“I was particularly anxious to get together with Jeeves and hear what he had to say about the strange experience through which I had just passed, as strange an e. as had come my way in what you might call a month of Sundays.”

Book Review:

Reviewed by Poornima Apte (AUG 18, 2010)

For me, P. G. Wodehouse and eighth grade totally belong together. I spent all of eighth grade reading whatever Wodehouse I could get my hands on and totally inhabited the lives of Bertie Wooster, Jeeves and Blandings Castle. I still remember my friends and I writing letters to each other in the Wodehouse style: “How are you? Hope you’re in the pink of h.” That sort of stuff.

That instantly recognizable style of writing is also here in Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen—one of the many Wodehouse novels being re-released by Overlook Press for the 25th anniversary of his death. This is a Jeeves caper, which means the stoic butler is again rescuing his employer, Bertie Wooster, from comically sticky situations.

Most Wodehouse works are elaborately plotted and quite theatrical. In the best of Wodehouse writing there are many layers of comedic problems to be resolved and the humor arises from the various entanglements the characters find themselves in. A fair amount of the comedy is also physical—characters literally falling into and out of traps much to their surprise. In that sense they are perfect material for sitcoms. In fact a few of the “Fraser” episodes seemed to have a Wodehouse touch—characters walking in and out of doors into situations that only the viewer (reader) understood the humor of.

It wasn’t just Wodehouse’s infinitely loopy plots and comedic situations that made his stories so funny. There was also the writing. Although arguably Wodehouse didn’t do as much irony as is otherwise a cornerstone of British comedy, his writing nevertheless shows a dry sense of humor. His was also a style of writing that showed an immense respect of and love for the language—in that sense too, it was very “English.” Bertie Wooster, for example, often consults with Jeeves about the mot juste to describe many of his feelings. Here’s an example:

“I shall begin by saying that Miss Cook, to whom I’m engaged, is a lady for whom I have the utmost esteem and respect, but on certain matters we do not…what’s the expression?’
‘See eye-to-eye sir?’
‘That’s right. And unfortunately those matters are the what’d-you-call-it of my whole policy. What is it that policies have?’
‘I think the word for which you are groping, sir, may possibly be cornerstone.’

Back to the book, in Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen, Bertie is recommended a visit to the countryside by his doctor who thinks such a stay could do wonders for his health. As is to be expected in a Jeeves caper, even the sleepy little town of Somerset is wired full of traps and doesn’t give Bertie a moment’s rest.

In the story, Bertie’s Aunt Dahlia books him a cottage in town. Before long this rental is being used as a point of rendezvous between two lovers—Vanessa Cook and Orlo Porter. Ms. Cook once rejected Bertie’s own advances and here, after a huge fight with her boyfriend, she attaches herself to Bertie instead. This is unwelcome news to Bertie and he must find a way of saying No to the pushy Vanessa. A parallel plot revolves around the theft of a cat—a cat that has a vital role to play in an upcoming horse race.

As with other Jeeves stories, complications arise at many points until the end when everything gets resolved well and the story has a happy ending.

Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen isn’t the best of Wodehouse’s very entertaining work. While the dashes of humor and the style of writing are still here, the plot is not as elaborately plotted as the Jeeves ones usually are. In other words, for a reader new to Wodehouse, this would not be the book to start with. I would recommend Leave it to Jeeves or Pigs Have Wings (a great introduction to the fun at Blandings Castle) instead.

But for those familiar with Wodehouse and Jeeves, Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen will serve up some good chuckles—it’s light-hearted reading especially on a dreary afternoon. Wodehouse aficionados will relish revisiting with Bertie, Aunt Dahlia and Jeeves and adding this handsome volume to their collection. For me, it definitely was a nice trip down Memory L.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 5 readers
PUBLISHER:	Overlook Hardcover (April 2, 2009)
REVIEWER:	Poornima Apte
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	Not Yet
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Wikipedia page on P.G. Wodehouse
EXTRAS:	Wikipedia on Jeeves
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	More Wodehouse on MostlyFiction: Galahad at Blandings

Partial Bibliography:

Jeeves and Bertie:

• My Man Jeeves: Stories (1919)
• The Inimitable Jeeves: Stories (1923)
• Carry On, Jeeves: Stories (1925)
• Very Good, Jeeves: Stories (1930)
• Thank You, Jeeves (1934)
• Right Ho, Jeeves (1934)
• The Code of the Woosters (1938)
• Joy in the Morning (1946)
• Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (1954)
• The Return of Jeeves (1953)
• Jeeves in the Offing (1960)
• Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1969)
• Much Obliged, Jeeves (1971)
• Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (1974)

Also, a story in each of these collections:

• A Few Quick Ones (1959)
• Plum Pie (1971)

Newest Jeeves story:

• Jeeves and the Wedding Bells (November 2013)

“Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, that vague and dreamy peer, was not one of England’s keenest brains. The life he led made for slowness of the thinking processes. Except when he was attending sisters’ weddings in America, he spent his time pottering about the gardens and messuages of Blandings Castle, his rural seat, his thoughts such as they were, concentrated on his prize sow, Empress of Blandings. When indoors you could generally find him in his study engrossed in a book of porcine interest, most frequently that monumental work ON THE CARE OF THE PIG by Augustus Whipple, of which he never wearied.”

Book Review:

Reviewed by Mary Whipple (AUG 11, 2009)

In this ninth of his eleven Blandings Castle farces, P. G. Wodehouse brings a large cast of mostly repeating characters to Blandings Castle in Shropshire, where their adolescent behavior, their misplaced values, and their obliviousness to real issues in a real world, allow Wodehouse to create gentle but pointed satire of the British upperclass, of which he himself was also a member. Written in 1965, but set in 1929, this novel, like all Wodehouse writing, is timeless in its ability to capture the silly, the petty, and the laughable in complex and hilarious plots in which numerous misunderstandings occur because characters refuse to be honest with themselves and with each other. Wodehouse selects perfect, absurd details to describe these characters as they engage in perfectly outrageous actions, as he coaxes readers of all walks of life to laugh with those whom “society” considers to be “upper” class.

Tipton Plimsoll, who begins the novel “sleeping it off” in the pokey in New York City after a riotous night on the town with fellow Englishman Wilfred Allsop, discovers that his wallet has been stolen during the night. Unable to pay his way out of jail, he calls Lord Emsworth, a future in-law, who is also in New York for the wedding of one of his nine sisters, telling him he has lost his money and needs to borrow a small sum. This is October, 1929, however, and Lord Emsworth and everyone else who hears this story, assumes that the well-heeled Tipton, engaged to marry Lord Emsworth’s niece, is bankrupt as a result of the stock market crash.

While in New York, Tipton discovers that the slightly built Wilfred Allsop worships from afar Monica Simpson, the tall, athletic woman who takes care of the Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth’s prized pig. Tipton determines to bring them together.

When all the characters have returned to Blandings Castle, Veronica Wedge, Tipton Plimsoll’s fiancée, is told by her mother Hermione to break off the engagement to her now “penniless” suitor. Veronica, described as having “about as much brain as would fit comfortably into an aspirin bottle,” someone whose aim in life was “to look as [much] like a chandelier as possible,” follows her mother’s orders.

Galahad Threepwood, Lord Emsworth’s brother, an incorrigible meddler, also at Blandings Castle makes it his mission to prevent her “Dear John” letter from being delivered. He has also determined to reunite Sandy Callender, Lord Emsworth’s “secretary,” with her former fiance Samuel Galahad Bagshott, who in pique has called her a “ginger-haired fathead.” Sam has also punched the local constable in the face and needs a place to hide, ending up, of course, at Blandings.

As one might expect in a farce, complications arise in even the most elementary plot lines, and Veronica’s “Dear John” letter begins to take on a life of its own as it is passed from hand to hand. The Empress of Blandings becomes ill, alarming Lord Emsworth enough that he calls in the pig expert Augustus Whipple, who finds his life overlapping with another of the characters at Blandings and possibly affecting the outcome of one of the love stories. And as the various lovers try to “conquer all,” Galahad remains front and center pulling the strings.

The action is fast and furious, with one complication following another. The humor is obvious and very visual, with silly characters behaving much the way they do in the early TV sitcoms or Marx Brothers movies. Wodehouse’s sense of timing and his fine grasp of his characters keep readers fully amused in this delightful entertainment which allows Wodehouse to tweak upperclass pretensions and values.mode.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 8 readers
PUBLISHER:	Overlook Hardcover (August 6, 2009)
REVIEWER:	Mary Whipple
AMAZON PAGE:	Galahad at Blandings
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Wikipedia page on P.G. Wodehouse
EXTRAS:	Wikipedia on Galahad Threepwood
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	More Wodehouse on MostlyFiction: Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen More Satire: Work Shirts for Madmen by George Singleton Rumpole Misbehaves by John Mortimer Florence of Arabia by Christopher Buckley Cheese by Willem Elsschot

Partial Bibliography:

Blandings Castle Saga:

• Something Fresh (1915)
• Leave it to Psmith (1923)
• Summer Lightening (1929)
• Heavy Weather (1933)
• Blandings Castle : Stories (1935)
• Uncle Fred in teh Springtime (1939)
• Full Moon (1947)
• Pigs Have Wings (1952)
• Service with a Smile (1961)
• Galahad at Blandings (First Release date)
• A Pelican at Blandings (1969)
• Sunset at Blandings (1977)
• Lord Emsworth and Others: Stories (1992)