Several papers have noted Waugh’s birthday. The Sunday Times earlier this week has even offered up a sort of present. This is a new book that contains new stories in which the P G Wodehouse character Jeeves is prominently featured. This is entitled Jeeves Again and is reviewed by Patrick Kidd. Here is an excerpt:
…Many try to copy him and drown in pastiche, although Sebastian Faulks made a good fist of Jeeves and the Wedding Bells and I enjoyed Ben Schott’s spy capers Jeeves and the King of Clubs and Jeeves and the Leap of Faith. Now a new Woostershire XI (plus scorer) has been selected to take on the challenge, with mixed success. Jeeves Again, a collection of 12 new short stories, is full of fizz and variety, but not every googly lands on the button.
This is not because many of them have “updated” the setting to the modern day, when deference is dead. After all, Wodehouse’s essence is in the spirit, not the social situation. His gentle humour can endure change. As Evelyn Waugh wrote in 1961: “Mr Wodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own.” Don’t we all need a Jeeves now?…
The book is published in the UK by Hutchinson Heinemann and is available for £22 and from Amazon.com in the USA for $29.99.
