Friday, December 16, 2011

Review: The Inimitable Jeeves by P. H. Wodehouse

Synopsis: Bertram Wooster, aka Bertie, is a young bachelor in 1920's London. Blessed with money and an easy life, his troubles seem to come from bumbling friends and meddlesome relatives. Thankfully, he has Jeeves, his valet, who always seems to know how to get Bertie (and others) out of the numerous problems they find themselves in.

Review: Wodehouse is known for his humor - and this book is full of witty remarks and even a few laugh out loud moments. But after reading the entire volume, it grows repetitive quickly. The same people have the same problems and Jeeves always rescues them. Very few of the characters grow, move on, change or otherwise acknowledge their faults. And Bertie never changes. The other thing it the continuous use of 1920s British slang. A word here and there is fine - but entire paragraphs where ever major noun or verb is slang? It wears on the mind after a while. I wanted to give this a higher rating, but in the end of I was glad to finish and move on. I am sorry, as several dear friends and cherished authors cite Wodehouse as inspiration, but for my tastes, I wasn't able to find the joy as others have. One concession I make is these stories were published separately, not as a novel, and are best read that way. Perhaps if I read them in their original form, I would feel differently.

Bookmarks: 6 of 10

Awards: None

Date Finished: 12-16-2011
Pages: 224

1 comment:

  1. I'm a huge PG Wodehouse fan. But I agree it's hard to sit down and read it cover to cover as they weren't necessarily meant to be read that way.

    Might I suggest if you find it a little repetitive to check out the series Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie did for the BBC some years ago simply called "Jeeve and Wooster" very very good and very wonderful adaption.

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