In
need of a pick-me-up? Pick up any P.G. Wodehouse story about Bertie Wooster and
his gentleman’s gentleman Jeeves. I dare you to frown even once as you frolic
in English countryside with the likes of Stiffy Byng, Gussie Fink-Nottle, and Stinker
Pinker, the local curate. Just reading their names brings a smile to my face.
If
you’ve read (or seen on TV) any of the ten or more Jeeves & Wooster stories,
you know that ingenious Jeeves must rescue scatterbrained Wooster from awkward
pickles. In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves,
Bertie must be rescued from a series of pickles, including repeatedly being
mistaken for a thief and being threatened with an unwanted betrothal to the demanding
daughter of the very man who detests him most, ex-magistrate Sir Watkyn Bassett.
Hilarity ensues.
I
could picture the silliness of most of the scenes, and my favorite was one in
which Bertie and Watkyn bump into each other in the hallway in the middle of
the night. “...as I
felt my way along the wall I collided with what turned out to be a grandfather
clock, for the existence of which I had not budgeted, and it toppled over with
a sound like the delivery of several tons of coal through the roof of a
conservatory. Glass crashed, pulleys and things parted from their moorings, and
as I stood trying to separate my heart from the front teeth in which it had
become entangled, the lights flashed on and I beheld Sir Watkyn Bassett.” Moments
later both men leap onto a large chest to avoid being bitten by a dog.
Wodehouse unfolds this scene over seven pages with perfect pacing, droll
observations, and funny dialog. Not to mention Watkyn’s dressing gown of yellow
frogs on bright purple fabric.
Wodehouse’s
clever wordplay, colorful descriptions, and understated British humor always
delight me.
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