indeedsir_backup | Classic Wodehouse Illustrations 15: Joy in the Morning (Reply)

Oh, my fellow Indeed_Sirrers, it has been so long! I don't know how many of you are still around who remember this series, but a million years ago in internet time (so like 4 years ago) I started gathering and posting illustrations from the original publications of various Jeeves and Bertie stories/novels. I posted all the ones that were easy for me to come by online, mostly from 1910s-early 1920s issues of Cosmopolitan and The Strand.

Well, today I bring you illustrations from the American publication of Joy in the Morning (Doubleday and Co., 1946) by illustrator Paul Galdone. Now, I don't want to say I 100% hate everything about them, but . . . yeah. I'm sorry, Mr. Galdone, you were a perfectly fine children's book illustrator. But this just ain't ringing my chimes. :(

Okay, so, I'm not going to show you all of them. Just some of the, um, most representative examples. One thing I can't fault Galdone on: he was generous with the illustrations. There are a ton of these.

This is our first look at our two heroes. And, as the narrative circles back around to this scene at the end, it is dutifully repeated in the last chapter. Jeeves appears to be cosplaying as a bumblebee with 1980s shoulder pads in every illustration in which he appears, just to warn you. At least he has on his bowler in this one.

In general, the less said about Galdone's Jeeves, the better:

I . . . I just . . . I can't . . . Sigh.

Ok, let's move on to Bertie and some of our other principals:

Ah, the infamous Spindrift scene. One thing that strikes me about these is that everyone looks very contemporary to 1946 (except Jeeves, who just looks . . . I don't know), and why shouldn't they, I guess? But in my mind, and in Wodehouse's as well I think, this story was still very much set in the vague pre-WWII era of his previous works in the Joosterverse. But anyway, this Florence does not look nearly severe enough, and I can't see her dressing that way even in the '40s. We seem to have another old!Bertie here, too. At least there's not a hint of monocle or mustache in sight!

This is kind of fun, I'll grant you:

But why does everyone look like Spike Jones?

Bertie looks like Spike Jones. Stilton looks even more like Spike Jones. I guess Jeeves at least is spared the Spike Jonesification, but he looks like he's going to start going "Hoo hoo hoo!" and clapping his fingertips together like Ed Wynn at any moment. (ETA: I should clarify that Jeeves is not pictured in the illustration above. That's a random jeweler. But just in general, Galdone's Jeeves gives me an Ed Wynn vibe. A bumblebee Ed Wynn vibe.)

ANYWAY.

Here are Bertie and Florence again, and I feel like she looks a little more character appropriate this time, maybe because we see her in profile:

Bertie looks suitably freaked out, too.

I think this is Nobby, but she looks exactly the damn same as Florence:

And here's Boko, random gardiner, and Lord Worplesdon. Boko and Lord W. are the two characters with whom I have the fewest issues here, design-wise. Boko looks appropriately disheveled and goofy, and, well, it would be hard to mess up Worplesdon:

Galdone does illustrate some wonderful, iconic scenes from the book, and there's no denying his pictures have an appropriate level of looney energy. They don't suffer from Skidmore's stilted and affectless look. In tone, they're closest to my beloved A. W. Mills illustrations, but they just do not have the same adorable charm. Here's a nice little assortment:

Bertie kicks Edwin's ass, to the delight of all! Edwin appears to be wearing Chuck Taylors?

Bertie has Porpentine Twubble:

Jeeves steals Stilton's uniform. I'll give Galdone some points on this one for Stilton's extremely derpy swimming posture:

This is one of my favorite scenes in all of Jooster canon, so I'm glad to see that it's . . . not that bad. It helps that most of Bertie's Spike Jonesy face is hidden by the oversized helmet.

This one is actually kind of cute/sweet in its general tone and composition. I'm just going to mentally replace them with Mills!Bertie and Raleigh!Jeeves: