On vacation — 3rd of three Wodehouse… ( )

(Because the books in this series have been republished so many times and I'm reading mismatched editions, I'm adding my own generic but matching fan art covers to my reviews. Yay!)

Well. Here I've finished what's technically Book Two of this series, with some events that predate certain other events I read about in Book Three. But Book Three has at least one story that predates them all, so there's that. Plus, given the episodic nature of most of the stories, the nonchronological order I chose for introducing myself to Jeeves and Wooster doesn't really matter.

While Books One and Three are short story collections, this second book is a novel—pretty much. Still with a fairly episodic feel as an offbeat variety of ingredients get tossed into the salad bowl slipping and sliding on down the counter. But Bingo's romantic misadventures remain quite the theme through most of it. So there's that.

Aside from a couple of dated details/moments that got a mental head-shake from me, I enjoyed this comedy salad. Now on my third book of this author's early work, I could tell exactly how a few matters in this novel would play out before they did. But that didn't lessen the pleasure of finding out just how the wacky rest of it would go down.

Now! I certainly plan on reading more of the ninety-plus books this author wrote—probably after I indulge my curiosity with a couple of detours to some other folks' works based on Jeeves and Wooster. Maybe the old British television series first? ( )

The Inimitable Jeeves is a collection of early Jeeves and Wooster short stories - all published individually between 1918 and 1922 - which form an episodic novel. (The seams are well hidden, but each story can really stand alone.)

If you're keen to read the Jeeves stories in order, I recommend the omnibus The World of Jeeves which collects all the short stories, and includes these in their "definitive" versions, which include some reworking.

It's worth noting that Wodehouse was past 40 when this collection was published - and he still had another 50 years of writing Jeeves stories to go! Bertie's narrative voice, Jeeves' exquisite manner, and the gallery of grotesques and incompetents who surround them - they're all fully formed this early in the game. It's a satisfying collection, however I strongly believe that Wodehouse is at his best in novel form. The short stories can begin to tire if read in excess - Wodehouse is, after all, like eating a packet of sweets or drinking an entire bottle of fine wine. The pitch-perfect conjunction of interlaced plots would be the hallmark of this series, once he started writing long-form versions in the 1930s.

Still, rather marvelous. ( )

Quality humor. Light reads. I do get tripped up with the historical vernacular / slang at times.

Why does Jeeves put up with Bertie? ( )

After hearing family members talking about this series/author for years, I finally gave it/him a try. I don’t know if I started with the right book, since this seems to be one of those kinds of series that is published in a weird order and has short stories, and novels, and I don’t know what else. It was a good introduction to Jeeves and Wooster, and though I don’t always fully get British humor, I did enjoy it for the most part. Some parts of the story made me think that sitcom writers (mostly older sitcoms) may have gotten some ideas from this author.

I decided to go with the audiobook, because I thought it would help to hear the British accent, and while at first I wasn’t sure about Kevin Theis, he grew on me, and I liked his interpretation a lot by the end. I plan to continue on with him, if I can get his versions. ( )