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P.G. Wodehouse Carry On Jeeves - I Say! What Ho!

I couldn't let off the chance of owning a P.G. Wodehouse book when I saw the book in a book store shelf. Yes... I'm quite the impulse purchaser of books. This is by no means a bad purchase though as the writing of PG Wodehouse came highly regarded among the English writing circle. I picked Carry on Jeeves... as the first Wodehouse books to own. Possibly his best known series. And by Jove is it a cracker!

The Jeeves series follows the comedic exploit of one Bertie Wooster, a little lacking in the intellectual department and his valet(butler) Jeeves, making up for his master's lack of cranial matter. The book is a collection of Bertie and Jeeves stories, loosely connected with the each preceding one. It reads like a television comedy show, with each 'episode' relatively standalone in nature. There is no doubt that this series of books has had a huge influence on British comedy and comedy in general(we've had quite a few of comedy shows featuring a wise cracking butler).

Wodehouse certainly has a talent of crafting new English words and phrases that fit so perfectly into the series... yet mean absolutely nothing. What Ho!? Yes what what! Each 'episode' normally starts of with a problem. The kind Bertie Wooster, always the helpful soul faces a troublesome account from a friend. Bertie being Bertie has to resort to Jeeves for brilliant ideas.

It normally turns out that the idea somehow catastrophically(and humorously) fails. But... Jeeves always manages to anticipate things and has already worked out a solution... every bloody time. I just couldn't help but feel an admiration for the genius that is Jeeves. If you need some lifting of the good old spirits, drop those self-help books and pick up a Jeeves book! You'd instantly laugh your heart out and feel a lot better.

Wodehouse also has a rather funny habit of having writers in his stories and the Jeeves series is by no means an exception of that. In one of the stories in Carry on Jeeves, an uncle of Bertie's friend(it's always an uncle or an aunt) Mr. Alexander Worple, a well known ornithologist(a person who studies birds) has written a book about the subject title "American Birds". A second book was written with the rather obvious title "More American Birds"!

Or how about this sheer comedic impasse in a story about a jilted lover and his subject of affection:

'Don't you think -- shouldn't you be getting to the beach?' I said.

She started talking to the kid and didn't hear. She was feeling in her bag for something.

'The beach I,' I babbled.

'See what I've got for you baby,' said the girl. ' I thought I might meet you somewhere, so I bought some of your favourite sweets.'

And, by Jove, she held up in front of the kid's bulging eyes a chunk of toffee about the size of the Albert Memorial!
That finished it. We had just been having a long rehearsal, and the kid was all worked upin his part. He got it right the first part.

'Kiss Fweddie!' he shouted.

And then the French windows opened and Freddie came out on to the veranda, for all the world as if he had been taking a cue.

'Kiss Fweddie!' shrieked the kid.
Freddie looked at the girl, and the girl looked at him. I looked at the ground, and the kid looked at the toffee...

I burst out laughing... much like how those internet peeps say...LOL. And with that, I knew I would get more Bertie and Jeeves in the near future. It's flippin' addictive... and good.




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