This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Inimitable Jeeves
Series: The Jeeves Omnibus #1.3
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 237
Format: Digital Edition
| Synopsis: |
A collection of stories about Jeeves and Bertie that center mainly around Bertie’s friend Bingo Little and his constantly falling in love and with Bertie’s two younger cousins who are identical twins.
Through it all Jeeves must put up with Bertie’s poor sartorial choices.
| My Thoughts: |
Chronologically, and in order of publication too I believe, this was the first Jeeves & Wooster book. I found the short story format much easier to deal with than the longer novel length. Also, while Wodehouse’s writing wasn’t quite as polished, I enjoyed Bertie more as a person, as he wasn’t always shortening things to their initials. This was Bertie in the raw and I enjoyed it.
Bertie’s cousins, who’s names I can’t even remember, are young scaliwags who end up getting kicked out of college and sent off to South Africa to serve in the British Government there. The hopes being that responsibility will straighten them out. This is all Aunt Agatha’s doing, as is much in this book. We learn, through one sentence, that Bertie’s parents are dead and he is immensely independently wealthy, which makes Aunt Agatha’s power over him all the more puzzling.
Then you have Bingo Little. My goodness, that man was falling in love and having problems in every story. In one story he fell in love with a communist for goodness sake! He does finally get hitched in the end. Bertie’s aversion to marriage is made plain throughout these stories and along with Aunt Agatha, is a building block of the whole series.
Jeeves plays a very small part in all of this. He’s simply the deux ex machina that solves things, except when Bertie refuses to listen to him in regards to style and fashion. But once Bertie relents, Jeeves simply solves everything. I’m not sure if it is amazing or just how pathetic everyone else is.
In any case, I found this very amusing and liked the short story aspect much more to my taste. I remain confused about the order of the books, as there seems to be no rhyme or reason to why they are so mixed up.
★★★★☆
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
Yeah, some books just work better as novellas than full-length novels. I wish more authors would be aware of that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed! Not everyone can be, or should be, a Brandon Sanderson.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Is this children’s/YA fiction (and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way)?
Was just marveling at how varied your reading is. I keep coming across mentions of Wodehouse. I think Jack Vance was a fan of his. 😉
I may need to check out his stuff sometime.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure that most kids would get Wodehouse’s humor, although teens probably would.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Word.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Darren answered pretty succinctly.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Some stories are just better told in a shorter format — and some authors are better at writing them than longer works. Glad you enjoyed it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, I needed a good light read…
LikeLike
One day I hope to understand why you – or any number of friends, acquaintances, people of taste – find anything having to do with Jeeves or Wooster to be at all entertaining…
I will say, that I can’t see how these stories would work in a longer format. So I agree with you there, anyway
LikeLiked by 1 person
You never will. That’s how humor works, or doesn’t, as the case may be for you. Humor is that elusive beast that for some is as big as an elephant while appearing completely invisible to others 🙂
Ahhh, the subjectivity of books!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I looked up the omnibus just to see how the stories were collected… No clue what the reasoning behind it was. 😮
LikeLiked by 1 person
It feels completely random and the first book is a full length novel instead of a series of shorts and it doesn’t work nearly as well. It didn’t feel like a fan put these together 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
I mean… minimally.. it could’ve been put together based on publication date? I don’t even think that was the case here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was not. It is completely random
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimesi wish the english could re invade S.A…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Probably not worth the hassle to them 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person