Member Reviews
This is a perfectly fine homage in the Wodehouse style. What I realized, though, while reading this is that while I very much enjoy Wodehouse, I prefer his shorter pieces. Mulliner, the Golf stories, Drones Club, and so on are wildly entertaining in small doses. Looking back I've often had to soldier on through stretches of Wodehouse novels. The same thing happened here, although the soldiering felt just a bit more onerous in this version.
Published by Little, Brown and Company on November 6, 2018
In his notes to Jeeves and the King of Clubs, Ben Schott describes P.G. Wodehouse as “the greatest humorist in the English language.” It would be difficult to argue with that characterization. Schott does justice to Wodehouse, capturing Bertie Wooster’s amiable ease, Jeeves’s droll wit, and Wodehouse’s playful style. Schott even ends the novel with an explanation of various words he used as a tribute to Wodehouse’s ability to enrich language by originating words or to use them in new ways.
Beleaguered Bertie Wooster is chastised by his new banker, loans money to Montague Montgomery to invest in a horrible play, wears Monty’s sandwich board while Monty delivers the cash, has a cautious encounter with Florence Craye, to whom he was engaged four times, and is warned to keep an eye on the allegedly seditious Roderick Spode, seventh Earl of Sidcup — all in just the first two chapters of Jeeves and the King of Clubs.
During the course of the silliness, Bertie plays matchmaker (between Monty and Florence) and spy (although the espionage, requiring a certain amount of thought, is naturally orchestrated by Jeeves), impersonates an Italian chef, conspires with his aunt, makes fun of British nationalist politicians, deftly evades the attentions of Florence, blackballs unpleasant applicants to his club (the Drones), and has his history, English, horse-betting, and sartorial choices corrected, repeatedly, by Jeeves.
The plot involves matrimony (a state that Bertie firmly opposes), a play for which Bertie must orchestrate a good review, and the unmasking of a spy, but as is typical of a Jeeves novel, most of the story follows Bertie as he sails through his leisurely life. The good-natured Bertie is one of the most likeable characters in fiction, but his ability to turn a phrase (actually Wodehouse’s ability, as channeled by Schott) sets him apart from the crowd.
The world can never have too many Jeeves novels, and if we can’t resurrect Wodehouse to continue writing them, Schott is a worthy substitute.
RECOMMENDED
I love the new take on Jeeves. It's a modern update that keeps the core of what makes this duo so special. Essentially British dry humor and understatement.
I enjoyed this homage to Wodehouse perhaps more than I've enjoyed any actual Wodehouse. In the Wodehouse stories Jeeves seemed almost as hapless as Wooster at times and I found that annoying. Here, Jeeves is a bit more masterful.
When I read the book description, I thought how clever it was to have the Junior Ganymede Club act as an instrument of British intelligence and, on top of that, to have the plot revolve around chasing a possible tool of fascist foreign governments. That’s not as frothy and frivolous a plot as the usual Wodehouse, but Wodehouse regularly featured authoritarian jerks like Roderick Spode, and going after them is something I always wished for.
In addition to Jeeves and Wooster, there are loads of regulars populating this story, including members of the Drones Club, Spode of course, a couple of Bertie’s many old flames, and more. Side plots include Bertie’s Aunt Agatha attempting to create a competitor to Worcestershire Sauce, and Bertie’s meeting what looks to be a possible love interest, one who is not nearly as clearly disastrous for him as the usual model.
Schott channels the Wodehouse style pretty well, though not quite as fizzy. You can’t expect anybody to be fully up to the level of the real thing, and I’m satisfied this is about as close as can be expected. I’d say Schott’s version of Bertie Wooster is up by several IQ points over Wodehouse’s, but that’s the tradeoff you need to serve the plot.
I’d be happy to read another Schott homage to Wodehouse, and I assume there will be at least one more, since he leaves his fascist-agent plot unresolved. I was a disappointed by the lack of resolution, but I did enjoy Schott’s extensive and entertaining endnotes.
This is a perfectly fine novel just not my style. It moved too slowly while it was eloquent and often humorous
A new Jeeves story? YES PLEASE! We are big Wodehouse fans in our house, and I was excited to see this title on the list at NetGalley. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. All your favorite characters are back. We learn that Jeeves is a spy relied upon by the government. But of course he is! It is perhaps surprising that they allow Bertie to get involved too, given his track record, but it certainly makes for an entertaining story. Ben Schott does a great job with the language and the plot, and the book feels like a true Wodehouse creation. The only complaint I had ... there was not enough Jeeves! Obviously, since Bertie is the narrator we see the action from his point of view, and we get to see plenty of his wacky acquaintances. I wish he had spent a little more times with Jeeves.
This was a really fun read with wonderful characters, a great plot, and a whole lot of British humor. I have read a few of the original Wooster and Jeeves books by P. G. Wodehouse and I liked them a lot and this one was just as enjoyable. The plot is silly and fun and I absolutely loved Wooster. If you are a fan of Wodehouse I think you will really enjoy this one as well. I hope there will be more books about Wooster and Jeeves from this great author.
An Omage to Jeeves and Wooster done to perfection drew me back to the original novels .The beloved characters came alive adventures laughs old friends back again.a wonderful read,#netgalley #littlebrown
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for an eGalley of this novel.
What a delightful reading experience this book was. It was as if a new Jeeves and Wooster by P. G. Wodehouse had been discovered in a trunk in an attic somewhere. I have to say, I'm pretty much a stickler when it comes to my Jeeves and Wooster but Ben Schott has done a great job recreating the whole atmosphere of a J&W novel. The humor is both dry and slapstick at the same time - check. Jeeves is an absolute expert on everything and I still believed it - check. Bertie and other Eggs, Crumpets and Beans are outlandish and loveable - check. Now, add a mission to be a spy for His Majesty's Government and....well I don't know how it could get much better than that.
Once again Bertie has to use all of the tricks and stratagems he can come up with to escape the marriage snares lurking 'round every corner. If you are familiar with the original stories, you will find situations mentioned in those books are continued on in this one to give both a sense of familiarity and a desire to see how Jeeves will save the day this time. It turns out Bertie is quite good at this spy business so I'm thinking (and sincerely hoping) that there will be more adventures along these lines in the future. In fact, I'm ready for that trip to Scotland right now.