My Man Jeeves
Series: Jeeves and Wooster, Book 1
By: P. G. Wodehouse / Narrated By: Jonathan Cecil
Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
I can’t imagine ANYONE other than Jonathan Cecil as the voice of P.G. Wodehouse!!!
Granted I’ve done but a minute amount of P.G. Wodehouse, but thus far, it’s been Jonathan Cecil all the way. And yeh yeh yeh! Frederick Davidson is supPOSEd to be an AWEsome reader of Wodehouse, but I deSPIse the man and refuuuuuse to even consider anyone other than Mr. Cecil!
From the get-go, Cecil has Bertie Wooster hemming and sputtering, stammering about getting a checked suit made for himself. Then Jeeves smooooothly responds: InjuDICious, Sir.
And we’re off to the races in this collection of stories with Bertie and Jeeves, or with early Wooster-prototype Reggie Pepper and his cronies, all of whom are good old chappies, I say and don’t you know?
Apparently Bertie Wooster was sent to America by his gimlet-eyed Aunt to save Cousin Gussie from marrying a young vaudeville actress. Not only did Bertie fail at this, but Gussie went on the stage himself. Oooooh, Bertie feeeeears that ill-tempered Aunt. Still, it doesn’t stop him from getting in all sorts of trouble, so it’s a good thing that his man Jeeves is in on all the shenanigans from the start. Which is good, cuz sometimes Jeeves’ initial ideas go astray.
As in the opening story where a chappie friend of Bertie’s is keen to keep his Uncle paying his allowance, oooonly he has a girlfriend Uncle will object to. Fear not, Jeeves knows how to handle this: Uncle is an avowed lover of birds who’s written SEVeral booooring volumes of Bird Stuff, so all Bertie’s chappie friend needs do is get his girl to write a pamphlet about birds quoting Uncle. This will ensure that Uncle knows girl first and will then introduce him to chappie friend second.
Stroke of genius, Jeeves!
Except unfortunately, Uncle marries girl… and then they have a baby… and then Uncle makes chappie friend paint a portrait of mother and child… and chappie friend makes the tyke look like a grimacing idiot…
Funds imMEDiately cut off, don’t you know? and what is a chappie to do?
And so it’s off to Jeeves for a second stroke of genius!
These are SUCH comical, and just downright fun tales! Whether it’s Bertie trying to independently tie his own cravat, or it’s Reggie helping an old girlfriend out by stealing and burning a painting… uhm, the wrong painting… or it’s helping yet another chappie friend out by accidentally kidnapping a young toddler who howls way too much… every single story was a delight.
Just be open to Turn of the Century English slang, the upper crust, don’t you know, dear chap? There are terms like Hard-Boiled Egg for skinflint/tightwad, and dude, it took me some time to figure out what a Chump was and why it wasn’t as awful in the caste system as I woulda thunk.
Tales of twins who happen to be the same chappie, a sluggard who’s woeful because the aunt who’s giving him an allowance wants to give him even more money to go live it up in New York City, or it’s the rummy matter of a vegetarian son left in Bertie’s care and he winds up eating meat, drinking, and getting thrown in prison. Oops. Bertie just can’t help but do the wrong thing, and Jeeves just manages to tweak things in his offhand and urbane manner and get Bertie outta the messes. And Reggie and his cronies are just plain silly, especially when they’re trying to get a kidnapped toddler to shout “Kiss Freddie! Kiss Freddie!” on cue.
Can’t wait for the next Wodehouse, and I’m already scrolling to see how many in the Jeeves series are done by Jonathan Cecil. That man seems like he’s enjoying performing such hiLARious hijinks all the way through.
And?
He’s NOT Frederick Davidson!!!
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