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Very Good, Jeeves! (Jeeves #4)

4.35 of 5 stars 4.35 · rating details · 3,622 ratings · 155 reviews

Jeeves is not only the tireless servant to the feckless Bertie Wooster, but savior to a good number of others. Here, Jeeves helps Bingo Little in the affair of the marooned cabinet minister; Sippy Sipperly when he's persecuted by his former headmaster; Tuppy Glossop in his foolhardy pursuit of opera singer Cora Bellinger; and Bertie's fat Uncle George's brushes with the lo...more

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published April 20th 2006 by Overlook Hardcover (first published 1930)

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

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Jul 08, 2012 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-library, male-lead, humor, short-stories

There is really no one who can wash away the troubles, soothe the careworn brow--how does that go again?
--And careworn brows forget, sir.
Exactly! When my brows need forgetting. No one can soothe and forget like P.G. Wodehouse.

I was idling away the morning, doing my best to make myself scarce, what with visiting family being more than a jot tiring, when I popped into the Strand to see if they could help improve the noggin. Not to say they had fish, but they did have a rather large assortment of t...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Kirt Boyd rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jeeves and the Impending Doom, the first story in Very Good, Jeeves! made me want to write humorous fiction. Not so much because of this particular story, which is hysterical, but because it was my introduction to Wodehouse. Somewhere between when Bertie "pronged a moody forkful" of the eggs and b. and when he announced, ". . . it seems to be a mere matter of time before I perpetrate some ghastly floater and have her hopping after me with her hatchet," I was hooked.

There is so much to like about...more

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Dec 13, 2009 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: glendale-library-store, 2009, erica-and-diane-club

Going into "Very Good, Jeeves," I knew five of its stories would be repeats for me -- they comprised another collection I read, "Jeeves and the Old School Chum" -- but it turns out I had already read all eleven of its stories. I'm not quite sure how this happened. I don't think I'd read this particular collection before, but it's possible I had and simply forgot. I blame this on Wodehouse, whose book titles were all so bloody similar: "Very Good, Jeeves," "Thank You, Jeeves," "Right Ho, Jeeves,"...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Indiabookstore rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

He wrote for more years than what we live. And, all he did during those years was to write recipes that would twist your intestines more, induce pain in your jaws and would grant you at least a year more to live. And hence, die in a more convenient age! Take a bow, Sir Pelham ‘rummy’ Grenville ‘extremely funny’ Wodehouse.

Before I begin, pardon me for I never realized when I decided to take Mr. Wodehouse’s writing head on that I would have to review his work one day. After a heavenly climax, let...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Diane Walker rated it 5 of 5 stars

My, how I love P.G. Wodehouse. For unabashed, slightly dippy Anglophiles like me, the Jeeves-Wooster stories are a wonderful Brit fantasyland that could only be matched by a stay at Hogwarts. Bertie is a man of very little brain, whose magical powers include lots of money, leisure, a slim, clotheshorsy figure, and apparent immunity to lots of cocktails and cigs. Bertie's Lord Voldemort subs are his old school friends who prevail upon him to break into things, steal, "tick people off," or engage...more My, how I love P.G. Wodehouse. For unabashed, slightly dippy Anglophiles like me, the Jeeves-Wooster stories are a wonderful Brit fantasyland that could only be matched by a stay at Hogwarts. Bertie is a man of very little brain, whose magical powers include lots of money, leisure, a slim, clotheshorsy figure, and apparent immunity to lots of cocktails and cigs. Bertie's Lord Voldemort subs are his old school friends who prevail upon him to break into things, steal, "tick people off," or engage in some other socially awkward, possibly illegal bit of trickery, all this asked usually to get them in good with the opposite sex. Other and equally important Lord V's include his terrifying aunts, Agatha and Dahlia, and various elderly crusty male aristocrats who scare the water out of Bertie. Oh, and let's not forget all the women who engage themselves to Bertie, without his having anything to say about it, because Bertie is terminally afraid of saying "no," or giving offense.

But all of this is okay, because he's got Jeeves, deadpan solver of problems and bringer of breakfast in bed. Jeeves' schemes and suggestions get thoroughly FUBARed by Bertie and his friends in the execution, yet Jeeves is always "shimmering" in the background, ready to put things right with a word in the right ear, or some small action he's "taken the liberty of" so that Bertie's rough places are made plain. Of course, Bertie is totally Jeeves' bitch. Bertie is everybody's bitch, but in such a slight, charming world that obviously could never exist anywhere at anytime, man, I want to be Bertie.

Seriously. They have baseball and rock star fantasy camps. Why can't they have Jeeves and Wooster fantasy camps? I want friends called "Barmy Fotheringay" and "Catsmeat". I want a membership at the Drones club where I never have to grow up but can play the horsy British equivalents of beer pong all the time. I have a burning desire to address people with "What ho?" and use "dashed" a lot instead of the more profane adjectives I usually use. Most of all I want my comfort and happiness in life to be the primary function of an all-knowing, all-anticipating serf, who despite his so-called inferior status leads a far better life than Bertie does. Wait.

No, I still want to be Bertie. He's funny. He's agreeable. He refuses to be dislodged from bed before 10. He's really slim even though he enjoys his food and his booze. He missed WW1, and has no clue that WW2 is just around the corner. In other words, P.G. Wodehouse's stories and characters are pure escape. No allegories or morals of the story here. Just peppy dialogue and intricate plots. There is no better antidote to the real world than Jeeves and Wooster. (less)

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Sep 21, 2012 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 3-stars, fiction, short-story-collection

Finally got my hands on this one. It's a good collection of earlier (no later than 1930) Jeeves and Wooster stories, each with the standard plot hijinks and an insane amount of literary references in Bertie's delightful narrative (the amount of allusions in the fairly short "Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit" alone is a bit humbling). I think I'm nearing a (probably temporary) saturation point for Wodehouse, however, which limited the upper bounds of my enthusiasm for this collection.

If one doesn'...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Benjamin added it

Shelves: audiobook

Sometimes, when concurrently reading Jeeves stories and Jane Austen, I get that Guillotine-itch, the urge to hold a little private Terror for all the aristos. (It's always so much better to hold your Terror in the summer, I find.)

Of course, the unthinking, unworthy Wooster is part of the charm of the J&W stories, and at least Wodehouse admits the existence of the lower classes. (Unlike Austen--the greatest novelist--whose servant characters don't really rate the term "character," seeing as t...more Sometimes, when concurrently reading Jeeves stories and Jane Austen, I get that Guillotine-itch, the urge to hold a little private Terror for all the aristos. (It's always so much better to hold your Terror in the summer, I find.)

Of course, the unthinking, unworthy Wooster is part of the charm of the J&W stories, and at least Wodehouse admits the existence of the lower classes. (Unlike Austen--the greatest novelist--whose servant characters don't really rate the term "character," seeing as they're more like punctuation: very necessary, but now what we come to see.) Let me single out for special attention, "Indian Summer of an Uncle," where rich, titled Lord So-and-So wants to marry a girl that Wooster describes as a "prole" and Jeeves, a little offended, describes as "sturdy lower middle class." But of course, to Wooster, who isn't a prole?

I just wrote an educational module on The Hitchhiker's Guide, so it's fun to go back to Wodehouse--an admitted influence on Adams--and see all the little tricks and techniques that Wodehouse offers for the comedy prose writer (all examples paraphrased):

a) a light tone with low stakes (which is easy when dealing with twits, less easy for Adams when dealing with the end of the Earth);
b) the too-specific example;
c) mixed language, full of slang, especially the poignant abbrevs;
d) repetitive dialogue between characters ("A spoon." "A spoon?" "A spoon." "Ah, yes, a spoon."); and between Wooster's thoughts and speech ("I've got it, I thought. 'Jeeves, I've got it.'");
e) mistaken identity (Wooster mistaken as an adulterer, Wooster mistaken as a doctor) along with good-humored idiocy that prevents the detection or denial of this mistake.

And now, for the tragic end, we have to note that "good-humored idiocy" was pretty much the opinion of British military intelligence when they were investigating Wodehouse's World War II activities in occupied France. As if Wodehouse, after winking slyly at Wooster's twittishness, fell into a little bit of the soup himself.

Which brings us back to that question: where did I leave my Guillotine?(less)

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Jul 08, 2012 Bill added it

I read this as part of a three-book anthology, called Just Enough Jeeves.

I really don't understand why Jeeves gets all the credit in the titles and everything for these stories. Okay, I guess I sort of do understand - he's a bit more iconic, after all - but Bertie Wooster's dialog is the meat of these stories. He gets all the best lines. Really, Jeeves is just a convenient artifice. Without Jeeves, it would be impossible to fit so many buffoons in the story.

Anyway, this is a collection of Jeeve...more

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May 05, 2012 Jessica Jones rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-greats

1987 - I was twenty-five years old and holed up in the intensive care unit at the National Neurological Hospital in London, stricken from head to toe with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Symptoms: total paralysis. Prognosis: uncertain.

Guillain Barré Syndrome is a bizarre illness. It attacks the myelin sheath that transmits messages along one's peripheral nerves. One day my toes went numb. A week later I found myself in hospital, unable to move, breathe or speak. An unscratchable itch on my leg could pr...more 1987 - I was twenty-five years old and holed up in the intensive care unit at the National Neurological Hospital in London, stricken from head to toe with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Symptoms: total paralysis. Prognosis: uncertain.

Guillain Barré Syndrome is a bizarre illness. It attacks the myelin sheath that transmits messages along one's peripheral nerves. One day my toes went numb. A week later I found myself in hospital, unable to move, breathe or speak. An unscratchable itch on my leg could propel me to the brink of insanity. Dust fell into my eyes and I couldn’t blink or wipe it away. I could not call out for assistance.

Upon learning of my perilous condition, my mother had dropped everything, packed a suitcase and flown from Sydney. Now she sat by my bedside for twelve hours a day, every day.

Each night mum grabbed a few hours' sleep at her friends' house; Chrissy and Ralph were devotees of an Indian guru by the name of Swamiji. When Swamiji heard of my situation he began to call my mother and tell her of his visions for me. ‘I see yellow,’ spake the guru. The next day mum arrived at the hospital laden with armfuls of daffodils and yellow tulips. She filled all the vases in the room with them. Two days later, Swamiji called again: ‘I see purple.’ Out went the daffodils, replaced by swathes of irises. Mum herself was dressed in a purple silk kimono that she’d borrowed from Chrissy. Then Swamiji made a personal appearance at the ICU, without shoes. Through his flowing grey beard he blew into my chakras. Matron tried to hustle him from the room but Swamiji resisted her. At that point Sister Mary entered the scene.

Sister Mary had been hospitalised for an acute attack of Multiple Sclerosis but was now on the bounce back. She busied herself by ambling from ward to ward with her walking stick, rescuing the souls of fellow patients. Some of those ingrates did not wish to be saved but in me she found a compliant mark. Being fully paralysed I didn’t have much choice in the matter.

Sister Mary visited most days and sprinkled my motionless body with Lourdes water that she kept in a plastic bottle. She left a specimen jar by my bed containing some small pieces of black stuff. ‘Relics of Padre Pio,’ Sister Mary said. Not being much of a Christian I didn’t cotton on to the significance of these. I was quite taken aback when I later learned that they were bits of the charred remains of a revered Catholic priest.

Swamiji blew and Sister Mary sprinkled and as they did so the two of them fell into meaningful discussion of matters philosophical and theological. They could not see eye-to-eye about how best to save me but each of them gave as good as they got. Their conversation continued; Swamiji took to calling Sister Mary on the wheelie payphone on her hospital ward. She would then appear at my bedside in high dudgeon: ‘I had your friend Swamiji on the phone last night. He’s a very irritating man.’

‘He’s not my friend,’ I wanted to say, but I couldn’t speak.

Since I was hooked up to a ventilator, my only means of communication was by a tortuous method of blinking at an alphabet board. It was tedious and often upsetting for all concerned. Mum sat by my bedside week after week. Sometimes she read out the crossword clues and then patiently tried to decipher the answers that I blinked. But mostly she read aloud books by P.G. Wodehouse. She voiced the characters of Bertie and Jeeves and played up the ridiculousness of their awful scrapes. Mum had no way of knowing that inside my waxen, immobile body I was aching with laughter. Those books were written with a lightness and sense of the absurd that helped me to find the funny side of my own predicament.

During months of rehabilitation - learning to walk, talk, write and do everything that I thought I had mastered as a toddler - I sometimes entertained the fantasy that I might one day repay my debt of gratitude to the universe and to the NHS by retraining as a nurse. I examined the qualities required: tolerance, compassion, self-sacrifice, an ability to look at blood and vomit without fainting... and I knew the truth: that me becoming a nurse would be about as useful to the world as Tony Blair becoming a Middle East Peace Envoy.

No, nursing was not to be my vocation. But I've never forgotten how those long afternoons with Jeeves and Wooster helped me to escape the terror and confusion of being paralysed. 'One day', I thought, 'I would like to write a book that will help somebody else to get through a shit time'. When I was diagnosed with cancer and my boyfriend dumped me, I realised that day had come.
(less)

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Jan 18, 2012 Roger Pettit rated it 5 of 5 stars

PG Wodehouse is, for my money, the finest English stylist ever to put pen to paper. Every word he uses is precisely the right one for the situation or the description of a person that he is trying to convey. The fact that he utilised his beguiling talent in the area of light comedy rather than more serious literature is a moot point. But it does mean that he has brought immense pleasure to countless numbers of people over very many years. "Very Good, Jeeves", a collection of eleven short stories...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Holly rated it 5 of 5 stars

During the 1920's P.G. Wodehouse wrote some dashed amusing stories about silly ass Englishman Bertie Wooster and his clever valet, Jeeves. However, the best of these tales didn't appear in book form until 1930 with the publication of VERY GOOD, JEEVES. This collection is the creme de creme, as those French johnnies would say, and a book I'd recommend to anyone with a sense of humor.

Eleven stories make up VERY GOOD, JEEVES, all of them laugh-out-loud funny. The main focus is on the anomalous rel...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Lucy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fictional-ponderings

"The old fathead!"
"Yes, sir. The expression is one which I would, of course, not have ventured to employ myself, but I confess to thinking his lordship somewhat ill-advised. One must remember, however, that it is not unusual to find gentlemen of a certain age yielding to what might be described as a sentimental urge. They appear to experience what I may term a sort of Indian summer, a kind of temporarily renewed youth. The phenomenon is particularly noticeable, I am given to understand, in the U...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Sharon Essex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: p-g-wodehouse

I am a huge Wodehouse fan — so much so that, at last count, I own over thirty of his books. In my opinion, no one does comic short stories better than Plum and these are among his very best.

Good-hearted Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, his gentleman’s gentleman are winning pair, Plum’s crowning achievement. The supporting cast of characters (Bingo Little, Tuppy Glossop, Roberta Wickham, Aunt Dahlia and the dreaded Aunt Agatha) are also memorable.

First published in 1930, there is a timeless quality to...more

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Dec 10, 2010 Monthly Book Group rated it 4 of 5 stars

This had many of us rolling in the aisles. Wodehouse creates an entirely safe, comic world, in which the biggest threats are aggressive Aunts. Bertie is a child-like figure, and Jeeves a nanny-like figure who can resolve all problems (perhaps reflecting Wodehouse being put in the charge of a nanny from age two). Bertie is an asexual figure, although Wodehouse’s series of golf stories is less innocent. Perhaps escapist stories of this kind were particularly attractive to a generation decimated by...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely perfect. I'm not usually one for "humorist" writing. I usually prefer the funny stuff to be unobtrusively and cleverly woven into the bigger story, and not the focus of the work itself, in other words, I don't usually go for humor for humor's sake. But these Jeeves books by PG Wodehouse are the exception. Every single word is absolutely perfect. Every description, every idiom, every wacky scenario, every character, every name, every facial expression described-it's all simply flawless...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Bhargavi Balachandran rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: british-council, borrowed-books, humor, july-2011, read-in-2011, ok-ok

I am a huge Wodehouse fan;have been one ever since i found a copy on our book shelf when I was in school. I find his writing breezy and plots as funny in a geeky sort of way.Not to mention the Brit humor which i totally heart. I tucked into a Wodehouse book almost after five years and found that I didn't enjoy the book as much as I would have wanted to.

Very Good Jeeves is a collection of short stories, all featuring Jeeves and his feeble-minded master,Bertram Wooster.The 11 stories that appear i...more

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Sep 05, 2009 Sandhya rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's been ages since I picked up a P G Wodehouse book to read. It must be in school that I read Thank You Jeeves and I remember it wasn't the easiest reads then. First of all, it's British humour and many of the similes can seem alien, so it was a mini-struggle to get through it. I did finish it, but didn't pick up another one, until very recently. Call it a childhood mental block.

Nevertheless, I've been wanting to include some light reading every now and then between serious reviewing - that in...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Gerry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Meddling aunts, confused love-struck young men, manipulating young ladies and Bertie Wooster who tries to come to terms with all of them. Together it equals confusion and who is there to sort it all out? Of course, Jeeves. He is capable of solving all the problems and is the mastermind behind all the solutions, and that despite incompetent interference from Bertie.

In this selection of stories Tuppy Glossop is flattened at a rugby game, Bingo Little is in a couple of tricky situations, Bertie is...more

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Sep 20, 2009 Starfish rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fun

Read while visiting Louis, which is going to give the impression I did nothing but raid his bookcase. This isn't true, I also let him and Kym take me to lighthouses and temples and views.

I think this may be the first Wodehouse I've made it through on a single sitting! My usual problem is that I identify too much with Bertie and become worried about how much trouble he is going to wind up in and can't read on because of the dread. Luckily, I'd attempted this book in Sendai, and so the feeling of...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Reid rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this Wodehouse along with two others in an omnibus edition. As they were in this edition in chronological order of their publication, one of the joys of reading them was to see how the author's style developed over the years. This is a far more accomplished and cohesive work than the first I read, The Inimitable Jeeves. As always, it is witty, charming, lighthearted and great fun. Bertie is a loveable dolt and Jeeves his hyperintelligent valet who routinely gets Bertie and his friends out...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Nikhil Kautilya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

He wrote for more years than what we live. And, all he did during those years was to write recipes that would twist your intestines more, induce pain in your jaws and would grant you at least a year more to live. And hence, die in a more convenient age! Take a bow, Sir Pelham ‘rummy’ Grenville ‘extremely funny’ Wodehouse.

Before I begin, pardon me for I never realized when I decided to take Mr. Wodehouse’s writing head-on that I would have to review his work one day. After a heavenly climax, let...more He wrote for more years than what we live. And, all he did during those years was to write recipes that would twist your intestines more, induce pain in your jaws and would grant you at least a year more to live. And hence, die in a more convenient age! Take a bow, Sir Pelham ‘rummy’ Grenville ‘extremely funny’ Wodehouse.

Before I begin, pardon me for I never realized when I decided to take Mr. Wodehouse’s writing head-on that I would have to review his work one day. After a heavenly climax, let this be the inevitable, ugly emanation.

Well, the work of his under spot-light here is called Very Good, Jeeves. Putting very simply, it is a cozy collection of huge humour. Eleven short stories where a wealthy, intelligent Bertram Wooster descends into discomfort each time and then allows his intelligent butler, Jeeves to satisfy him with his bit of wisdom. Yes, the former is intelligent as well, but the truth of it is still under exploration.

Jeeves is humble, belonging to Yes, sir-species of butlers but the poor lad is gifted with an additional burden of a huge reservoir of troubleshooting tricks. Burden because when you have the solutions then you must have the problems beforehand. And the problems in the world of Jeeves come via Mr. Wooster, in the form of the barrage of his aunts, uncles, cousins and friends and are then passed on to Jeeves, usually over the breakfast table. Write down this in your mind somewhere before I lose my tongue- your aunts are way better than Mr. Wooster’s and are less in number, for sure.

Both, the writing and the situations, are potent enough to bear several smiles. You might not laugh, as in the garish ha-ha all the time, but you might find one of the two cheeks that you posses being troubled by the fleshy lips. All the time. Sometimes, Wodehouse, to save his ink, would write eggs as e. or bacon as b. or opportunity as opp., but worry not- flash your eyes above and below and you will have the elusive wisdom. Also, you might hear someone someday say- oh, it is a little predictable- banish that sassy, elegant relative of yours and his ignorance then and there, and dive back into the classical, jolly good, almost perfect writing of Wodehouse. He is shrewd- putting perfect word each time.

His actors would make some daring comments on human nature, and your stern mind will feel the booze because of their sincerity or imperiousness. Their innocent and innovative problems will inebriate your heart further. And the rest of your sporadically fitted parts shall be taken care by the master’s talent. And then you will realize the joy of reading. By then, you will be flying high, up in Wodehouse’s world. Where problems are cuter than their solutions.(less)

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Mar 16, 2012 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction

Brian Conn wrote a very informative review of a certain Jeeves omnibus and I read this collection through the lens of his insights. Namely, he focused on Wodehouse's beautiful use of high and low language: Biblical, Shakespearean, and the language of the pool hall or the pub. With that in mind, these stories, as wonderfully formulaic as they are, came alive to me in a new way. Not to mention, there is a superb charm in getting caught up in the trifles of Bertram Wooster, the outrageous and absur...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Nick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Some real gems in this collection of Bertie and Jeeves short stories. There are sporting bets on all sorts of country activities, loves complicated by many a twist of fate, and damsels deserving of Bertie's help and Jeeves' solutions when Bertie's help makes matters worse, as it always does. But my favorite is the last, about a rugby game, two villages, and a girl and boy in love. These stories of a gentler age, when the most important thing a man had to do was pick the right tie, are certain to...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Ensiform rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, wodehouse

Containing the classic stories “Song of Songs,” in which Jeeves arranges that Tuppy Glossop sing “Sonny Boy” at a local talent show after three others already have done so; “Indian Summer of an Uncle,” in which Jeeves cuts off Uncle George’s infatuation with a working-class girl and neatly arranges his marriage to another, more suitable working-class woman (a story which also contains the classic “Forget the poet Burns” exchange); “The Old School Chum,” in which Jeeves arranges a split between B...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Sydney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Listened to these funny little stories in the car. The narrator did a good job with the different voices, and I could tell that was challenging. The tone of the writing is very witty, although not really laugh-out-loud funny. I can't help thinking that they are too rooted in the slang and the culture of the time in which they were written to translate too well to modern times. At first, I thought the kids might enjoy listening, but decided against it because I just don't think would "get" the la...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Phair rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not my favorite. Perhaps I was distracted by the hurricane (tropical storm) that knocked out our power/water for almost 4 days and other crises in my life so I found it hard to enjoy anything. I also am not fond of short stories- there seemed to be a bit of repetitiveness in these (if I heard about that damn practical joke with the swimming pool and the rings one more time I might have screamed). Still, Jonathan Cecil's reading was spot on and as always, the language brought many a chuckle. Esp...more

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Sep 06, 2010 Robert rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

Wodehouse short stories are not as good as Wodehouse novels, as the pressure doesn't build up to the point where I actually explode into laughter. And, in a couple of these stories, Jeeves (due, no doubt to the necessities of plotting) comes across as a bit mean to poor old Bertie. But Wodehouse is still Wodehouse and these are still quite funny, even on a repeat reading ("Jeeves and the Old School Chum" comes to mind, and can one ever really forget about that swan keeping Bertie and that other...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Barnaby rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best of the Jeeves collections of stories. As well as being simply tremendous fun to read, it is a superb deconstruction of British class and social mores in the first half of the 20th century. People tend to see Wodehouse as an elitist, but his constant, well-tempered (and I use the phrase advisedly) satirical portrayals of the upper middle class are firmly egalitarian.

Besides...because of this book, I know how to deal with an angry swan. It is information that I have had oc...more

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Nov 26, 2007 Ian Wood rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: p-g-wodehouse

‘Very Good, Jeeves!’ is a collection of Wooster and Jeeves stories which carries on from where we last heard from them in ‘Carry on, Jeeves’. As before Jeeves is a resource used to sort of all manner of problems for Bertie Wooster, his great friend Bingo Little and his not so great friend Tuppy Glossop using ‘The psychology of the individual’. As usual problems are presented in the shape of Bertie’s Aunt Agatha, Uncle George and the esteemed Sir Roderick Glossop. New problems of more dramatic co...more

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Jun 29, 2009 Katy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I have heard a lot of British people, among them a lot of famous acotrs and writiers comment that they read PG Wodehouse in their youth and that his voice had a profound effect on their craft. I have to say, that is the main reason why I decided to read this book. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Wodehouse really creates charming charcters. He has a voice that is still very unique today. I think back to some of the works of Hugh Laurie and others and yes, I can say that I see the Wod...more

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About P.G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE, was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read over 30 years after his death. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained that of prewar English upper-class so...more

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“The voice of Love seemed to call to me, but it was a wrong number.” — 723 people liked it

“Red hair, sir, in my opinion, is dangerous.” — 344 people liked it

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title link	preview: Very Good, Jeeves!
avg rating	preview: Very Good, Jeeves! Goodreads rating: 4.35 (3622 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16382.Very_Good_Jeeves_?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360270388l/16382.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16382.Very_Good_Jeeves_?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Very Good, Jeeves! by P.G. Wodehouse[/url]

Very Good, Jeeves! (Jeeves #4)

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