Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (2003)

By P G Wodehouse
If you like books where people say “Ho!” and “Ha!” and even “What Ho!” a lot then I reckon you should try the adventures of the hapless man-about-town Bertie Wooster and his unflappable butler, Jeeves.

This is not my favourite Jeeves book so far but still very enjoyable. Bertie Wooster is interrupted in his reading of a thrilling new novel “The Mystery of the Pink Crayfish” by Rex West (I wish someone would write this novel) to attend to the problems of his Aunt Dahlia, who is trying to sell her woman’s literary magazine Milady’s Boudoir to some difficult house guests, without her husband discovering that she pawned her pearls to pay for its publication. As usual things go terribly wrong and Bertie gets himself engaged (accidentally) to a woman who would prefer him to read the works of T.S. Eliot and Auden. As usual, however, everyone is saved by Jeeves in the end.

I picked up a few good insults in this one – how does “inhuman gargoyle” grab you? Or “You ghastly sheepfaced fugitive from hell”? Or even “You revoting young piece of cheese”?
I should say, that although I love these books, I expect a lot of people won’t – my friend Tash can’t stand them.

NB Some of Rex West’s other thrilling titles include Murder in Mauve, The Case of the Poisoned Doughnut and Inspector Biffen Views the Body.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Blandings Castle (2004)

By PG Wodehouse
Past MS-Readathon supporters of mine will already know that I am fond of Wodehouse, most famous for his “Jeeves” series. This book is a collection of short stories about several of Wodehouse’s regular characters, but particularly Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle, an elderly and absent-minded gentleman who loves his gardens and his pigs and who really wishes that all of his relatives would leave him alone so he can potter in the garden undisturbed.

These stories are written in a gentler, slower, more flowery way than the “Jeeves” books; Wodehouse seems less interested in being hilarious. I warmed to Lord Emsworth after a while but didn’t find him as enjoyable as poor old Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, his eminently capable butler, and the other characters lacked the spice of Bertie’s various relatives and acquaintances. Possibly also Wodehouse gets a bit samey after a while; I got a bit bored.

Some good bits though – particularly the insults; Wodehouse is good on insults. I’ll include one other quote I particularly enjoyed to see if my sister is reading these reviews: Lord Emsworth has bought a new telescope, and he is enthusiastically trying it out on the turret of the West Wing. He is delighted about being able to see his cows so closely from so far away, but… “Presently the cow’s appeal began to wane. It was a fine cow, but, like so many cows, it lacked sustained dramatic interest”. Many would probably also accuse Wodehouse of this flaw.

Rating: 5 out of 10