The Jeeves Collection

Contents: My Man Jeeves Extricating Young Gussie Right Ho, Jeeves Jeeves is a fictional character in a series of humorous short stories and novels by P. G. Wodehouse, being the highly-competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Bertie Wooster created in 1915. Both the name "Jeeves" and the character of Jeeves have come to be thought of as the quintessential name and nature of a valet or butler, inspiring many similar characters. The premise of the Jeeves stories is that the brilliant valet is firmly in control of his rich and foppish young employer's life. Jeeves becomes Bertie Wooster's protector and all-purpose problem solver, devising subtle plans to rescue Bertie and his friends from tiresome social obligations, demanding relatives, brushes with the law, and, above all, problems involving women. Wodehouse derives much comic effect from having Bertie, his narrator, remain blissfully unaware of Jeeves's machinations, until all is revealed at the end of the story.

'A comic master' David Walliams 'Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale . . . A world for us to live and delight in' Evelyn Waugh A veritable feast of comedy awaits with this delightful collection of Wodehouse stories featuring the infamous Bertie Wooster and everyone's favourite gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves. Witness the iconic first meeting of Bertie and Jeeves and follow them as they navigate the endless scrapes that the hapless Bertie lands them in. Meet the fearsome and meddling Aunt Agatha - who would like nothing more than to see Bertie settle down - and Bingo Little - Bertie's insatiable friend who has fallen head-over-heels for seven different girls. Specially selected and introduced by Wodehouse himself - and containing the timeless classics Carry On, Jeeves, The Inimitable Jeeves and Very Good, Jeeves - there's something for everyone in this omnibus.

This is an omnibus collection of stories and novels about Jeeves, Bertie Wooster's inimitable manservant.

'It beats me why a man of his genius is satisfied to hang around pressing my clothes and what not,' says Bertie. 'If I had Jeeves's brain I should have a stab at being Prime Minister or something.' Luckily for us, Bertie Wooster manages to retain Jeeves's services through all the vicissitudes of purple socks and policeman's helmets, and here, gathered together for the first time, is an omnibus of Jeeves novels and stories comprising three of the funniest books ever written: Thank You, Jeeves, The Code of the Woosters and The Inimitable Jeeves.

Jeeves—my man, you know—is really a most extraordinary chap. So capable. Honestly, I shouldn't know what to do without him. On broader lines he's like those chappies who sit peering sadly over the marble battlements at the Pennsylvania Station in the place marked "Inquiries." You know the Johnnies I mean. You go up to them and say: "When's the next train for Melonsquashville, Tennessee?" and they reply, without stopping to think, "Two-forty-three, track ten, change at San Francisco." And they're right every time. Well, Jeeves gives you just the same impression of omniscience. As an instance of what I mean, I remember meeting Monty Byng in Bond Street one morning, looking the last word in a grey check suit, and I felt I should never be happy till I had one like it. I dug the address of the tailors out of him, and had them working on the thing inside the hour. "Jeeves," I said that evening. "I'm getting a check suit like that one of Mr. Byng's." "Injudicious, sir," he said firmly. "It will not become you." "What absolute rot! It's the soundest thing I've struck for years." "Unsuitable for you, sir." Well, the long and the short of it was that the confounded thing came home, and I put it on, and when I caught sight of myself in the glass I nearly swooned. Jeeves was perfectly right. I looked a cross between a music-hall comedian and a cheap bookie. Yet Monty had looked fine in absolutely the same stuff. These things are just Life's mysteries, and that's all there is to it. But it isn't only that Jeeves's judgment about clothes is infallible, though, of course, that's really the main thing. The man knows everything. There was the matter of that tip on the "Lincolnshire." I forget now how I got it, but it had the aspect of being the real, red-hot tabasco. "Jeeves," I said, for I'm fond of the man, and like to do him a good turn when I can, "if you want to make a bit of money have something on Wonderchild for the 'Lincolnshire.'"

_______________________________ A Jeeves and Wooster novel Jeeves is on holiday in Herne Bay, and while he's away the world caves in on Bertie Wooster. For a start, he's astonished to read in The Times of his engagement to the mercurial Bobbie Wickham. Then at Brinkley Court, his Aunt Dahlia's establishment, he finds his awful former head master in attendance ready to award the prizes at Market Snodsbury Grammar School. And finally the Brinkley butler turns out for reasons of his own to be Bertie's nemesis in disguise, the brain surgeon Sir Roderick Glossop. With all occasions informing against him, Bertie has to hightail it to Herne Bay to liberate Jeeves from his shrimping net. And after that, the fun really starts. ‘I picked up Jeeves in the Offing recently, having not read PG Wodehouse for years. Half an hour later I was still reading and laughing. He can develop a comic idea and deliver the payoff over a chapter, a paragraph, or a single sentence.’ Sadie Jones (in the Guardian)

In The Inimitable Jeeves, Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves embark on a series of riotous adventures. Among other things they involve Bertie's feeble attempts to stop his friend Bingo Little from falling in love with every girl he meets. But the amiable chump's main concern is to avoid the eagle eye and iron will of his merciless Aunt Agatha. In one of the funniest works in the English language, P. G. Wodehouse charms, delights, and occasionally surprises the reader with his shrewd parody of the carefree lives of the English elite.

A Jeeves and Wooster novel Bertie Wooster looks pretty stylish in his new Tyrolean hat - or so he thinks: others, notably Jeeves, disagree. But when Bertie embarks on an errand of mercy to Totleigh Towers, things get quickly out of control and he's going to need all the help Jeeves can provide. There are good eggs present, such as Gussie Fink-Nottle and the Rev. 'Stinker' Pinker. But there also is Sir Watkyn Bassett J.P., enemy of all the Woosters hold dear, to say nothing of his daughter Madeline and Roderick Spode, now raised to the peerage. And Major Brabazon Plank, the peppery explorer, who wants to lay Bertie out cold. Thank goodness for the intervention of Chief Inspector Witherspoon of Scotland Yard - but is this gentleman all he seems?