Tag: The Inimitable Jeeves

Jeeves & Wooster, The Great Romances, Wodehouse Women, World of Wodehouse26 Comments

The romances of Bingo Little: Honoria Glossop

Honoria Plum

‘The only one of the family I really know is the girl.’ I had hardly spoken these words when the most extraordinary change came over young Bingo’s face. His eyes bulged, his cheeks flushed, and his Adam’s apple hopped about like one of those india-rubber balls on the top of the fountain in a shooting gallery. ‘Oh, Bertie!’ he said, in a strangled sort of voice. I looked at the poor fish anxiously. I knew that he was always falling in love with someone, but it didn’t seem possible that even he could have fallen in love with Honoria Glossop. … Continue reading The romances of Bingo Little: Honoria Glossop

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P.G. Wodehouse16 Comments

Wodehouse and the melancholy beard

Honoria Plum

It seems that P.G.Wodehouse, creator of dapper drones like Bertie Wooster (who wrote an article for Milady’s Boudoir on ‘What the What the Well-Dressed Man is Wearing’) was not a beard lover. When his clean shaven characters take to wearing false whiskers, the results are apt to be shocking. “…for the first time since I’d known him, I saw Jeeves come very near to being rattled. I suppose there’s a chink in everyone’s armour, and young Bingo found Jeeves’s right at the drop of the flag when he breezed in with six inches or so of brown beard hanging on to … Continue reading Wodehouse and the melancholy beard

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Jeeves & Wooster, Short stories, World of Wodehouse47 Comments

Getting started with Bertie and Jeeves: a chronological challenge

Honoria Plum

New Wodehouse readers sometimes ask which of the Jeeves stories they should read first. Opinion on the matter is divided; some people recommend ‘Carry On, Jeeves’ (1925) whereas I suggest ‘The Inimitable Jeeves’ (1923). Both are excellent. The question is … Continue reading Getting started with Bertie and Jeeves: a chronological challenge

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Jeeves & Wooster, School Stories, The Great Romances, Wodehouse Women, World of Wodehouse14 Comments

The Romances of Bingo Little: Mabel

Honoria Plum

I confess I have a soft spot for the romantic Bingo Little. When we first meet him in The Inimitable Jeeves,  Bertie warns us about his habit of falling in love. Ever since I have known him – and we were at school together – he has been perpetually falling in love with someone, generally in the spring, which seems to act on him like magic. At school he had the finest collection of actresses’ photographs of anyone of his time; and at Oxford his romantic nature was a byword. The first of Bingo’s romances to be chronicled by Bertram Wooster … Continue reading The Romances of Bingo Little: Mabel

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Jeeves & Wooster, Reviews, Short stories, World of Wodehouse9 Comments

The Inimitable Jeeves (1923)

Honoria Plum

I’m not much of a ladies’ man, but on this particular morning it seemed to me that what I really wanted was some charming girl to buzz up and ask me to save her from assassins or something. So that it was a bit of an anti-climax when I merely ran into young Bingo Little, looking perfectly foul in a crimson satin tie decorated with horseshoes. The Inimitable Jeeves is a great place for new Wodehouse readers to discover Wodehouse’s best known characters, Bertie Wooster and his valet (or gentleman’s gentleman) Jeeves. Although it doesn’t include the first Jeeves and … Continue reading The Inimitable Jeeves (1923)

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P.G. Wodehouse, Short stories, World of Wodehouse, Writers6 Comments

Wodehouse and Tennyson

Honoria Plum

When Bertie Wooster is brimming with joy on a fine spring morning in The Inimitable Jeeves, he says: ‘In the spring, Jeeves, a livelier iris gleams upon the burnished dove.’ It is one of many Wodehouse references to the works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (from the poem Locksley Hall). In Right Ho, Jeeves, Aunt Dahlia finds a bound volume of Tennyson just the thing for flinging at nephews, and although Bertie claims not to read Tennyson by choice, he is familiar enough with Tennyson’s stuff to quote him often. The following lines from Tennyson’s In memoriam, for example, will be … Continue reading Wodehouse and Tennyson

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Guest Posts, Jeeves & Wooster, P.G. Wodehouse, ReviewsLeave a comment

The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

Honoria Plum

Originally posted on novelreading:
As it happens, right now my wife and I are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our second child. In fact, the little chap / lady was due on Tuesday, so is already three days late as I write this. Anyway, the reason I mention this personal detail is that after finishing Pride and Prejudice and considering what to read next, I decided that a short, light-hearted yarn was in order; something to help me relax and take my mind off the seemingly endless waiting. (My wife, having similar thoughts, is currently enjoying the latest Bridget Jones… Continue reading The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

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Criticism, P.G. Wodehouse, World of Wodehouse32 Comments

A matter of style: Wodehouse and the modern rules of writing.

Honoria Plum

“I am no stranger to butterfly belly. A man who has had to pass himself off as Gussie Fink-Nottle to four aunts in a chilly Hampshire dining room with only orange juice in the carburettor knows the meaning of fear.” Jeeves and the Wedding Bells Sebastian Faulks presumably knows the feeling pretty well too. As the author of Jeeves and the Wedding Bells, Faulks has risked the ire of Wodehouse fans (already disgrunted after the BBC Blandings fiasco) and potentially his own reputation as a writer. For one of the problems with imitating Wodehouse in the 21st Century is that … Continue reading A matter of style: Wodehouse and the modern rules of writing.

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P.G. Wodehouse, Plumtopia, World of Wodehouse18 Comments

The desert island pickings of a quadragenarian

Honoria Plum

Henry glanced hastily at the mirror. Yes, he did look rather old. He must have overdone some of the lines on his forehead. He looked something between a youngish centenarian and a nonagenarian who had seen a good deal of trouble. The Man with Two Left Feet (1917) I feel much like Henry did, as I glance in the mirror to inspect the remains of my former self on the eve of what I’ll just call a ‘significant’ birthday.  But I shall resist the urge to impersonate the great Russian novelists, and reflect instead upon some of my favourite Wodehouse … Continue reading The desert island pickings of a quadragenarian

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