Thank You, Jeeves

1934, 1989 Harper & Row edition
P. G. Wodehouse
Thank You, Jeeves
Bought newish for $7.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-

As Wodehouse says, in another of his delightful Prefaces, this is the first Jeeves novel.  It's set in a surprisingly specific time period, July of 1931.  This is clear not only because Bertie says it's July, but because a policeman speaks of crime statistics for 1929 and 1930.  Therefore, the short story "Jeeves and the Greasy Bird" must be Christmastime 1932.

The most obvious way the book is dated, aside from a reference to Janet Gaynor, is the unfortunate and recurring use of the N-word, in reference to minstrels.  Bertie takes up banjo-playing and he hopes to get some tips from the troupe who are performing in Chuffnell Regis.  He and Sir Roderick Glossop both end up in blackface by the end.  Not only is it offensive, but it's not particularly funny.

Other than that, the first full-length Bertie scrape is fairly well-done.  Sir Roderick is gradually denemesised, to be replaced by rich, bullying American J. Washburn Stoker as the scariest of Bertie's prospective fathers-in-law.  Bertie got engaged, offstage, back in April to Stoker's daughter Pauline, but now she wants to team up with his friend Chuffy.  (Real name Marmaduke, which to a late-20th-century person like myself immediately conjures up the image of a not-so-great Dane.)  However, as Jeeves remarks, Bertie is "one of Nature's bachelors."  This doesn't mean that Bertie is gay, although I have a theory that he's closeted to himself.  "The attitude of fellows towards finding girls in their bedroom shortly after midnight varies. Some like it. Some don't. I didn't."


Another odd thing about this book is Brinkley, or rather two odd things.  Jeeves understandably doesn't want to be cooped up in a country cottage with Bertie playing the banjo.  (Harper & Row do awesome covers for their books, and this one, although not strictly matching the text, captures Jeeves's annoyance perfectly.)  So Bertie gets a new man, who has the same name as his aunt's manor.  Mr. Brinkley dislikes Bertie, who for some reason thinks this makes Brinkley a Communist, although there's no textual evidence.