Joy in the Morning is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on August 22, 1946 by Doubleday & Co., New York, and in the U...
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Apr 28, 2008
Trevor
rated it: 
The other day, as I was walking along the beach in the frightfully early morning - when both man and beast ought quite to be tucking the old blankets under the pointy end of the old bean - there was a rather fit young lady putting quite some stride into her step not a few yards ahead of me.
Unfortunately, I had just gotten up to the part of the story at which Bertie is discoursing with Boko concerning the nature of women and to what extent one can rely on what they say when they are c More...
Unfortunately, I had just gotten up to the part of the story at which Bertie is discoursing with Boko concerning the nature of women and to what extent one can rely on what they say when they are c More...
Dec 17, 2009
John Jackson
rated it:
Ah, the many joys of Wodehouse! One can delight at 'Blandings' or enjoy the company of Psmith, but Bertie and Jeeves offer pleasure often beyond reckoning. The voice anchors the entire thing -- Bertie's mix of grandiloquence and idiocy gussy up every sentence and beautify ever short story -- but over the course of an entire novel, the plot mechanics, the heartless crush of the inevitable comedy and humiliation, these are the things that make him a master. Whom in the subsequent eighty years o
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Jun 02, 2008
Jessica
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This was my first Wodehouse (apparently pronounced “Woodhouse”). Since the guy published over ninety books during his lifetime, I just randomly picked one off of my library’s shelves. I must say that I picked pretty well. Joy in the Morning is part of the Wooster and Jeeves saga. Jeeves, Wooster’s butler, has apparently become the standard for stereotypical butlers. It was nice to meet the original.
Bertie Wooster is manipulated into visiting Steeple Bumpleigh to help out his Unc More...
Bertie Wooster is manipulated into visiting Steeple Bumpleigh to help out his Unc More...
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Dec 06, 2009
Daniel
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With a copper's uniform stolen, Wooster desperate to get out of an engagement, a country cabin accidentally catching fire, quite a few "What's all this then?"s, and, of course, Jeeves saving the day again and again, "Jeeves in the Morning" is one of the better Jeeves and Wooster novels. The only thing missing from the book is a visit from Aunt Agatha, who nevertheless maintains a wonderfully sepulchral presence over the proceedings.
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Jan 20, 2009
Judy
rated it:
In these rough and tumble days don't you sometimes just want to sit down and have a healthy helping of P.G. Woodhouse? That was me this weekend and I turned to Jeeves in the Morning for my fix. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I often realize that I'm about as obtuse as Bertie Wooster and I know that I need a Jeeves. Then, I also realize, that I have many people around me who, each in a small way, smooth my path as efficiently as Jeeves does for Bertie and those around him. Thanks to all of yo
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Jun 11, 2008
R.
rated it:
By far, the funniest book written at gunpoint in a Nazi internment camp.
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Jan 20, 2008
Ben
rated it: 
As I expected, this book was delightful and charming. It was what a critic might call, "a delightful romp," although that's not phrasing I think I'd ever use outside of quotation marks. What I did not expect was that it many ways, the novel was Jane Austen turned on her elbow: a proper romantic comedy of miscommunications and misapprehended sentiment that ends happily in a marriage or three. Not that it's exactly like Austen, or a parody thereof, just that the kid gloves stay on, as it
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Jul 27, 2007
Eric
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My English friend got me started on Wodehouse (pronounced wood house) with this book. What an absolute treat. All of his books are just delightful, a pleasure to read, and this is one of the best. They're so pleasantly, bubbly-y enjoyable. Read them when you want to feel sunny and cheerful.
There's a line in this book that sticks with me, something to the effect of, "Steeple Bumpleigh is the sort of place where you can't lob a brick without beaning an apple-cheeked villager in th More...
There's a line in this book that sticks with me, something to the effect of, "Steeple Bumpleigh is the sort of place where you can't lob a brick without beaning an apple-cheeked villager in th More...
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Mar 07, 2009
God bless Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon. Wander through its endless but well-catalogued maze long enough and almost any book will surface. When one has depleted the local library's collection of P.G. Wodehouse, it is wonderful to be able to find another source - and Powell's is just the ticket. I found two Wodehouse treasures yesterday and am looking forward to the pleasure of their company in the not-too-distant future.
Jun 13, 2007
Karen
rated it:
If you enjoy P.G. Wodehouse, this is one of his best. It is frothy, witty, delightful British humor. If you aren't familiar with it, it takes place in 1920s Britain among the upper crust. Bertie Wooster, a wealthy young man of absolutely no real use, tries to help his friends with their relationship problems. Everyone actually leans on Bertie's valet, Jeeves, who is the brains of this set. Jeeves is an imperturbable valet of the highest intellect, the perfect foil for all these ridiculous aristo
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Oct 26, 2011
Jaclyn
rated it:
Joy in the Morning is another of P.G. Wodehouse's incomparable Bertie-and-Jeeves books. I love Wodehouse and I can always count on him to inject smiles and laughter into my day. This is a particularly good story and I had it on my Nook, ready to improve my mood if necessary. After an extremely stressful airport experience in Heathrow, I needed it, so I immediately fired up the Nook and went straight to my Wodehouse e-book stash. I had just re-read The Code of the Woosters a few days before,
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Apr 02, 2010
Mike
rated it:
Before I tell you how great these books are, I have a complaint (no not a Monty Python skit).
Several of the Jeeves and Wooster canon were apparently published under "alternate" titles here in the good ol' US of A. Which, is frustrating me as I seek out more volumes to whet the appetite for comic humor and make the old bean happy. Case in point: this little gem was originally titled (and read my m'self) as, "Joy in the Morning".
Now, I can fathom why More...
Several of the Jeeves and Wooster canon were apparently published under "alternate" titles here in the good ol' US of A. Which, is frustrating me as I seek out more volumes to whet the appetite for comic humor and make the old bean happy. Case in point: this little gem was originally titled (and read my m'self) as, "Joy in the Morning".
Now, I can fathom why More...
Nov 20, 2009
Margaret
rated it:
Listening to (or reading) anything Jeeves / Wooster by P.G. Wodehouse ("Rhymes with good house, not road house") is a soothing, hilarious tonic for anything that might ail one. The Bertie (Bertram) Wooster character, who relays these novels first person, is ingeniously portrayed - he's an idiot and well educated at the same time - and Mr. Wodehouse is just darn smart and funny. The plots are almost beside the point, but suffice to say that they typically involve Bertie becoming enmes
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Jan 24, 2012
Wodehouse's books are set in a sort of Cloud-Cuckoo Land, bearing very little resemblance to any real setting, at any time. You can pick up on the time of any individual book by references to politics, popular culture, etc: but these are largely window dressing.
Not that it matters. For farce, realism is often fatal: and certainly would be in any tale of Wodehouse's.
My aunt often got quite fractions about the plots in these books, because she complained that if anybody More...
Not that it matters. For farce, realism is often fatal: and certainly would be in any tale of Wodehouse's.
My aunt often got quite fractions about the plots in these books, because she complained that if anybody More...
Jul 28, 2011
meeners
rated it:
douglas adams counted p.g. wodehouse among the best english stylists of the day, and i am inclined to agree with him. here's what adams has to say: "Maybe it's because our greatest writing genius [Shakespeare] was incapable of being funny that we have decided that being funny doesn't count. Which is tough on Wodehouse (as if he could have cared less) because his entire genius was for being funny, and being funny in such a sublime way as to put mere poetry in the shade. The precision with wh
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Jan 04, 2011
Michael
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Nobody is better at pure farce than Wodehouse. “Joy in the Morning” is one of the entries in the Wooster/Jeeves series and is the source of the famous “Steeple-Bumpleigh Horror” to which Bertie frequently alludes in other books. Wodehouse recycled the same plot through nearly 90 books, but somehow it never grows old or stale. His gift with language and character keeps the stories fresh no matter how many times you read them. In "Joy in the Morning" there are sundered hearts that mu
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Mar 06, 2010
Ryan
rated it:
For my money, this is the best of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series. It is classic in every Wodehouse way. May I share?
"Even before the events occurred which I am about to relate, the above hamlet had come up high on my list of places to be steered sedulously clear of. I don't know if you have ever seen one of those old maps where they mark a spot with a cross and put 'Here be dragons' or 'Keep ye eye skinned for hippogriffs,' but I had always felt that some such kindly w More...
"Even before the events occurred which I am about to relate, the above hamlet had come up high on my list of places to be steered sedulously clear of. I don't know if you have ever seen one of those old maps where they mark a spot with a cross and put 'Here be dragons' or 'Keep ye eye skinned for hippogriffs,' but I had always felt that some such kindly w More...
Feb 16, 2009
Elisha
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This Jeeves & Wooster installment was fantastic. It wasn't as good as my ultimate favorite "Code of the Woosters" but it's pretty dang good. As I read I was mentally trying to keep a list of page numbers for quotes I especially liked. This didn't work especially well. Next time I'm using a pencil.
None of my friends (save one, the best friend who introduced me to Wodehouse in the first place) have read these and I can't figure out why! They are so, so funny, and witty, More...
None of my friends (save one, the best friend who introduced me to Wodehouse in the first place) have read these and I can't figure out why! They are so, so funny, and witty, More...
Dec 22, 2011
C.J.
rated it:
It will sound strange to say but reading Jeeves and Wooster is something akin to reading a whodunnit. The explanation is that with a whodunnit, the reader is looking for the pointers that will prove clues to the murderers identity and modus operandi; with Bertie Wooster, the challenge is to identify each small event that Wodehouse will weave into the utter chaos that Jeeves will, with Holmes-like perspicacity and wisdom, be called upon to resolve.
Though I have read only a few books of More...
Though I have read only a few books of More...
Dec 22, 2008
Ian
rated it:
Right up there with The Cose of the Woosters as the best of Wodehouse. Bertie in Aunt Agatha country, featuring another loopy novellist (Boko Fittleworth) and an irascible Lord (my dear Worplesdon...).
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Mar 09, 2010
Cori
rated it:
If you’ve never read PG Wodehouse, please do yourself a favor and go out and get one of his books. This one in particular would be an excellent place to start. It involves some of my favorite characters in the Jeeves and Wooster universe — Boko Fittleworth, Nobby Hopwood, Edwin the Boy Scout, Stilton Cheesewright . . . not to mention Jeeves and Wooster themselves. Wodehouse is a master of humor, plot, and character (seriously, those names! Brilliant! And I didn’t even mention J Chichister Clam!
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May 08, 2009
Melissa
rated it:
Oh, the excellently perilous Steeple Bumpleigh & its merry cast of dreadful characteres. Young Nobby! The treacherous Florence! Boko Fittleworth! Stilton, going around "Ho!"ing all over the place! Dear Worplesdon! Edwin the Boy Scout! And last but not least, the illustrious J. Chichester Clam, drinking quarts of coffee & getting nasty shocks from the New Deal. "I mentioned that there was an expression on the tip of my toungue which seemed to me to sum up the nub of the recent proc
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Jul 16, 2011
Esther
rated it:
Just what I needed. Good laughs, and a lot of them. Shall I count the ways the Jeeves/Bertie relationship is brilliant? Not enough room. Not good with numbers. But I'll say this - Jeeves always having the perfect quote to fit the occasion, and Bertie's subsequent massacring of those quotes never fails to get me chuckling. And I love that the butler, the hired man, is the one that everyone goes to for help to get out of their messes. One wonders what Jeeves gets out of the relationship - and yet
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Jun 04, 2011
A.L.
rated it:
A glorious tale from a glorious storyteller. From the first paragraph you know you are in the hands of a master. The beginning is,
"After the thing was all over, when peril had ceased to loom and happy endings had been distributed in heaping handfuls and we were driving home with our hats on the side of our heads, having shaken the dust of Steeple Bumpleigh from our tires, I confessed to Jeeves that there had been moments during the recent proceedings when Bertram Wooster, though n More...
"After the thing was all over, when peril had ceased to loom and happy endings had been distributed in heaping handfuls and we were driving home with our hats on the side of our heads, having shaken the dust of Steeple Bumpleigh from our tires, I confessed to Jeeves that there had been moments during the recent proceedings when Bertram Wooster, though n More...
Sep 07, 2011
D. Eric
rated it:
Another ripper from Wodehouse, Wikipedia summary has it as: Bertie is persuaded to brave the home of his fearsome Aunt Agatha and her husband Lord Worplesdon, knowing that his former fiancee, the beautiful and formidably intellectual Lady Florence Craye will also be in attendance. What ensues will come to be remembered as The Steeple Bumpleigh Horror, with Bertie under constant threat of engagement to Craye, violence from her oafish suitor Stilton Cheesewright, the unfortunate interventions of h
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Aug 19, 2009
Libby
rated it:
My first Wodehouse. I’m truly sorry I didn’t pick up this author earlier. This book was just a delight to listen to; a funny and entertaining comedy of manners. I’ll certainly read the rest of these and recommend them to anyone who enjoys solid British humor.
Wodehouse’s chronicling of the daily adventures of Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves in pre-war, high society England is sharp, witty and timeless. Bertie’s a well-intentioned but foppish member of the Idle Rich who is always More...
Wodehouse’s chronicling of the daily adventures of Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves in pre-war, high society England is sharp, witty and timeless. Bertie’s a well-intentioned but foppish member of the Idle Rich who is always More...
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Apr 23, 2009
Malquiviades
rated it:
Joy in the Morning has the right to be the best Wodehouse novel for me beside Full Moon .
The first one, with the inimitable Jeeves and Wooster, got slightly above the latter, with the crazy people of Blandings Castle.
There's nothing more to say.
It is hard for a writer to extract a laugh from me. Wodehouse make it easily and at Joy in the Morning he is at his peak.
Marvelous, hilarious, amazing, brilliant, superb, a masterful novel.
If you do not know Wodehouse, what a More...
The first one, with the inimitable Jeeves and Wooster, got slightly above the latter, with the crazy people of Blandings Castle.
There's nothing more to say.
It is hard for a writer to extract a laugh from me. Wodehouse make it easily and at Joy in the Morning he is at his peak.
Marvelous, hilarious, amazing, brilliant, superb, a masterful novel.
If you do not know Wodehouse, what a More...
Feb 13, 2010
Samsquatch
rated it:
Instead of giving you my review and then telling you what I learned from this book, I am going to offer a reasoned analysis of the books quality, and then distill the facts won in my ravishing of this tome. Wodehouse is funny, although not as funny as Larry the Cable Guy. I would suggest that Wodehouse finds a catchphrase for his fans to exclaim at the end of his jokes...Perhaps something like GET SOME. This is my favorite of the Jeeves books which says alot, seeing as how I have rented three
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Dec 19, 2008
Donald
rated it:
Not the best, not the worst. The last Wodehouse I read was Ring For Jeeves which is Jeeves & Wooster sans Wooster. The novel is interesting only because it illustrates how fragile the Jeeves & Wooster formula is. The slightest deviation makes the whole thing fall flat.
Joy in the Morning largely sticks to the formula: Wooster is called in by a relative to help solve a problem, there is a pining couple that can't get married due to a hurdle that Wooster hopes to remove, and there is a loutis More...
Joy in the Morning largely sticks to the formula: Wooster is called in by a relative to help solve a problem, there is a pining couple that can't get married due to a hurdle that Wooster hopes to remove, and there is a loutis More...
