The Mating Season (Jeeves Omnibus #3.2) ★★★★½

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Mating Season
Series: Jeeves Omnibus #3.2
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 304
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

2 of Bertie Wooster's friends get in a spot of trouble. To prevent the fiance of one of them finding out, Bertie fills in for Friend One and pretends to be him down in the country. Friend Two pretends to be Bertie's serving man. Then shenanigans and Friend One shows up pretending to be Bertie. A Country Squire, a local policeman, several young ladies and a gaggle of Aunts are thrown into the mix.

Jeeves stirs everything, bakes it just right and from a gloopy mess comes a beautiful bunt cake complete with happy endings for just about everyone.

My Thoughts:

This was very much a situation of “The Right Book at the Right Time”. If I ever re-read this, I highly doubt I'll rate it this high again. It was pretty much on par with most of the Jeeves books that have come before but this time I just laughed at almost every chapter.

Where does Wodehouse come up with the names he does? Finknoddle, Catsmeat, etc. They fit perfectly with Bertie's personality and the situations he gets himself into. Jeeves was very much in the background for this book and it allowed Bertie to trample all over the story like a drunken elephant. It was glorious!

And to top it all off, Jeeves koshes a policeman on the back of the head. How great is that?

From the title, you can tell that a lot of young people are falling in and out of love at a moments notice and the story is driven by that force. While I did feel an occasional eye roll coming on, Wodehouse masterfully turned each instance of that into a very humorous situation. So far, I've usually been a fan of the short story collections that make up a Jeeves & Wooster book but this time, the novel length story actually worked for me.

★★★★½

• All My "Jeeves" Reviews

Ring for Jeeves (The Jeeves Omnibus #3.1) ★★★☆½

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Ring for Jeeves
Series: The Jeeves Omnibus #3.1
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 256
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

In this novel, Bertie Wooster has gone to school to learn to take care of himself and so Jeeves is on loan to another useless lump of English Aristocracy. Unfortunately for this lump, he's not rich like Bertie so his life is a bit harder. He wishes to marry the local veterinarian but without the funds, well....

Jeeves suggests he become a bookie and between the 2 of them, they start bringing in the money. Until the Lump (as I shall be calling him from here on out) goes against Jeeves' advice and covers a bet. The horse wins and suddenly the Lump owes an african hunter 3000 pounds, plus some odd change. At the same time the Lump's ancestral house is falling to pieces and the only way to save it is to sell it. Hopefully to a rich american widow. Unfortunately for the Lump, the Great White Hunter chases him and Jeeves and tracks him down to his ancestral home. Where it turns out the rich american widow is someone he knows and has loved.

Hijinks ensue, Jeeves gives advice and the Great White Hunter and the Widow marry, the Widow buys the house and ships it to America and the Lump now has the money to marry the Vetinarian. And Jeeves gets a call that Bertie has been kicked out of the school for hiring an old woman on the sly to do his darning of socks for him.

My Thoughts:

While this was amusing, Lumpy Aristocrat was no Bertie Wooster. And Jeeves taking an active part in the proceedings seemed a bit out of character for him. Wearing a fake mustache and hoofing it with a fiver when Lumpy welshes on the bet, well, it just didn't seem like Jeeves.

Lumpy was useless. Bertie isn't useless because he has money but Lumpy? That guy needs to be cut out of the gene pool. Makes me wonder how long before this starts happening to the nouveau rich here in America in this day and age.

I breezed through this and while I wouldn't recommend skipping it if you're reading the omnibus editions, I certainly wouldn't recommend seeking it out just on its own.

★★★☆½

• All My "Jeeves" Reviews

Carry On, Jeeves (The Jeeves Omnibus #2.3) ★★★★☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Carry On, Jeeves
Series: The Jeeves Omnibus #2.3
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 260
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

A collection of short stories which starts with the introduction of Jeeves and Bertie Wooster and ends with a story from Jeeves' point of view.

At least half of the stories also revolved around various family (immediate and extended) members of Jeeves, usually in an ancillary way.

My Thoughts:

I have given up trying to understand any reason or logical thinking in the way these books are put together in these Omnibus editions. This is the book where Jeeves and Bertie meet because Bertie's last gentleman's gentleman was a kleptomaniac. I believe that Wodehouse wrote this 3^rd but with the advantage of hindsight, wouldn't you order this first in an omnibus instead of as the sixth book? It makes me want to punch somebody (and no Miiiiiiiiister Newton, you got yours the other day. I pick on Mr Newton because he loves these books so much! Just say Bertie, Martini and Engagement to him and he's rolling on the laughing so hard he's in danger of suffocating.)

The return to a short story form worked well. Little snippets of Bertie and his bumbling friends is probably a good way to ease people into the world that Wodehouse portrays. Myself, I read this one Saturday while lying on the couch. I was chortling away and after the second time of asking “What's so funny?”, Mrs B just let me be. She's pretty much on Miiiiiister Newton's side when it comes to the humor in these books. I on the other hand am entertained greatly.

The thing with Jeeves and Bertie is either you like these kind of stories or you don't. Heck, read 2 of the short stories within one book and you'll know by the end if Wodehouse is an author for you or not.

On a side note, I just finished up watching “The Blandings” on Prime the other day. It is a tv series based on a series by Wodehouse in this same vein. Once I'm done with Bertie and Jeeves, I plan on adding all 12+ books to my tbr. So buckle up folks, you've got at least 2 more years of Wodehouse offerings coming your way

* evil laughter *

★★★★☆

• Previous Jeeves Reviews

Joy in the Morning (The Jeeves Omnibus #2.2) ★★★☆½

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Joy in the Morning
Series: The Jeeves Omnibus #2.2
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 272
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Bertie gets roped into going to Bumpleigh in the Country to help his Uncle by marriage close a business deal with an American Magnate. At the same time Bertie is supposed to help his cousin get said Uncle's blessing to marry a rich novelist who the Uncle dislikes immensely (for good reason). Then Bertie gets engaged to a woman who he was engaged to a year or two ago and who broke off her engagement to a policeman who was one of Bertie's old classmates. Said Classmate is a sack of man-meat and looking for any excuse to jail Birtie.

Throw in a nephew whose every act of kindness turns into some kind of disaster, a country ball where Bertie wears a stolen police uniform and midnight escapades and you have this novel in a pinch.

My Thoughts:

More of the same, more of the same.

At this point, if you've made it this far you know you're going to keep on going with the series. If this wasn't for you (Yes, I'm looking at you, Miiiiiiister Newton!), you'd have given up sometime during the first omnibus.

Spineless Bertie can't act like a man for 2 seconds. Which leads to humorous situations that only Jeeves can manipulate him out of for the betterment of everyone involved. The thing is, as a reader you HAVE to accept the stupidity of Bertie to enjoy this series. Not malicious stupidity but plain old genetic dumb-assery. If you can't get past that, and I don't blame anyone who can't, this just isn't for you.

But if “rich people having problems” can amuse you, you'll just keep eating these books up. Wodehouse obviously has a limited repertoire of situations he can bother Bertie with (the main one getting married) but they are still of good variety.

Sit back and chuckle and enjoy Bertie being a dumbass. Because Jeeves is the benevolent force of nature behind the scenes making sure that everything turns out alright.

★★★☆½

• Previous Jeeves Reviews

Right Ho, Jeeves (The Jeeves Omnibus #2.1) ★★★☆½

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Right Ho, Jeeves
Series: The Jeeves Omnibus #2.1
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 212
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Bertie comes back from the Continent with his Aunt and Cousin and things fall apart. Bertie tries to wear a white suit coat and clashes with Jeeves. Jeeves lets him have his way and solve everything on his own. So, Bertie's cousin is engaged but the couple fights and calls off the engagement. A friend of Bertie's is in love with a girl but can't work up the nerve to even talk to her. This girl is a friend of Bertie's cousin and is staying with them. Bertie is called down to the countryside to assist in giving a speech at a local boys school and hand out prizes. He avoids this by sending the love struck friend down with the promise that it will help him court the girl he loves. Bertie goes down to help restore bliss between his cousin and her fiance. He also finds out that his Aunt needs a lot of money from his Uncle to fund her vanity magazine, money which he already gave her but she lost in gambling on the Continent. Throw in Anatole the French chef who is threatening to leave and you have a problem only Jeeves can fix.

But Jeeves isn't fixing anything since Bertie WILL insist on wearing the white suit coat. Thus it falls to Bertie to solve everything. Of course, he just makes it 100 times worse. Thankfully, Jeeves relents and solves everything BUT at the cost of making everyone hate Bertie and “accidentally” leaving the iron on the white suit coat.

Hijinks, wrong engagements, one spectacular instance of public drunkenness and sundry other mishaps occur, affording the reader an escape from the humdrum of life for a couple of hours.

My Thoughts:

You know, I have mentioned this before, but it really stuck out, AGAIN. Whoever put these omnibus editions together is a complete jackass. I hate them in fact. It is almost like someone who never read the books and is not a reader at all in fact, looked at the books and just randomly pointed them out and decided which volume each book would go in. It is just frustrating as it is obvious it is lazy no good incompetence that made such decisions.

Overall, I still enjoyed this. This was another novel instead of a short story collection but so much is going on that it almost might as well be a short story collection. There were times I felt like I had already read this but given that Bertie references these escapades in other books, turns out I was just remembering the references. Another reason to kick the jackass who put these together.

I have to say, it is incredible how much Bertie can wreck things. What's even more astounding is just how dense he is when Jeeves fixes everything at his expense. Bertie pretty thinks “Oh well, at least I'm not getting married now” and is happy enough. Egads.

I think one of these books every 6 to 8 weeks is working out well. Enough time for me to forget any lingering animosity and to simply remember the stupidly funny stuff. That's good enough for me!

★★★☆½

• Previous Jeeves Reviews

The Inimitable Jeeves (The Jeeves Omnibus #1.3) ★★★★☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Inimitable Jeeves
Series: The Jeeves Omnibus #1.3
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 237
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

A collection of stories about Jeeves and Bertie that center mainly around Bertie's friend Bingo Little and his constantly falling in love and with Bertie's two younger cousins who are identical twins.

Through it all Jeeves must put up with Bertie's poor sartorial choices.

My Thoughts:

Chronologically, and in order of publication too I believe, this was the first Jeeves & Wooster book. I found the short story format much easier to deal with than the longer novel length. Also, while Wodehouse's writing wasn't quite as polished, I enjoyed Bertie more as a person, as he wasn't always shortening things to their initials. This was Bertie in the raw and I enjoyed it.

Bertie's cousins, who's names I can't even remember, are young scaliwags who end up getting kicked out of college and sent off to South Africa to serve in the British Government there. The hopes being that responsibility will straighten them out. This is all Aunt Agatha's doing, as is much in this book. We learn, through one sentence, that Bertie's parents are dead and he is immensely independently wealthy, which makes Aunt Agatha's power over him all the more puzzling.

Then you have Bingo Little. My goodness, that man was falling in love and having problems in every story. In one story he fell in love with a communist for goodness sake! He does finally get hitched in the end. Bertie's aversion to marriage is made plain throughout these stories and along with Aunt Agatha, is a building block of the whole series.

Jeeves plays a very small part in all of this. He's simply the deux ex machina that solves things, except when Bertie refuses to listen to him in regards to style and fashion. But once Bertie relents, Jeeves simply solves everything. I'm not sure if it is amazing or just how pathetic everyone else is.

In any case, I found this very amusing and liked the short story aspect much more to my taste. I remain confused about the order of the books, as there seems to be no rhyme or reason to why they are so mixed up.

★★★★☆

• Thank you, Jeeves (Book 1.1)
• Code of the Woosters (Book 1.2)

Code of the Woosters (The Jeeves Omnibus #1.2) ★★★☆½

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Code of the Woosters
Series: The Jeeves Omnibus #1.2
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 263
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Bertie Wooster is bamboozled into helping out various friends and relatives as they try to get what they want, whether it be a wife, a husband, a policeman's helmet, a diary, a superb chef or even a silver cow creamer, Bertie is at his best, messing everything up. Since he has ignored Jeeves' recommendation to take a world tour on a cruise ship, Jeeves is less than completely helpful.

But in the end Jeeves doesn't let his master down and everything works out ok for everyone except for the Justice of the Peace who once fined Bertie Wooster 5 pounds. Imagine the gall!

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this but it was just a touch too long. If Wodehouse had knocked it back to 200 pages, the humor would have been more palatable. I mean, after a point rich people having problems like not being able to keep their cook just isn't funny when you're dealing with 8 other rich people, almost all of whom are so stupid it is surprising they haven't walked in front of a bus yet, all dealing with similar “problems”. It starts out funny but like a fish, starts to smell after a while.

That being said, up until the 75% mark, there were quite a few instances where I was just chortling to myself at the pure outrageousness of the happenings. I mean, Bertie is such a good hearted idiot that you want him to succeed even while knowing he's an idiot and is going to flub things up.

I only gave this 3stars back in '02 even while my review from then leads me to believe I found it funnier back then than this time around. However, I wasn't actually using a 5star system (that started in '07 or '09 with my time at Goodreads) but retconn'ed all my books into the 5star system. I was using some vague and completely subjective 100 point system based on my highschool grading system. Man, how the times they have a'changed!

Despite all my complaining, I did enjoy this quite a bit and laughed out loud enough times so that Mrs B stopped asking me what I was laughing about. I think that says just how good this book actually was.

★★★☆½

• Code of the Woosters (2002 Review)
• All the Jeeves Reviews

Thank You, Jeeves (The Jeeves Omnibus 1.1) ★★★★☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Thank You, Jeeves
Series: The Jeeves Omnibus 1.1
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 241
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Bertie Wooster has taken up playing the banjolele. He does it so badly that Jeeves gives his notice and all of Bertie's neighbors complain to the landlord. Bertie decides to spend the summer in a bungalo playing the banjolele at his chum Chuffy's mansion out in the country.

Chaos ensues. Chuffy is trying to sell his mansion to a rich american. This rich american has a daughter, Pauline, that Bertie was engaged to for about 24hrs a while ago. Chuffy falls in love with her and she with him. But other family interests make a hash of things, plus the father is convinced that his daughter still loves Bertie and he hates Bertie. Hilarity ensues, escapades happen and through it all, Jeeves helms the boat through troubled waters and in the end, brings it in to safe harbor.

Chuffy and Pauline are engaged, Chuffield Mansion is sold, Bertie gives up the banjolele and Jeeves and Bertie return to London once again united as Lord and Servant. Everybody is happy.

My Thoughts:

I am reading the Jeeves Omnibuses. They each contain 3 stories. So instead of saying that I only read one book, I am counting each book as one book. It's all about those numbers, you know? But that is why I am doing the series as a decimal number and not a whole number. This was the first book in the first Jeeves omnibus.

Now, WHY this was the first book is beyond me. It is actually #5 in the Jeeves series. So there are many, many, many instances of Bertie referencing things that have happened previously that we the reader have no idea about. None of the things are big enough that you lose the essence of what is being referred to, as it is mostly silly or assinine things that Bertie has done, but the specifics aren't there and it makes the references less real. That is really my only complaint for this book.

My favorite part is Bertie's new man, Brinklie. He gets roaring drunk, burns down Bertie's cottage, assaults various people with knives, potatoes, etc and is generally a dangerous lunatic but through Bertie's eyes it is “Oh, that just goes with the territory”.

I am surprised that I haven't seen more of an uproar by social justice clowns because of the whole master servant thing with Bertie and Jeeves and the use of the word nigger in several instances when referring to black performers. Since this was published in 1934 it is no doubt to old for them to even know it exists, as nothing existed before them, except when they wish to trot out their straw donkey arguments.

The one positive thing about reading this first, instead of fifth, is that I found the humor original enough so I wasn't comparing it to previous books. That was my complaint from my original read and most likely the reason I only gave it 3stars back in '03.

★★★★☆ 

• Thank You, Jeeves (2003 Review)