My Man Jeeves (1919)

Charming, although I increasingly feel like every author who's described as "hilarious" is really more of a light chuckle. ( )

7 short stories, only 4 of which feature Wooster & Jeeves, and all those happen in the US. Also, the plots have their twists as usual, but the wordplay seems much weaker than one expects from the author. In short, Wodehouse not in his best form. ( )

Newcomers to Jeeves should avoid this volume. You are unlikely to find this in stores, anyhow. Published in 1919, My Man Jeeves collects a number of stories featuring Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, however they are embryonic, and several of the stories feature neither of them. All would be reworked and included in future short story collections. These are the first stories, written before and during WWI, when the young Wodehouse - having already published several novels and many short stories - was slowly figuring out these characters and their world. (Ironically, these are the only Jeeves stories written during an era when their content is remotely contemporary!)

The best option is to buy the modern omnibus The World of Jeeves which contains all of the stories in their "definitive" format.

Contains:
Leave it to Jeeves [later reworked as "The Artistic Career of Corky"]
Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest
Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg
The Aunt and the Sluggard
and four stories featuring the character of Reggie Pepper, which would be revised into Jeeves stories in the future. ( )

A funny group of stories with masterful writing. ( )

The adventures of an idle rich idiot and his magical butler. The standard formula for most stories is that a wealthy layabout friend comes to Wooster and explains why some rich uncle or aunt is about to cut him out of an inheritance. Wooster summons Jeeves, who thinks of an elaborate lie that will get the friend back into the good graces of the moneyback relative. The lie always goes horribly wrong. In the end, they wind up black mailing the old relative to keep things alright for the rich brat friend.

Seriously, this book made me completely understand the appeal of communism. At the very least, I now support inheritance taxes at a rate of 110%, and also public floggings of leaches like Wooster.

The only reason I gave the stories 2 stars instead of 1 is that, alas, Wodehouse is actually a pretty decent writer. While I loathed the characters, and longed for a story where someone said, "Hey, why don't we try telling the truth?", I must admit he has a way with words and an excellent sense of comic timing. If I didn't exit the stories hating humanity, I probably would have enjoyed them. ( )