Jeeves. The style is, of course, the same as the other Wodehouse-books I've read, and that is not a bad thing. Unfortunately I didn't find

this particular collection quite as funny as the two preceding Jeeves-books, and at times everything became a little too predictable. Still a decent read, but far from my favourite Wodehouse.

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LibraryThing member Cubbyfan99

Very fun and entertaining book, will definitely have to read more Jeeves and Wooster adventures. Very easy read, and fun to find out the thought pattern.

LibraryThing member billiecat

This collection of short stories, as Wodehouse tells us in the preface, is third in a trilogy including "The Inimitable Jeeves" and "Carry on, Jeeves." They show Wodehouse's command of the form, and the shorter pieces allow him to whiz through at dizzying speeds, which helps make them even funnier.

As a bonus, Wodehouse's preface is brilliant in itself. Any of the stories in this collection are good, but the best I think are "Jeeves and the Song of Songs" and "The Episode of the Dog McIntosh."

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LibraryThing member Ianigsy

A collection of short stories featuring Bertie Wooster and the ever-reliable Jeeves, this collection shows just how proficient Wodehouse was in a shorter format as well as writing his more sustained comic novels. Full of character and incident, the stories show Bertie getting into a variety of

scrapes and Jeeves coming up with his usual ingenious plans for getting him out of them. Great fun.

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LibraryThing member SueinCyprus

Bertie Wooster is a wealthy upper-class young man from the early part of the 20th century, who isn’t particularly bright, but has a kind heart. He finds it hard to say no, particularly to his rather terrifying Aunt Agatha. His valet Jeeves, by contrast, is a man of high intelligence, always able

to solve problems for Bertie and his friends.

This is a set of eleven short stories featuring the classic pair and several of Bertie's friends and relatives. In the first story, ‘Jeeves and the Impending Doom’, Bertie and Jeeves travel to stay with Aunt Agatha in her country home. Shortly after he arrives he sees, to his astonishment, his friend Bingo Little, only to learn that they mustn’t be seen hobnobbing. The plot qthickens, and - as ever - Jeeves sorts everything out.

The same basic plot underlies the other stories too. With Wodehouse, what matters are the brilliant asides, the poetical allusions, and the unlikely situations in which Bertie finds himself, usually because he’s helping out a friend or acquaintance. Everyone is caricatured, of course; yet it doesn’t matter. The humour is in the understatements, the irony, and the clever dialogue.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this volume, which I hadn't read for probably twenty years. Highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member leslie.98

I love Jonathan Cecil's narration of Wodehouse books! It has been a long time since I read this collection in paperback but I still remembered some of the stories quite well. However, that doesn't really matter with Wodehouse. I had intended to listen to this slowly, one story a day but found that

I couldn't stop listening at just one :)

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LibraryThing member tgraettinger

Classic! Very enjoyable to read - and to compare to the TV series w/ Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.

LibraryThing member MickyFine

In this collection, Bertie continues to get into ridiculous scrapes only to be pulled out of them by his excellent man, Jeeves. Although sometimes the scrapes aren't of Bertie's making but rather occur when one of his friends or aunts require his and (by extension) Jeeves' assistance. Regardless,

the tales are always a delight and highly likely to result in laughter. Highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member leslie.98

I couldn't stop listening at just one :)

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LibraryThing member claidheamdanns

Superb, as always! Nothing hits the spot like a touch of Jeeves & Wooster!

LibraryThing member PhilSyphe

This didn’t live up to the usual standards for me. The characters are great but the plotlines didn’t equal those in previous Jeeves collections, plus certain tales felt a bit samey.

Still, it’s well worth reading, as there some good comedy moments here and there.

LibraryThing member therebelprince

Very Good, Jeeves is the best of the Jeeves and Wooster short story collections - and also the last. Published in 1930 (when Wodehouse was about to turn 50), this collection represents something of a turning point. The narrative voice is more assured, the supporting characters many and varied, and

the irony falls thicker and faster. They remain rich gems; only one or two are required to fill up. But there is something increasingly formulaic, so that it's not hard to see why the master decided it was time to shift his characters into novels from here on out.

(Rather than purchasing this volume, track down the omnibus The World of Jeeves which collects all the Jeeves and Wooster short stories in one.)

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