Bertie and Jeeves in their first novel

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


When I'm down or stressed, I often turn to P.G. Wodehouse's absurd tales of the idle rich for an escape from real life. The Inimitable Jeeves is the first "novel" with Jeeves. I put novel in quotes because this is really more of a series of short stories strung together than a proper novel. The contents were originally published separately as eleven short stories, some of which were split to form the book. The plot is clearly less sophisticated than some of his later comic novels. Still, it's plenty of fun to breeze along and read about Bertie's wasted life, as his Aunt Agatha properly calls it. He and his friends from the leisure class get themselves into trouble and are rescued time and again by the clever schemes of Bertie's valet Jeeves. In this case, most of the stories involve Bertie's hopeless friend Bingo Little and his ever-changing infatuations with various women. If you want to check your worries at the door and read about utterly ridiculous people doing silly things, this is a great diversion.



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