[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com
I say, let's try something with a little color today!



"Jeeves in the Springtime" was the first story illustrated by Mills in The Strand and the first one to appear in Cosmopolitan (illustrated, of course, by our pal Skidmore). So both artists are still feeling out the characters at this point.
Little horseshoes! )

Other entries:
"Comrade Bingo"
"Bertie Changes His Mind"
"Leave It to Jeeves"
Right Ho, Jeeves
"The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace"
"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count"
[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com
So, in the last couple of posts, we've gotten to see a bit of Bertie's family: Aunt Dahlia, Cousin Angela, the errant (and surprisingly aged, at least in Skidmore's illustrations) Wooster twins, and even Uncle George. But so far we have had only a brief glance at the dreaded Aunt Agatha. So let's have a closer look.



I give you "Aunt Agatha Takes the Count"/"Aunt Agatha Makes a Bloomer"/"Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind" + "Pearls Mean Tears"/"That One with the Pearls where Bertie Finally Sticks It to Aunt Agatha"! 

Seriously, I never even know what to call this story. )

Other entries:
"Comrade Bingo"
"Bertie Changes His Mind"
"Leave It to Jeeves"
Right Ho, Jeeves
"The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace"
"Jeeves in the Springtime"
[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com
Oh, it's going to be hard to follow up Henry Raleigh's Right Ho, Jeeves illustrations! In the meantime, here's something a little more low-key, but also highly entertaining: "The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace", illustrated by our friends A. W. Mills and T. D. Skidmore. 



I saw the phantasm of poor, dear Eustace! )
Other entries:
"Comrade Bingo"
"Bertie Changes His Mind"
"Leave It to Jeeves"
Right Ho, Jeeves
"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count"
"Jeeves in the Springtime"
[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com
Good afternoon! Oh, do I have a treat for you guys today.

Hee!

Readers of the Saturday Evening Post on December 23rd, 1933, opened up their magazine to one of the best early Christmas presents ever. Across from a truly nightmarish portrait of Santa Claus shilling Whitman's chocolates lay the first page of a new serial by P. G. Wodehouse, illustrated by long-time Post artist Henry Raleigh.
Is this a time for Fink or any other kind of Nottle? )

Other entries:
"Comrade Bingo"
"Bertie Changes His Mind"
"Leave It to Jeeves"
"The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace"
"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count"
"Jeeves in the Springtime"
[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com
I'm back with more of these wonderful vintage illustrations! Today, I'd like to go back to where it all began.

Jeeves, Corky, Bertie

Well, not quite, actually -- Bertie and Jeeves first appeared in "Extricating Young Gussie," published in The Strand in January 1916, but Jeeves played such a small role in that one that he didn't even rate an illustration. (It's still worth a look for several reasons, so I'll definitely post it at some point.)

But today I'd like to post the illustrations from "Leave It to Jeeves," a story that appeared in the same magazine only a few months later. You may know it better as "The Artistic Career of Young Corky." Here the foundation is laid for the familiar Jeeves and Bertie dynamic that we all know and love.

The Ur-Jeeves? )
Other entries:
"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count"
"Comrade Bingo"
"Bertie Changes His Mind"
Right Ho, Jeeves
"The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace"
"Jeeves in the Springtime"
[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com
Okay, I'm back with the second installment of this series of vintage Jeeves and Bertie illustrations!



When I started doing this project, I was very curious about how the illustrators would handle "Bertie Changes His Mind," that little oddity where Jeeves is the narrator. Would Jeeves, being the roguish protagonist of the piece, look any different from his usual staid, valety self? In fact, he kind of does.

"If a laugh isn't becoming to your style of beauty, don't read this story!" )

Other entries:
"Comrade Bingo"
"Leave It to Jeeves"
Right Ho, Jeeves
"The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace"
"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count"
"Jeeves in the Springtime"
[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com
I hope I'm not bothering anyone by posting so many times in a row, but I just have to share this with you. This is it for today, I swear!

When I was poking around for Wodehouse covers, something suddenly dawned on me: a lot of the Jeeves and Bertie stories were originally published in illustrated magazines. I found, to my vast delight, that a lot of these magazines are available online, original illustrations at all. I nabbed a bunch of them (they're public domain and everything!), and I figured I'd post them for you one story at a time (albeit not in any particular order).

Without further ado, I give you "Comrade Bingo."
Noooo, so much facial hair! )
Other entries:
"Bertie Changes His Mind"
"Leave It to Jeeves"
Right Ho, Jeeves
"The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace"
"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count"
"Jeeves in the Springtime"
[identity profile] ironicbees.livejournal.com
Her "understanding" with Jeeves is such a mystery to me. After reading "Jeeves in the Springtime" again, I'm still not sure exactly what was going on. That story sure raises a lot of questions. Do you think Jeeves really had an understanding with her, or did he just make that up, and if so, why?

Read more )
[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com
I mentioned this briefly in the comments on my last post, but I have been giving it a great deal of thought since then. In the course of re-reading the Jeeves and Wooster books, I recently read "Indian Summer of an Uncle" (Very Good, Jeeves! ch. 10). It struck me, as I was reading it, that this story is different from most of the other stories in the canon. I am really fascinated by it. I'm still struggling to define what it is that makes it stand out so much.

Read more... )


[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com
So, I have re-read all of the Jeeves and Bertie novels (except Aunts Aren't Gentlemen, which I've never read and still can't bring myself to read for reasons which are probably silly, but there you are) and I have started on the short stories. One of the ones I recently got through was "Pearls Mean Tears", which contains the following two paragraphs (bolding mine): 

Bertie and Jeeves have a tiff about a cummerbund )

Oh, Wodehouse! I know it's just Bertie's typical hyperbolic style, but that's not even subtext. XD

Also, I have a question. I could swear that there's a scene in one of the novels where Bertie is chatting with some goofy girl, and he is suddenly overwhelmed by an impulse to kiss her. However, something interrupts him at the last minute and nothing ever comes of it. Thing is, I've read through all the novels again and I haven't seen it. Am I just imagining this? Is it one of those things that's in some editions but not others? Was it one of the short stories instead of one of the novels? HALP!

[identity profile] sex-in-spats.livejournal.com
As I have been threatening to do for a goodish while now, I finally scraped together the time to write an essay on Jeeves and the philosophy of Spinoza. Fans of Wodehouse who have little to no background in the subject of philosophy are the intended audience, so don't be put off by fear that it might be too technical. My presentation of Spinoza's thought is not intended to be comprehensive; rather, I have distilled the parts of it I think shed light on Jeeves as a character. As someone who loves Spinoza, Jeeves' interest in the philosopher has suggested to me a very particular reading of his personality.  This is not meant to be a refined or exhaustive treatment of the subject. It's just a little something which I hope will spark curiosity and discussion. I am eager to hear other people's thoughts. 

I cut out a bit of material I'd prepared in the interest of keeping the essay to a friendlier length, so feel free to ask lots of questions. I trust it is not too dry. ;-) Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] erynn999 for her encouragement and willingness to look over the paper before I posted it.

Follow the link to my journal if any of this sounds interesting to you: Spinoza's latest...
[identity profile] ironicbees.livejournal.com
This has come up briefly in past discussions, but I thought it might be interesting to go into it at somewhat greater length.

Pauline seems more perceptive than most of Bertie's fiancées. She could tell that he was glad to be out of their engagement, while he thought he was upset about it (and as for that, why did he propose in the first place?). She doesn't operate under the delusion that he's still in love with her. She asks Bertie "'Don't you worship the way [Chuffy's] hair fluffs up behind?'" And then there's her feeling perfectly safe being in his bed and wearing his pajamas. This leads me to wonder if she'd sensed something about his inclinations.

What tipped her off that he didn't really want to marry her? Do you think she could tell that Bertie was into men*? If she doesn't know about that, did she simply assume he had feelings for someone else? Was she just really oblivious about how her being in his bed would appear?

And what about the other ladies? I think Aunt Dahlia and Angela are the likeliest to know or suspect, but I'm not sure if they actually do.


*Not so much that she believed he was gay and only faking interest in women, but that maybe he liked men as well.
[identity profile] saylee.livejournal.com
Just a bit of speculation here, namely that Bertie's cousin Angela is not the daughter of Tom Travers, but the daughter of Aunt Dahlia's first husband (the one who was mean to her and eventually got drunk and drowned). Bertie and Angela seem to be close in age - she can't be that much younger, certainly if she used to call him her "little darling", and in "Clustering Round Young Bingo" Bertie tells us what he was thinking when Aunt Dahlia married Tom, which suggests he was an older child at least, if he remembers it that well. While I haven't checked the later novels, in the short stories and in Right Ho, Jeeves, Angela is never given a last name. Even Jeeves, who refers to most of Bertie's female friends as Miss LastName, calls her Miss Angela. Thoughts?

Also, Angela's engagement to Tuppy: a good idea despite their occasional tiffs, or a disaster waiting to happen? Discuss.
ext_502975: I am a fair dictator. (Japanese Magnolia light)
[identity profile] gunitneko.livejournal.com
I wish to start a discussion. How much of Jeeves work is Marvel and how much is undiagnosed OCD? Thoughts! GO!

(and are there any fics?)
[identity profile] saylee.livejournal.com
I was rereading The Inimitable Jeeves today, and I noticed something a bit odd when I got to the first paragraph of "Introducing Claude and Eustace": Aunt Agatha's butler is named Spenser. Her husband is Spenser Gregson, and while she is referred to as Mrs. Gregson here, in other stories, she is referred to as "Mrs. Spenser". Say what, now? Scandalous speculations on the nature of Aunt A's relationship with her butler are welcomed.
[identity profile] ironicbees.livejournal.com
I've completed my notes for the novels, and I decided to put it up in one whole file instead of splitting it in two as originally planned. Since Google docs was such a bitch to work with, I made a pdf instead. All the notes - novels, short stories, chronology - can be downloaded in a zip file here. I tidied up all the files and added footnotes, and corrected a few errors here and there.

Now I can finally get back to doing more art!
[identity profile] ironicbees.livejournal.com
From "The Code of the Woosters" on, Bertie gives out information that Jeeves shares with him from the Junior Ganymede Club book. But there are severe penalties for members who reveal specifics about what's in it. If any club members read Bertie's stories, or have acquaintances/employers who do, they're eventually going to realize that someone's been violating Rule 11. Bertie might write under a pen name, and disguise the names and places in his stories, but how many clubs for valets & butlers can there be in London that have a club book the members have to contribute to? It would be obvious to members who and what Bertie was talking about, and relatively easy to find out the identities of the gentleman and the valet responsible for the leak.

What I'm wondering is, by the time Bertie has written "The Tie That Binds", has Jeeves been expelled from his club? Even if Jeeves or Bertie feel secure enough to be willing to share details from the book because Jeeves's position is now permanent, I don't think Jeeves would want to lose that social outlet, nor lose his reputation among other servants. Do they feel secure enough to do it because Jeeves did get kicked out and now has nothing to lose? I don't know. Anybody have any opinions or theories about what went on?

There's also the issue of when the destruction of Bertie's 18 pages was discovered. I'm sure it wouldn't be long before that happened, since they're so popular. Do you think Jeeves would be able to be able to argue his way out of expulsion for it, like in The Code of the Ganymede?
[identity profile] saylee.livejournal.com
I may be the last one to figure this out, but I was curious as to what exactly heliotrope pyjamas were. I thought it might be some sort of pattern, but it turns out heliotrope is a colour; specifically, it is pink-purple or vivid lavender! Is anyone else as delighted by the idea of Bertie in his vivid lavender pyjamas as I am?

ETA: take a look at the lovely art by [livejournal.com profile] gunitneko and [livejournal.com profile] muuskanuikkunen in the comments.
[identity profile] erynn999.livejournal.com
So. Doing. Each. Other.

This, from "Jeeves and the Tie That Binds," regarding Ginger and Bertie before Jeeves came into Bertie's life:

Chapter 2, Aunt Dahlia calls Bertie. She notes that Ginger is visiting.

"Know him?" I said. "You bet I know him. We were like... Jeeves!"
"Sir?"
"Who were those two fellows?"
"Sir?"
"Greek, if I remember correctly. Always mentioned when the subject of bosom pals comes up."
"Would you be referring to Damon and Pythias, sir?"
"That's right. We were like Damon and Pythias, old ancestor."


Chapter 3, Bertie describes meeting Ginger. They had adjacent rooms at Oxford, and it sounds like it was lust at first sight.

Our rooms at Oxford had been adjacent, and it would not be too much to say that from the moment he looked in to borrow a siphon of soda water we became more like brothers than anything, and this state of things had continued after we had both left the seat of learning.

Bertie mentions that Ginger got himself a girlfriend and moved out to Steeple Bumpleigh, Aunt Agatha's abode, and he wasn't going to cross the border there for anything.

But I had missed him sorely. Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand is how you might put it.

One might assume that Bertie and Ginger's affair had continued after they left school, and only ended when Ginger left for Steeple Bumpleigh, before Jeeves came along. A couple of pages later, Bertie sings Ginger's physical praises.

A cloud passed over his face, which, I ought to have mentioned earlier, was well worth looking at, the eyes clear, the cheeks tanned, the chin firm, the hair ginger and the nose shapely. It topped off, moreover, a body which also repaid inspection, being muscular and well knit. His general aspect, as a matter of fact, was rather like that presented by Esmond Haddock, the squire of Deverill Hall, where Jeeves's Uncle Charlie Silversmith drew his monthly envelope. He had the same poetic look, as if at any moment about to rhyme June with moon, yet gave the impression, as Esmond did, of being able, if he cared to, to fell an ox with a single blow. I don't know if he had ever actually done this, for one so seldom meets an ox, but in his undergraduate days he had felled people right and left, having represented the University in the ring as a heavyweight for a matter of three years. He may have included oxen among his victims.

So, yeah, they were obviously So Doing Each Other. Practically canon.
[identity profile] ironicbees.livejournal.com
*wipes sweat from brow* *curses Google docs*

Okay, so here are my notes for the short stories, and a rough chronology.

Read more )

Are there any other sites/services like Google docs that allows you to publish docs online and share them privately, but that aren't so damn hard to use? After the trouble I had getting this prepared, I'm not looking forward to formatting what looks to be another 150+ pages in Google. >:(


ETA: I'm going to go ahead and unlock this for now. Hopefully all the quotes from the books don't exceed some legal limit. I'll probably lock it again in a week or two to be safe.

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