Dmitri's Reviews > Carry On, Jeeves

“Good Lord Jeeves, is there anything you don’t know?” “I cannot say, sir.“

“There’s only one thing to do,” I said. “Leave it to Jeeves.”

“Again there was that kind of rummy something in his manner. It was in the way he said it, don’t you know — he didn’t like the suit. I pulled myself together to assert myself. Something seemed to tell me, unless I was jolly careful and nipped this in the bud, he would be starting to boss me. Well I wasn’t going to have any sort of that thing, by Jove! I’d seen so many cases of chappies who had become perfect slaves to their valets.”

“I was especially bucked just then because the day before I asserted myself with Jeeves — absolutely asserted myself, don’t you know. You see, the way things were going on I was rapidly becoming a dashed serf. The man had jolly well oppressed me! I didn’t so much mind it when he made me give up one of my new suits, but I rebelled when he wouldn’t let me wear a pair of boots which I loved. And when he tried to tread on me in the matter of a hat, I jolly well put my foot down and showed him who was who!”

“I rather think I agree with those poet-philosopher johnnies who insist a fellow ought to be devilishly pleased if he has a bit of trouble. All that stuff about being refined by suffering, you know, does give a chap a broader outlook. It helps you understand other people’s misfortunes if you’ve been through the same thing yourself.”

“I’ve always thought of Jeeves as a kind of natural phenomenon — but by Jove! Of course when you come to think of it there must be a lot of fellows who have to press their own clothes and haven’t anybody to bring them tea in the morning. It’s a rather solemn thought, don’t you know. I mean to say, ever since then I’ve been able to appreciate the frightful privations the poor have to stick.”

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“Carry on Jeeves” is a third collection of stories that were originally published in the Strand magazine in Britain and the Saturday Evening Post in America beginning in WWI. It contains the fateful meeting of gentlemen’s gentleman and manservant Jeeves and his young employer Bertie Wooster. Bertie is portrayed by author and humorist P G Wodehouse as well meaning but empty headed and useless, an Oxford educated upperclass twit and foil for Jeeves cool handed and effortless competence. Bertie is often pressured by his peers who live on allowances from wealthy aunts and uncles to sort out their romantic relationships and financial affairs. Jeeves typically invents an ingenious plan which Bertie bungles, requiring the valet to provide a creative solution. The social scene is frozen in an Edwardian time capsule unencumbered by worldly worries or serious setbacks.

Bertie hires Jeeves and discovers that he is quick witted and trustworthy, soon proving himself with a hangover cure, his anticipation of every need, rejection of bad wardrobe choices and dismissal of a domineering fiancé. Her uncle plans to publish family memoirs she doesn’t approve of and pushes Bertie to destroy them. Jeeves saves the manuscript and his employer’s reputation. Bertie’s new friend Corky wants to be a portrait artist but his rich uncle disapproves. Jeeves advises Corky’s prospective wife to pose as an ornithology expert to soften up the old bird watcher and she leaves Corky for the uncle. His first commission is to paint his newborn cousin. The image turns out to be so grotesque that he sells it to the newspapers and becomes a successful comic strip writer.

Bertie is enjoying his reaffirmed bachelorhood in New York when his aunt’s friend arrives from London with her socially stunted son. She announces she is leaving him in their care while she tours America collecting data for a forthcoming book. After she departs the son begins to drink heavily and party all night until he winds up in prison for an assault on a policeman, engineered by Jeeves. His mother finds him in Sing Sing breaking rocks and Jeeves explains it as research into the American penal system. Bertie’s friend Bicky is supported by his uncle Lord Chiswick who has cut off his allowance. Jeeves devises a plan to sell royal audiences without his consent. The ruse is discovered but threats to publish the story secure Bicky a sinecure as royal secretary.

Bertie helps Rocky, a poet and recluse from Long Island adverse to the city and nightlife, with a request from his aunt for weekly reports on socialite affairs in New York. Jeeves provides the letters, which are so interesting that she comes for an extended visit. Led to believe Rocky lives in Manhattan Bertie is forced to move to a hotel. Jeeves brings her to a revival meeting where the city is condemned as a pit of sin and she leaves with Rocky the next day. Bertie visits Paris and bumps into his old friend Biffy, distraught because he lost his fiancé at customs in New York. He returns to London and becomes engaged with Bertie’s ex-fiancé but soon realizes he’s made a mistake. Jeeves locates the missing girl in the Palace of Beauty at the British Empire Exhibition.

Bertie’s friend Sippy is in the slammer for stealing a bobby’s helmet at the annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race Night. Having encouraged the act Bertie feels obliged to set things straight and visits Sippy’s aunt to explain, leaving Jeeves to smooth things over with his cousin the constable. Bertie’s pal Freddie is pining over a break with a proposed soul mate and joins him and Jeeves for a summer at the seashore. He mopes around the house making a spectacle of himself until his betrothed shows up on the same stretch of beach. Bertie hatches a plan to win her back with a daring rescue of her baby cousin involving a faked kidnapping that goes awry. Jeeves concocts a scheme to save the day by staging a romantic scene that he has stolen from a movie script.

Bertie is writing an article for a women’s magazine on men’s fashion by request of his aunt. Her neighbor is married to Bingo, and is writing an expose of their marriage for the aunt. Jeeves has been tasked to lure away Bingo’s chef for the aunt which would prompt his wife to kill the story, but the chef is in love with the maid and won’t leave. Bingo asks Bertie to break into his house to steal the manuscript and he is caught. Jeeves whisks Bertie away to a health spa while securing the exchange of household help. In a last chapter Jeeves shares his secrets of managing the gentlemen who employ him in terms of resource and tact. When Bertie is considering adopting a little girl Jeeves arranges a visit to a girls school where the reality of raising children sinks in.

The Jeeves stories were published for sixty years between 1915 and 1975 in thirty five short stories and eleven novels, a truly remarkable literary run. The lives of Jeeves and Bertie are sleepy and reassuring. The greatest challenges needed to be met are self inflicted and petty in contrast to the violent upheavals of the period. Stories in this book provide a release from worldly troubles, now as they did then. In romance and fantasy there is a similar escape from everyday stress. With Wodehouse plots unfold within a humorous context, the follies and foibles of the rich and irrelevant. Like Bertie, Wodehouse doesn’t have a mean bone in his body as he makes fun of the Biffs, Bingos and Bickies of the British gentility. Jeeves loyalty to Bertie is a feudal instinct as his boss muddles through life. Wodehouse shared some aspects of Bertie’s upbringing, bringing a sense of authenticity.