The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
"The Inimitable Jeeves" is a comedic novel by P. G. Wodehouse featuring the escapades of Bertie Wooster and his astute valet, Jeeves. Set in early 20th-century England, the story revolves around Bertie's well-meaning but often clumsy attempts to assist his friend Bingo Little in various romantic pursuits. The narrative unfolds through a series of interconnected episodes, showcasing Bertie's misadventures as he navigates the complexities of love, family expectations, and social status, often with Jeeves's clever interventions.
Bingo's romantic interests lead to humorous predicaments, including attempts to impress his uncle and thwart matchmaking efforts from Bertie's Aunt Agatha. The characters are emblematic of Wodehouse's style, with Jeeves serving as the brilliant strategist behind Bertie's bumbling nature. Wodehouse's work is noted for its seamless blend of wit and farce, drawing on a rich tradition of English comedic literature. "The Inimitable Jeeves" is recognized as a foundational installment in the Bertie and Jeeves series, establishing key themes and character dynamics that would resonate throughout Wodehouse’s subsequent writings.
The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
First published: 1923
Type of work: Farce
Time of work: The early 1920’s
Locale: London, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Roville-sur-mer (France) and New York City
Principal Characters:
Bertie Wooster , an indolent, wealthy young LondonerJeeves , his valetRichard (Bingo) Little , Bertie’s longtime friendAgatha Gregson , Bertie’s fearsome auntHonoria Glossop , Aunt Agatha’s choice as Bertie’s wifeSir Roderick Glossop , Honoria’s father, a psychiatristClaude , andEustace , Bertie’s twin cousinsMortimer, Lord Bittlesham , Bingo’s uncle and the source of his incomeRosie M. Banks , the author of popular sentimental novels who becomes Bingo’s wife
The Novel
Bertie Wooster’s friend Richard “Bingo” Little is forever falling in love with a wide variety of women, and it is up to Bertie, with the aid of Jeeves, his valet, to promote or prevent these romances, depending on the suitability of the young lady. At the beginning of The Inimitable Jeeves, Bingo is infatuated with a waitress and wants Bertie to make his Uncle Mortimer, the source of his income, receptive to the idea. Jeeves suggests having Bingo read the uncle such Rosie M. Banks novels as Only a Factory Girl, in which “marriage with young persons of an inferior social status” is advocated. Bertie has to pretend that he writes the Banks novels to encourage Uncle Mortimer further. These machinations result in the uncle marrying his cook, previously Jeeves’s intended. Jeeves has been plotting for this eventuality since becoming friendly with the waitress Bingo loves.
Bingo next falls for Honoria Glossop, but Bertie’s domineering Aunt Agatha wants her nephew to marry Honoria. Deciding to get out of this jam without Jeeves’s help, Bertie pushes Honoria’s young brother into a pond so that Bingo can save the boy and be a hero in his beloved’s eyes, but on his way to the pond, fickle Bingo discovers someone else. Bertie finds himself engaged to Honoria, who says that he must get rid of Jeeves. The valet conspires with Claude and Eustace, Bertie’s prankster twin cousins, to convince Honoria’s father, Sir Roderick, a prominent psychiatrist, that Bertie is crazy.
Bingo dons a false beard and pretends to be a revolutionary to win the heart of gold-toothed Charlotte Corday Rowbotham. In the guise of an anarchist, he threatens the life of Uncle Mortimer, now Lord Bittlesham, to obtain fifty pounds to bet on his uncle’s racehorse. Jeeves rescues Bingo from the unappetizing Charlotte by revealing Bingo’s true identity to his rival for the lady’s affections, Comrade Butt.
At Twing in Gloucestershire, Bertie, Jeeves, Bingo, Claude, and Eustace become involved in the Great Sermon Handicap, betting on which of the local clergymen preaches the longest on a specific Sunday. All but Jeeves, who backs a long shot, lose heavily. They next wager on the village school games, only to have their contenders sabotaged by a gambling acquaintance, the cunning Steggles. Jeeves proves more cunning by fixing it for the last of the group’s favorites to win.
When Bingo finds a new love, Steggles accepts bets on the affair with the odds on Bingo’s rival. At first outraged, Bingo bets on himself. He then takes charge of the village school’s Christmas entertainment to prove himself worthy of the lady, but Steggles, with help from Bingo’s own incompetence, turns the festivities into a riot. Jeeves is pleased, however, having bet on Bingo’s opponent.
Finally, Bingo is in love with another waitress, and Bertie again has to pretend to be Rosie M. Banks. The waitress forces Bingo to marry her without his uncle’s consent and when presented to Lord Bittlesham reveals herself to be the real Rosie M. Banks, having been working as a waitress as research for her next book. Jeeves persuades Bingo to explain it all to his uncle by saying that Bertie is “subject to hallucinations and generally potty.” Deeply offended, Bertie decides to fire his valet, only to weaken in the face of Jeeves’s superiority.
Woven among the Bingo episodes are three other adventures. On the French Riviera, Aunt Agatha wants Bertie to marry the sister of a Dorsetshire curate, but Jeeves exposes the pair as con artists and recovers Agatha’s stolen pearls. In New York, Jeeves saves Cyril Bassington-Bassington from a career on the stage to spare Bertie more of Aunt Agatha’s wrath. When Claude and Eustace are sent down from Oxford for spraying the senior tutor with soda water, Agatha arranges for them to go to South Africa, but both fall in love with the same actress and refuse to depart until Jeeves tricks them into going.
The Characters
Jeeves is the epitome of the tradition of brilliant servants to foolish masters which goes back to classical Latin and Greek literature. Jeeves displays the most perfect mind in fiction, superior even to that of Sherlock Holmes. As Bertie observes, “Jeeves knows. How, I couldn’t say, but he knows.” Jeeves is not simply superbly intelligent; for P. G. Wodehouse’s plots to work, the valet must have sources of information denied the other characters. He is always the only one to know what is truly happening. Unlike Holmes, Jeeves resorts to lying and bribery to achieve his ends. He is everything the perpetually naive Bertie is not.
Bertie is upset when he overhears Jeeves describe him as “an exceedingly pleasant and amiable young gentleman, but not intelligent.... Mentally he is negligible quite negligible.” Bertie, however, is intelligent enough to rely on Jeeves’s judgment in most matters, considering his servant “a sort of guide, philosopher, and friend.” He possesses remarkable self-knowledge for such a ninny, agreeing with those who “look on me as rather an ass.’
Despite all this, Bertie is an admirable character. Much of his behavior derives from a strict code of conduct, and while this code is that of the privileged late Victorian schoolboy, it allows him to be modest, gracious, and magnanimous. He is unfailingly willing to devote his time and money to assist his friends. Whenever he is hesitant about helping Bingo out of a scrape, all his friend has to do is remind him that they were at school together for Bertie to spring into action. He has perhaps been described best by George Orwell as a “sluggish Don Quixote”; he does not look for windmills but never declines to tilt at them when honor demands.
If Jeeves is Sherlock Holmes and Bertie his Dr. Watson, faithfully recounting all of their escapades, Agatha is Professor Moriarty, always popping up to bring new difficulties into her nephew’s life. To Bertie, “she’s a sort of human vampire-bat.” Even worse, “She’s the kind of woman who comes and rags you before breakfast.” Aunt Agatha is not simply imposing in herself; she is constantly finding younger versions of herself, such as Honoria Glossop, to force upon Bertie: women who want to reform him, to improve his mind, to keep him from sleeping past noon and betting on horses.
All the other characters in The Inimitable Jeeves are the stock figures associated with this type of comedy. They are necessary primarily to create conflict and advance the plot and are rarely more than one-dimensional.
Critical Context
The first Bertie and Jeeves book is My Man Jeeves (1919), which includes four Jeeves stories told by Bertie. The Inimitable Jeeves is thus the first book completely about these characters. In it, Wodehouse weaves eleven previously published stories together into a mostly unified narrative with the story of Bingo’s marriage to Rosie bringing many of the various elements together. The first true novel in the series is Thank You, Jeeves (1934).
The Inimitable Jeeves introduces the pattern of Bertie getting into trouble, Jeeves getting him out, and the master then having to sacrifice an article of clothing the valet finds offensive: purple socks, loud cummerbund, spats in Old Etonian colors. Some other conventional elements used include Aunt Agatha’s efforts to have Bertie wed, only for him to escape narrowly, and Sir Roderick Glossop’s conviction that Bertie is mad. Bingo and Rosie Little appear in other works, as does Honoria Glossop. One unique feature in this novel is Jeeves’s attachments to the opposite sex.
Wodehouse’s fiction grows out of the English comic tradition of William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, the Restoration dramatists, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, and Saki. Most twentieth century literary comedians writing in English owe some debt to Wodehouse: Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, Kingsley Amis, and Tom Sharpe in particular. Yet no one approaches humor exactly as Wodehouse does, and The Inimitable Jeeves is characteristic of the best of this distinctive style.
Bibliography
Donaldson, Frances. P. G. Wodehouse: A Biography, 1982.
Hall, Robert A., Jr. The Comic Style of P. G. Wodehouse, 1974.
Morris, J. H. C., and A. D. MacIntyre. Thank You, Wodehouse, 1981.
Voorhees, Richard J. P. G. Wodehouse, 1966.