Notes for an unwritten Jeeves novel

[wotwotleigh.livejournal.com]

I just came across a page of Wodehouse's notes, published as a photographic plate in P. G. Wodehouse: A Literary Biography by Benny Green (New York: The Rutledge Press, 1981). Oh, what might have been . . .


Feb 9, 1948

Jeeves Novel

Tentative outline: - Bertie's old Oxford friend, Beefy Anstruther, on being told by the Gudgeon that she has met Bertie, gets in touch with him and asks him to be his best man. Wedding is imminent at Beefy's ancestral seat. There is a big house party for the wedding and Madeline and Gussie are there.

Beefy tells Bertie that all is not well between Gussie and Madeline, as Gussie is flirting with vamp. This decides Bertie to go down.

No, I think Madeline must not be there yet, only Gussie.

The story works along to the point where Madeline finds Gussie with vamp and breaks off engagement. Bertie hears of this and fears for his own safety. Gudgeon has row with Beefy and breaks off engt. As lesser of two evils Bertie gets engaged to Gudgeon. This of course makes Beefy want to slosh him. Now work in the theft of the necklace and we have something.

Try it with Honoria Glossop instead of Gudgeon. Bertie gets hurry call from Sir Roderick Glossop. He goes to his place and Sir Roderick tells him that Honoria has just got engaged to a man who knows all about jewels and that he, Sir R., has pinched the necklace which has to be given to her on her wedding day in order to put on a play he has written.

Or shall it be that Honoria is not actually engaged but is being courted by man. Sir Roderick got down vamp to distract man and vamp did the Antony stuff to Sir R. and Sir R. is now engaged to her. Bertie sugests getting Barrymore down to distract vamp. (Sir R. has written letters to vamp).

No, I think it works better with Gudgeon.

Jeeves's solution cd be to get the two couples playing golf in rain as in Feet of Clay.

I could make Beefy in insurance business and start with him coming to Bertie and getting him to take out insurance. Then when Beefy wants to slosh Bertie, Jeeves points out to him that his company will be annoyed.

Surely I can get something out of Bertie being pursued by Beefy. Bertie could take refuge in girl's room and so get engaged to her. In that case, Bertie could not actually be engaged to Gudgeon. She might come to him with sad story about Beefy and Bertie kiss her, and be seen by Beefy. Or would that work better for Gussie?

Suppose Gussie kisses Gud

[Handwritten note at top of page:] & keep in mind that Gudgeon thinks Bertie loves Madeline - she cd be trying all through to get M. to chuck Gussie & marry Bertie.

Comments

[haikitteh.livejournal.com]

I'd read it!

I like this Gudgeon character, she sounds like a perfect match for Beefy. Both of them sound really funny. I'll be honest, most of this story feels like an amalgam of Jeeves stories I've read before, but I've always enjoyed them. The insurance line is funny, too.

Poor Bertie, he's always running from the girls, but usually ends up kissing more of them than any other character!

Generally I come away from the Jeeves books thinking, "Needs more Jeeves" and that's pretty much how I feel about this outline too.

[wotwotleigh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, poor old Jeeves hardly gets a mention here. I guess Wodehouse was mostly focusing on how to work out the details of Bertie's romantic entanglements here. But yeah, there are a lot of familiar elements in this outline, stuff that he had either used before or would end up using in later works.

But I do like the idea of a well-meaning female friend actively trying to push Bertie and Madeline together because she just doesn't understand how bad that would be for all involved. It would be a nice change from, say, Stiffy trying to push them together as blackmail because she knows Bertie is terrified of La Bassett.

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

I agree with both of you that it is a bit depressing that Jeeves is so much in the background. But Wodehouse often treated Jeeves as a sort of deus ex machina (Jeeves ex machina?) anyway, so it's not surprising.

This is so cool!

[jasperjasper.livejournal.com]

Thanks, seeing this is super cool.