The Inimitable Jeevesby P.G. Wodehouse
Blurb:
Bertie and Jeeves do their best to help, and occasionally hinder, love-struck Bingo Little as he falls head over heels and back again. Honoria Glossop, Mabel the waitress, and gold-toothed revolutionary Charlotte Corday Rowbotham are just a few of the women to cast their spells over Bingo. Meanwhile Bertie must keep the quick-tempered, aspiring actor Bassington-Bassington from the stage at Aunt Agatha's fiery behest, deal with the energetic Claude and Eustace, and win on the girls' Egg and Spoon Race and money lost to the Great Sermon Handicap! Luckily, of course, there is Jeeves: intelligent, loyal, and capable of extricating Bertie from the tightest of tight spots.
My Reaction:
This is a shared read and a re-read. Donald and I have read this together once before-- though to be honest, most of the Jeeves and Wooster stories blur together in my memory, and I have trouble telling one from another. Fortunately, that doesn't matter. Neither repetitive plots and "motifs" nor re-readings can dull the luster of Wodehousian wit.
Rather than a true novel, this is a set of short stories; there's no long-arc plot to speak of, but each "episode" is enjoyable and cozily, comfortably easy to get into. There are even recurring characters (beyond Jeeves and Wooster themselves, who are of course in every story), which helps it feel like an almost-novel.
While this is probably not the very best Jeeves book (or the best introduction to the series of novels and short stories), it's undeniably a fun, happy read.
