Carry On, Jeeves

First published in 1925, this collection of Wodehouse short stories includes the “origin story” if you will, of Jeeves and Wooster, where Jeeves turns up on Bertie's doorstep and proceeds to take charge.

All the Wodehouse staples are here - bumbling upper class twits, intimidating aunts, lovelorn chums and of course the inimitable Jeeves, there to save the day and get Bertie out of whatever scrape he's fallen into this time.

It's superb comic writing. Bertie, not overly blessed in the brains department but without a malicious bone in his body, bumbles through these stories where plans go awry and manipulative aunts are foiled, aided by the almost superhuman problem solver Jeeves. It's light, frothy stuff, encapsulating a vanished world of landed gentry, gentlemen's clubs and well heeled bachelors who've never had to to a days's work in their lives.

A perfect tonic for these pandemic times. Not too taxing, guaranteed to raise a smile. What more could one ask for? What ho!

I really like these stories. This collection has some of the same stories as My Man Jeeves. I listened to the audiobook read by Frederick Davidson, and he was great.

It's still amazing to me that these were first published in 1916. I don't know enough about that era to know if some of the situations that seem bizarre to me as a modern reader were real or not, but everything is always very funny. Wikipedia says that the Palace of Beauty in “The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy” was a real thing, though! I especially enjoyed the last story, “Bertie Changes His Mind,” which is in Jeeves' point of view, so we got to see a little of Jeeves' careful planning.