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Title: Aunt's Aren't Gentlemen
Series:
Jeeves Omnibus #5.2
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating:
3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages:
178
Words: 37K
From Wikipedia
Concerned
by pink spots on his chest, Bertie goes to see E. Jimpson Murgatroyd,
the Harley Street doctor recommended by his friend Tipton Plimsoll
(who himself saw Murgatroyd for spots in Full Moon). On the way,
Bertie sees Vanessa Cook, a headstrong girl he once proposed to but
no longer wants to marry, leading a protest march. She is with her
fiancé Orlo J. Porter, an acquaintance of Bertie's. Orlo and Vanessa
are unable to marry since Vanessa's father, the trustee of Orlo's
inheritance, refuses to give Orlo his inheritance because Orlo is a
communist.
Bertie
finds Major Plank (who was told that Bertie is a thief called Alpine
Joe in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves) in the doctor's waiting room, though
Plank does not recognize Bertie. Murgatroyd tells Bertie that the
spots will go away, but recommends that Bertie get fresh air and
exercise in the country. Bertie's Aunt Dahlia is going to Eggesford
Hall, the home of her friend Colonel James Briscoe in the town of
Maiden Eggesford in Somerset, near the seaside resort of
Bridmouth-on-Sea, and gets a cottage called Wee Nooke for Bertie
there. Jeeves is disappointed that they must cancel their upcoming
trip to New York, but has the consolation that he will see his aunt
in Maiden Eggesford.
At
Maiden Eggesford, Bertie walks to Eggesford Hall, but goes to
Eggesford Court, the home of Vanessa's father Mr. Cook, by mistake.
Seeing a black cat with white fur on its chest and nose, Bertie pets
it and moves to hold it. Cook sees this and thinks Bertie is stealing
the cat. After he threatens Bertie with a hunting crop, Plank, who is
Cook's guest, advises Bertie to leave, which he hastily does. Jeeves
informs Bertie that Cook's horse Potato Chip and Briscoe's horse
Simla will soon compete in a race at Bridmouth-on-Sea, and to perform
well, Potato Chip must be near this stray cat that it recently
befriended.
Vanessa
urges Orlo to demand his inheritance from Cook. When Orlo refuses,
she ends the engagement and decides she will marry Bertie. Bertie
doesn't want to marry her, but is too polite to turn her down.
Aunt
Dahlia has bet on Simla's victory in the race, and arranged for
poacher Herbert "Billy" Graham (a joking reference to
evangelist Billy Graham) to kidnap the cat to sabotage Potato Chip.
Graham brings the cat to Bertie's cottage, but Bertie pays Graham to
return the cat to avoid trouble.
After
suggesting that Orlo approach Cook about his inheritance after Cook
is mellowed by a good dinner, Jeeves goes to visit his aunt, Mrs.
Pigott. Plank remembers that Bertie is Alpine Joe, and he and Cook
suspect Bertie of stealing the cat. Graham fails to return the cat,
so Bertie tries to return it himself. Carrying the cat up to
Eggesford Court, Bertie trips and loses it. The cat ultimately goes
back to Bertie's cottage.
Orlo
is unable to convince Cook to give him his inheritance, yet Vanessa
is happy that Orlo confronted her father anyway, and they elope. At
his cottage, Bertie is accosted by Cook and Plank, who believe that
Vanessa wants to marry Bertie. Bertie hands over a letter from Orlo
proving that Orlo and Vanessa eloped. Cook is apologetic to Bertie,
until the cat wanders in.
Thinking
Bertie stole the cat, Cook and Plank tie him up. Cook brings the cat
back to Potato Chip while Plank leaves to fetch the police. Jeeves
appears and unties Bertie. Plank returns and initially thinks Jeeves
is a policeman called Inspector Witherspoon (from Stiff Upper Lip,
Jeeves), but Jeeves denies this. Pretending to be Bertie's solicitor,
Jeeves convinces Plank that he is mistaken about Bertie, since
Bertie, having ample wealth, has no reason to be a thief like Alpine
Joe.
Jeeves
realized that the stray cat actually belongs to his aunt. Bertie and
Jeeves make a deal with Cook to lend him the cat until the race is
over and not press charges for tying Bertie up, in exchange for Cook
paying Mrs. Pigott a fee and giving Orlo his inheritance.
Bertie
and Jeeves go to New York, which Bertie finds much calmer and quieter
than Maiden Eggesford. In a letter, Aunt Dahlia's husband Tom Travers
writes that the race was awarded to Briscoe's Simla after Cook's cat
ran across the racecourse and startled Simla. Bertie is pleased for
his aunt. However, he attributes the tranquility of his and Jeeves's
stay in New York to their distance from aunts, particularly Aunt
Dahlia, who, though genial, has a lax moral code. The trouble with
aunts, Bertie tells Jeeves, is that they are not gentlemen.
So this was the last published novel by Wodehouse about Jeeves and
Wooster. There are another book's worth of short stories, etc, but
I'm closing in on the end of the adventures!
While this was just as amusing as some of the other books, I found
myself not as amused. I don't know if it was because I'm getting
burnt out on Wodehouse's particular brand of humor or if it was life
or work or what. I still enjoyed this and I recommend Wodehouse still
but you know, at some point things just need to stop or be taken a
break from.
Bertie is spineless and that pretty much sums up why everything
happens to him. If he'd just make ONE decision his whole life would
change. But he can't do that and so he just slides from one situation
into another. Makes you feel kind of sorry that such people actually
do exist. Without a guardian like Jeeves, someone like Bertie slides
right under a bus and dies.
Crap, am I in a melancholic mood or what!?!? Sorry, future me. I hope
you are a brighter ray of rainbow unicorn sunshine than me at this
moment.
★★★☆½
