Pajiba

Nice review! Ever since I read Connie Willis' "To Say Nothing of the Dog" and the classic Wodehouse "Three Men in a Boat" I've wanted to read the Jeeves series. I thought I would really enjoy these and since I laughed out loud at the quote I'm gonna go ahead and get them.

Ah, Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men In A Boat, Not To Mention The Dog" is the funniest novel in the English language. I've never had to stop reading because I have a cramp in my side laughing so hard. Strangely enough, half the people I've lent it to, didn't get it.

What Jerome and Wodehouse (pronounced Wood-house) have in common is the funny writing. What makes their work hard to film is the that a lot of the funny is in the descriptions of things, not necessarily what the characters say.

Now, on to Jeeves. First of all, the TV show. BEST THEME MUSIC EVER. If you've only ever seen Hugh Laurie as House, then you're in for a real surprise to see him as a young, British twit. It's almost the same daft character he played in the various Blackadder series. I actually cannot watch him as House with an American accent. It's too jarring. And Stephen Fry almost got typecast as Jeeves, despite the fact that he is nothing like that character in real life.

The Jeeves stories weren't just popular in England. They were extremely popular in the USSR and other Communist countries because they portrayed the aristocrasy as idiots and the servants as the smart ones.

If you want something slightly more topical, Wodehouse's golf stories are classic. Even if you're not a golfer, you'll enjoy the skewering. My son and sister, golfers both, found them hilarious. Just remember, "bogey" then is "par" today.

Ah, yes. Nothing like a bit of good old Pelham Grenville to cheer you up, no matter how depressed you may be. The Jeeves and Wooster series were (are) always that one bit more uplifting, which was almost purely by Bertie's boisterous belligerence. When life was kicking him, Bertie was still alive and kicking, usually himself and always everyone around him. It was simply brilliant to see Wodehouse pile one complication onto another, only to have them all inevitably float away with one small flick of Jeeves' godly eyebrow.
Wodehouse always had that perfect composition of equal parts flowing prose, sparkling characters and captivating plot, with the final dashes of pure comedic talent and an inimitable grasp of every tress of the English language.
I'm not going to bemoan the lack of writers similar to Wodehouse, simply because if I want to read something similar to Wodehouse, I'll just read Wodehouse. There's plenty to read once, twice and a willion times.
Very good, sir.

"To Say Nothing of The Dog" is the absolute perfect blend of sci-fi and homage to the Wodehouse genre. I can't say enough good things about it. I wish Willis would turn it into a series with the same characters having multiple time travel adventures.

For me the beauty of the Wooster/Jeeves series is that it so cleverly exposes the idiocy of the aristocracy and the need for the ordinary folk (Jeeves) to bail them out constantly without being in any way heavy-handed. It's also hilarious that Wodehouse wrote so many of the books while living in the US.

I've only seen Jeeves and Wooster on tv, I'll have to pick up the books, cuz they sound hilarious.

Favorite Jeeves quote: "Late night, last night, sir?"

Incidentally, World of F'ing Warcraft has a 'butler' name Jeeves that engineers can build who will do repairs, sell food, etc. No one in my guild understood why I laughed the first time I saw one.

Oh crap, I messed up the title. It's Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men In A Boat, To Say Nothing Of the Dog." It's the second part of the title that Connie Willis grabbed for her scifi extravaganza.

mrs. julien - i just did the same thing, and stumbled across a random wodehouse quote generator: http://www.drones.com/pgw.cgi

total time suck, but worth it.

I love this man so much I can't even express it. And thanks to Hugh Laurie for leading me on the winding path to reading the books (saw Hugh Laurie in Stuart Little, starting combing media for all things Laurie, started watching House, randomly saw young Hugh in an episode of Jeeves and Wooster, fell for Jeeves and Wooster, fell for P.G. Wodehouse). It's been a long road, but totally worth it.

I'm actually in the middle of reading a Blandings omnibus now.

Hope you will enjoy this club. Keep posting and make good on-line friends.
http://www.uniformedmeet.com/news/181

LOVE Wodehouse. Jeeves, Mr. Mulliner, Lord Elsworth, golf, whatever, I've read almost all of his works. When I was helping my parents move, and trying to decide which of my books to keep, store, and toss, I did not get rid of any of the Wodehouse books. That's saying something, because I was trying to be cutthroat. I even took most of them with my back to NY, despite them being gigantic, heavy collections.

That random quote generator just added a new book for me to read:
Introduced to his child in the nursing home, he recoiled with a startled ``Oi!'' and as the days went by the feeling that he had run up against something red-hot in no way diminished. The only thing that prevented a father's love from faltering was the fact that there was in his possession a photograph of himself at the same early age, in which he, too, looked like a homicidal fried egg.

'Sonny Boy,' Eggs, Beans & Crumpets, 1940

Ah, Bertie Wooster - if only I could trade places with him!

I'm so glad that you reviewed PG Wodehouse, hopefully this should spark renewed interest in his works.

"Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.Without art.

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What made you think about such a topic. Its funny I am not the only one that feels that way about it. Keep it up!