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Jeeves and Wooster is one of those franchises that I've heard about for a while, but have never properly checked out, asides from a brief attempt to watch the first episode of the TV series adaption (which I was not able to get into for reasons I don't recall.)
I stumbled across the Wodehouse section in my library however, and found the writing quite easy to get into- the books are narrated by our protagonist, Bertie Wooster, an upper class twit with a tendency to get into shenanigans and forget words and the authors of various quotations. His narration thus tends to go something like this:
“It was one of those cases where you approve the broad, general principle of an idea but can't help being in a bit of a twitter at the prospect of putting it into practical effect. I explained this to Jeeves, and he said much the same thing had bothered Hamlet.”
Anyway, Much Obliged, Jeeves is one of many books in the Jeeves and Wooster series, and I don't know what number it is but I'm under the impression that they're all fairly formula and that reading them in order is Not A Big Deal. The story thus starts out with Bertie recapping some of the shenanigans he got into in the previous story, before he receives an invitation from his Aunt Dahlia to stay with her for a while and help a friend of his (nicknamed Ginger) win a local election. Bertie happily accepts, but the situation soon becomes a rather complicated dance of awkward social situations, the main points of which are:
( The situation is further complicated by... )
It's all quite entertaining if you're not prone to secondhand embarrassment, though the running gags get a bit repetitive in places. I feel like reading one Jeeves and Wooster book was enjoyable, but unless the series is less formulaic than I've surmised, I don't know if it's worth reading through all the other ones I can get my hands on.
On a random side note, I've seen Bertie Wooster interpreted in fandom as being gay- it seems possible to me that he could be sexually attracted to men, but regardless of his sexual orientation he reads as pretty much aromantic to me. (Though, y'know, if you have a ship with Bertie that's incompatible with him being aromantic, don't take this as a How Dare You admonishment.)
I stumbled across the Wodehouse section in my library however, and found the writing quite easy to get into- the books are narrated by our protagonist, Bertie Wooster, an upper class twit with a tendency to get into shenanigans and forget words and the authors of various quotations. His narration thus tends to go something like this:
“It was one of those cases where you approve the broad, general principle of an idea but can't help being in a bit of a twitter at the prospect of putting it into practical effect. I explained this to Jeeves, and he said much the same thing had bothered Hamlet.”
Anyway, Much Obliged, Jeeves is one of many books in the Jeeves and Wooster series, and I don't know what number it is but I'm under the impression that they're all fairly formula and that reading them in order is Not A Big Deal. The story thus starts out with Bertie recapping some of the shenanigans he got into in the previous story, before he receives an invitation from his Aunt Dahlia to stay with her for a while and help a friend of his (nicknamed Ginger) win a local election. Bertie happily accepts, but the situation soon becomes a rather complicated dance of awkward social situations, the main points of which are:
- Ginger is engaged to Bertie's cousin, Florence Craye, who's a terribly bossy and demanding lady and will probably dump Ginger if he loses the election, which is likely since he's running Conservative and has a less-than-Conservative past, a situation that Ginger does not want because he has decided that Florence is The One For Him;
- And thus also helping Ginger with the election is a man named Roderick Spode, a.k.a. Lord Sidcup, who absolutely detests Bertie, whose feelings towards Spode are mutual;
- Accompanying Spode is his fiancee, Madeline Bassett, who was formerly engaged to Bertie Wooster and still believes Bertie to be madly in love with her despite Bertie finding her nauseatingly sentimental, though Bertie's Too Honorable to let a lady know when he doesn't care for her;
- And Aunt Dahlia has also taken along the liberty of inviting over a businessman named L.P. Runkle, and is trying to butter him up as much as possible, because her daughter, Angela, is engaged to a man called Tuppy Glossop. Tuppy has been too short of cash to support a wife, but his late father used to work for L.P. Runkle and invented a popular headache pill which L. P. Runkle has earned a lot of money off of. Due to small print and Runkle being a greedy businessman, none of that money went to the Glossop family, a situation Aunt Dahlia is hoping to charm Runkle into rectifying;
- Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding Runkle thinks Bertie tried to steal his camera and Spode has also made it clear to Runkle that he believes Bertie is the lowest scumsucker on the planet.
( The situation is further complicated by... )It's all quite entertaining if you're not prone to secondhand embarrassment, though the running gags get a bit repetitive in places. I feel like reading one Jeeves and Wooster book was enjoyable, but unless the series is less formulaic than I've surmised, I don't know if it's worth reading through all the other ones I can get my hands on.
On a random side note, I've seen Bertie Wooster interpreted in fandom as being gay- it seems possible to me that he could be sexually attracted to men, but regardless of his sexual orientation he reads as pretty much aromantic to me. (Though, y'know, if you have a ship with Bertie that's incompatible with him being aromantic, don't take this as a How Dare You admonishment.)
