A brief review of Jeeves: A Gentleman's Personal Gentleman

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

I don't know where I saw mention of it (probably here somewhere in one of the comments, as that is the way of these things), but I picked up a copy recently of C. Northcote Parkinson's Jeeves: A Gentleman's Personal Gentleman, a "biography" of our own dear Reginald Jeeves.

I was uncertain what to expect, given how different people tend to view the characters. The book has some very charming moments in it, and some quite amusing anecdotes, including a mystery set in France that involved not just Hercule Poirot, but Lord Peter Wimsey and Father Brown, if you can imagine such a thing. Parkinson's Jeeves has traveled extensively in Europe and in North and South America, mostly before he met Bertie. I can certainly see Jeeves as a world traveler.

There were, however, a number of things that simply didn't ring true for me. In the first chapter, examining Jeeves's childhood, Parkinson notes that Jeeves was an only child and orphaned at an early age, yet he doesn't explain how Jeeves later acquires Mabel as a niece. His relationship with Charlie Silversmith seems much rockier than what Bertie presents in his accounts. The author also has Jeeves working for Lord Worplesdon twice, which I just don't see any evidence for in canon. He's also attempted to shoehorn Jeeves into the lives of nearly every Wodehouse character going. Sadly, it was things like this that didn't let me really enjoy the book very much.

Thankfully, I didn't pay too terribly much for the book (hardbound, 1979, St. Martin's Press). If you're a completist, it might be worth a look, but I wouldn't really recommend it beyond the fact that it presents one author's view of how Jeeves had become the man we got to know through Bertie Wooster. Quite honestly, a lot of the fic in this community is far better written and much more entertaining.

I am so glad I know all of you wonderful writers and artists!

Comments

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

Parkinson has Kipper coming to Bertie about Bobbie breaking up with him, and Bertie running into Bobbie later that day, where he pretty much proposes on the spot. Really, really not what one would expect from him, though in this, Bertie says she's mellowed considerably. Parkinson's Bertie voice doesn't generally ring particularly true anyway, sad to say.

An excerpt from said scene, Bertie's speaking to Bobbie over lunch:

"You know, Bobbie, I have always loved you. But you were such a danger to the public that I was half afraid of you. Why were you such a horror, darling?"

As you can see, not Bertie at the top of his form.

I don't know anything about the nature of the whole Lord Yaxley thing. One might assume that the title came into the family either with Sieur de Wooster, or sometime when the Woosters were biffing off to the crusades and the like. It could easily have been an hereditary title. Bertie does constantly refer to himself as the "last of the Woosters" despite the existence of Claude and Eustace. One wonders about this.

I definitely take The Ties That Bind as a forever kinda thing, particularly with Jeeves destroying Bertie's section in the club book. One doesn't violate the sacred trust of the Junior Ganymede lightly! The implication was certainly that Bertie would never need another valet and that Jeeves was signing on permanently.

[ladymoondancer.livejournal.com]

"You know, Bobbie, I have always loved you. But you were such a danger to the public that I was half afraid of you. Why were you such a horror, darling?"

Um, yuck. D:

Bertie does constantly refer to himself as the "last of the Woosters" despite the existence of Claude and Eustace. One wonders about this.

I've always wondered about this too. Of course, Wodehouse was known to change his canon whenever he felt like it, as evidenced by Bertie originally being "Bertie Mannering-Phipps". (And Brinkley morphing into "Bingley" . . . That one always mystified me.)

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you see what I mean regarding the Bertie voice here.

I have to wonder if the Brinkley/Bingley thing wasn't more about getting the person mixed up with Brinkley Court or something? Wodehouse reuses names like nobody's business. Agreed about Wodehouse changing canon whenever he felt like it. Which is always why I don't worry too much about things like actual timelines and/or shifting things a little when I write fic in this fandom. I tend to see it as forgivable, considering canon is so flexible.

[trista-zevkia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that doesn't sound anything like Bertie. Not only has Bobbie 'mellowed' Bertie has grown a vocabulary, the ability to talk about relationships, the ability to talk about relationships while in public, and a need to talk to Bobbie instead of just being told they were engaged.
Yeah, I don't think I'll be running out to buy this;)

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Don't bother. Borrow it if you must, but don't buy it.

[cosmosmariner.livejournal.com]

I definitely take The Ties That Bind as a forever kinda thing, particularly with Jeeves destroying Bertie's section in the club book. One doesn't violate the sacred trust of the Junior Ganymede lightly! The implication was certainly that Bertie would never need another valet and that Jeeves was signing on permanently.

THIS! This so much. I mean, Jeeves has always done his level best to stay within Bertie's atmosphere. Even when they had that unfortunate misunderstanding re: the banjolele, Jeeves went with Chuffy. And you will never, ever convince me that Jeeves didn't know that Bertie wasn't going to rent that cottage from Chuffy and manoeuvre his way into that situation so that he could stay around Bertie. Plus, even while he was Chuffy's servant, he spent more time with Bertie than with anyone else. (Sorry, I think I'm infesting this thread with my own head canon... I'll just biff off toward the lurker shadows now...)

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

*heh* No, your head canon matches my own here, totes.

[ladymoondancer.livejournal.com]

And you will never, ever convince me that Jeeves didn't know that Bertie wasn't going to rent that cottage from Chuffy and manoeuvre his way into that situation so that he could stay around Bertie. Plus, even while he was Chuffy's servant, he spent more time with Bertie than with anyone else.

It has been a while since I read the story version, but I think in the television version that Jeeves did indeed plan to simply leave as "a gesture", as he would say.

But at the same time . . . Jeeves also faced some revelations while he was away from Bertie. Chuffy and Mr. Stoker both admire him for his valeting abilities and (in Chuffy's case) cleverness, but at the same time Chuffy trades Jeeves off to Stoker without a thought. There is a scene in that episode where Jeeves is walking out of that big hallway by himself with a suitcase . . . just a very lonely scene.

While many of Jeeves' employers must have used his brainpower to get out of scrapes, I think Bertie is the only one who sees him more as a person than as a particularly clever dog whose only purpose is to pull people back from cliffs before they fall over.

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

Gods, I know. There's a scene in the book where a guy Jeeves is working for loses him in a poker game to Mr. Montague Todd.

Needless to say, Bertie would never treat Jeeves in such a way.

[cosmosmariner.livejournal.com]

That is an abomination. What I always rather liked about Bertie and Jeeves' relationship, whether or not one slashes them, is that Bertie always treated Jeeves warmly and with regard - as a friend and not merely an employee.

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

I know. It's yet another reason that I found the book rather a disappointment. Admittedly, the card game was a setup to steal Jeeves, but still. Feh.

Bertie may occasionally be sharply annoyed by Jeeves, but he really does like and depend upon him. Bertie might occasionally be persuaded to loan Jeeves out (reluctantly) to buttle for friends or relatives, but always with the expectation that Jeeves will be treated well and returned promptly and without any besmirching of the man's shine whatsoever. Not so much as a scuff on the marvel's shoe, thank you.

[stalkerbunny.livejournal.com]

Imo one of the slashier scenes in the tv-series is in that same episode when Jeeves is writing a love letter in Chuffy's (was it him?) stead. I wish I recalled the exact wording, but I believe he used a metaphor about vines wrapped over a cottage door or some such, and even Chuffy remarked on the metaphor not really suiting his affair with whoever it was he was trying to charm. Now, Bertie on the other hand was staying in a country cottage at the time...

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

Of course! Because Jeeves was so wrapped up in declaring himself to Bertie that he forgot he was writing the letter for Chuffy.