Product Description

On the 25th anniversary of Wodehouse's death, booksellers and readers will be cheered to find the finest editions available of his classic novels--the first in a series of his best known works--by one of the greatest English comic writers of our time.

Fans devoted to the master of comic fiction P. G. Wodehouse are legion. He represents an antic high point in the world of farce and social satire. Best known for the creation of two fictional worlds based on Blandings Castle and the Wooster-Jeeves gentleman-valet duo, Wodehouse is appreciated the world over for his exceedingly clever and comically savvy send-ups of the idle rich in Edwardian England.

In The Code of the Woosters, it takes all the ingenuity of Jeeves, the "gentleman's gentleman" extraordinaire, to rescue his hapless and hopelessly obtuse young employer, Bertie Wooster, from the pickle of a plot to steal a silver jug from the home of an irascible magistrate.

With each volume edited and reset and printed on Scottish cream-wove, acid-free paper, sewn and bound in cloth, these novels are elegant additions to any Wodehouse fan's library.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108098 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-01
• Released on: 2000-05-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781585670574
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Wodehouse is the funniest writer--that is, the most resourceful and unflagging deliverer of fun--that the human race, a glum crowd, has yet produced." --Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
 
“Bertie and Jeeves are at their best in The Code of the Woosters.”   --Newsweek


From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap
P.G.Wodehouse's best-loved creation by far is the master-servant team of Bertie Wooster, the likable nitwit, and Jeeves, his effortlessly superior valet and protector. This unlikely duo is as famous as Holmes and Watson, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and Tracy and Hepburn, but they have their own very special inimitable charm. According to Walter Clemons, Newsweek, "They are at their best in The Code of the Woosters," in which Bertie is rescued from his bumbling escapades time and time again by that gentleman's gentleman: Jeeves.

About the Author
P. G. Wodehouse (1881--1975) was born in Surrey, educated in London, and spent much of his life in Southampton, Long Island, becoming an American citizen in 1955. In a literary career spanning more than seventy years, he published more than ninety books, twenty film scripts, and collaborated on more than thirty plays and musical comedies.

Customer Reviews

A Delightful Confection
In his excellent introduction, Alexander Cockburn notes that "the true Wodehouse fan has the concentration of a butterfly, fluttering inconsequently over Wodehouse country and prattling foolishly about favored features of the region. Very irritating, for serious tourists and new arrivals."

Do not fret. Within a few pages both the initiate and the expert will be won over. This is a superb book in the Wooster-Jeeves series, full of Wooster's malapropisms, preposterous schemes, boggled literary quotes ("the snail was on the wing and the lark on the thorn--or rather, the other way around . . . ") and memories of hi-jinks at Eton and the Drones' club. Then there is Jeeves, the gentleman's gentleman, aware of his subordinate position to Wooster, but--as admitted by all-- possessing a greater knowledge of "the psychology of the individual." Consider the following exchange between Bertie and the ever-troubled Augustus "Gussie" Fink-Nottle: "this is frightful, Bertie." "Not too good, no." "I'm in the soup." "Up to the thorax." "What's to be done?" "I don't know." "Can't you think of anything?" " Nothing. We must put out trust in a higher power." "Consult Jeeves, you mean?"

The book's events appear to take place soon after those described in "Right Ho, Jeeves," and before "Joy in the Morning." As mentioned above, one is easily drawn into the humorous misadventures of our protagonists and their screwball plotting against Gussie's fiancé's father and his neo-Fascist friend, Spode, modeled after England's Sir Oswald Mosley. Written in 1938, even the humorous hand of Wodehouse touches on the threat of the fascist "black shorts" (the shirts, apparently, had already been taken).

Lighthearted fare, but perfectly crafted by a master of modern farce. This book is simply a delight, a compote of impossibly funny personalities sweetened with a meringue of wit and satire. P.G. Wodehouse, along with those other two-initialed humorists of the early to mid-20th century (E.B. White, S.J. Perelman, A.J. Leibling) is one of our most treasured writers. Give "The Code of the Woosters" a try; I think you'll soon join his legion of fans. Most highly recommended!

Excellent Plum pudding
In the circles I run in, Wodehouse is not a well-known name. Thus it doesn't surprise me that it's taken this long for my first trip through the tulips with Jeeves and Wooster. It saddens me, but it doesn't surprise me. "Saddens" for this confection is the perfect mix of all of the elements of comedy.

On one level, the story is classic bedroom farce. The action takes place in a country house, where people are constantly running from one room to another. Everytime one door opens, a new misunderstanding occurs and the plot is violently thrown in another direction. It makes one realize how effective a well-constructed bedroom farce can be in delivering sparkling comedy.

On top of the farcical elements, Wodehouse also manages to throw in some biting satire. There are well placed but subtle jabs at fascism, fashionable psychology, and upper class morality. They never trip up the story, only serving as wonderful little digressions that do much to add weight to the lighter elements.

The book is populated by a wonderfully motley crew of snooty misfits, each doing their bit to stoke the fires of the story. But the cake is taken by Jeeves and Wooster themselves. Neither could exist without the other (at least in a literary sense). The first fifty or so pages prove this, as Wooster heads up to the country house ahead of his manservant. The character flounders during these sections. Only when Jeeves arrives (to save the day, natch) does the narrative gain an even greater head of steam. I can't imagine how tedious it would be to listen to Bertie Wooster's mindless meanderings for a whole book, without the simple and economic replies of his man Jeeves. They are the pins in the balloons that release Bertie's hot air. As I said before, this is my first foray into Jeeves and Wooster country, so I can't say if the other tales in the series live up to the standard set here. It would seem like an impossible task.

The brilliance of the Jeeves/Wooster dichotomy is that Wodehouse doesn't take the easy route; that is, telling the story through Jeeves narration. It would be too easy to allow us into Jeeves brain, where we would either be confronted by his undying loyalty (which the reader could never understand, given the ignorance of his charge) or his hatred for Bertie (which would undermine the whole tale). Rather, we get Bertie's side of things, and his ambiguous depiction of his man makes Jeeves that much more intriguing a character. And furthermore, it allows Bertie to be a very interesting "unreliable narrator". We cannot trust -- but can laugh at -- his recollections of past events (the book is told entirely through recollections), or his characterization of hisself (in which he tries to pass himself off as an intellectual, rather than a pompous boob). The "unreliable narrator" is my favourite of the current post-modern literary fads, one which Wodehouse gleefully saunters through a half century before its time (side note: for a fine example of a case where the modest butler also serves as the "unreliable narrator", see Kazuo Ishiguro's book "The Remains of the Day", a personal favourite of mine).

One cautionary note, though: in this edition, don't read the introduction first. Alexander Cockburn can't help but give away some key plot points in the examples he provides of Wodehouse's comedic prose. It is a finely written essay, but it belongs at the end rather than the beginning, so to not spoil the reader's fun of discovery. Other than that mild criticism, this is a perfect piece of comedy.

The funniest series in the world.
Believe it or not, I am 74 years old and had never read
about the trials and tribulations Jeeves put up with
Bertie Wooster. I have never laughed so much in my life.
I am now going to get my hands on every word P.G. Wodehouse
ever wrote. I truly would have loved to meet the man.