Rec a fic?

[applea.livejournal.com]

Recently (no more than a few hours ago, I should say) wotwotleigh showed me the delightful musical By Jeeves saying that Martin Jarvis' version of Jeeves was what she imagined when she read the books.

Now, I'm not sure if she meant age as well, but it got me thinking: are there any fics out there where Jeeves is significantly older (as is portrayed in this adaption)?

Credit: There must be!
Debit: Aha, but where are they?
Credit: Fortunately this comm is filled with helpful fellows who could surely rec a few!

Also, as previously mentioned, my computer gave up the ectoplasm a couple days ago and I lost all my bookmarks. Would anyone care to point me in the direction of their personal favorites? :D

Comments

[wotwotleigh.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I will also be interested to see if there are any older Jeeves fics out there.

Back when I first read the books, I certainly imagined Jeeves being much older than Bertie (which wouldn't necessarily preclude a slashy relationship, but I suppose it would make it somewhat less likely). This was partially due to Bertie's occasional references to Jeeves being like a father or an uncle (or even a mother). When I first saw Jeeves and Wooster, I had trouble accepting such a young Jeeves, but Fry's performance was so good that he eclipsed my original mental image of Jeeves almost immediately.

Now that I am rereading the books and short stories, I am starting to lean towards more of an age difference again. Like I said in the other post, maybe 10 years or so.

[trista-zevkia.livejournal.com]

Really? Cause I read the canon and Jeeves is strong, with sparkling eyes and dark hair. Bothers me when the image on the front is 98, white haired and has eight toes in the grave. Thick slash goggles I guess, but I figured Jeeves is only a few years older, physically. Emotionally, he's twenty years older, as he's been through more and worked for what he has and who he is. Ten years older is not too bad, by today's standards. Don't know the average life span in 1920, but ten years might have been a lot more back then.

[mxdp.livejournal.com]

Yup! Thinking the same here - never imagined Jeeves to be much older because it's simply not in the books. Yet all the bookcovers and musicals relate wisdom and knowledge with high age... following the logic I wonder why Jeeves isn't pictured with a walking stick lol
No, in my heart (and mind) Jeeves has a gleam in his eye, raven black hair and he's young enough to keep up with Bertie's adventures!

[trista-zevkia.livejournal.com]

Plus, Jeeves is a recognized master of his craft. If he was that advanced in age, he'd be a full Butler running a large country house, the most respected job in his career field. Not gallivanting around the world with a young whippersnapper. Bertie would find anybody 'fatherly' who took care of him and made him feel worthwhile. It's those other feelings that it's illegal to actually put in his books that an old Jeeves might not inspire.

Though the May/December plot bunny could be interesting...

[umpteenth-gail.livejournal.com]

Bertie was always describing Jeeves as being attractive, which may have fit in with PG's perhaps mischievous remark that he wished he was brave enough to write about homosexuals etc (I don't know if he was serious). But yes, Jeeves is obviously a goodish bit older than Bertie. A few years older only is wishful thinking and unrealistic. Ten years is realistic, though it could be as low as 7 or so. I don't know if there is any canon proof of what PG intended or whether he didn't think about it much.

[saylee.livejournal.com]

Is it unrealistic though, if there's no canon evidence one way or the other? No, Jeeves isn't at all boyish like Bertie is, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything about his age. All we can definitely say from the books is that he's old enough to have fought in WWI and young enough that Rowbotham calls him "young man."

[wotwotleigh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there really aren't a lot of clues about Jeeves's age one way or the other. I think maybe Wodehouse was intentionally vague about Jeeves in a lot of ways. The Jeeves of the short stories definitely reads (to me) as younger than the Jeeves in the novels, but both Jeeves and Bertie mature considerably as the series progresses, even though it's apparently only supposed to take place over the course of a few years.

[wotwotleigh.livejournal.com]

I didn't really have slash goggles on when I first read the books, which is probably part of the reason that I read Jeeves as so much older. I never pictured him as ancient, just middle aged.

Plum himself was middle aged when he first started writing the full-length Jeeves novels (and was already edging into middle age when he wrote most of the short stories), and he was ridiculously healthy and active with only a couple minor health blips for almost his entire long life. He wrote a lot of very sprightly middle-aged and older characters into his books, perhaps partially for that reason.

Anyway, if Jeeves were 10 years older than Bertie, that would put him at 34 as of the earlier short stories, and I'm pretty sure that was still considered "young" even in the early 20th century.

[derien.livejournal.com]

'Bronzed and fit' with 'finely chiseled features' I believe (though I may be mistaken about the later). However, Plum also described a little girl as having 'finely chiseled features' in "Mike," and I took that to be sarcastic. :)

[wotwotleigh.livejournal.com]

He definitely uses the "finely chiseled features" bit in reference to Jeeves a couple times. He also used it to describe the lady novelist in How Right You Are, Jeeves, with the further qualifier that she looked like Sherlock Holmes.

[derien.livejournal.com]

argh. 'later' = 'latter' of course.

[gini-baggins.livejournal.com]

As Bertie often says in fics: "You know all about me, but I know dashed little about you old thing!"

I've always imagined him 4-6 years older than Bertie :)