Jeeves

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This article is about the character by P.G. Wodehouse. For the search engine, see Ask Jeeves

Image:Jeeves.jpg Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character in the stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the "gentleman's personal gentleman" (valet) of Bertie Wooster, and is named in the title in most of the series of books about him and his employer. He is arguably Wodehouse's most famous character and has come to be seen as the quintessential gentleman's personal gentleman, inspiring many similar characters.

Despite common misunderstanding, Jeeves is not a butler. The difference is that a valet serves his employer as a person, whereas a butler serves his employer's house. However, Bertie Wooster has lent Jeeves out as a butler on several occasions, and notes that "if the call comes, he can buttle with the best of them."

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Jeeves the character

As with all of Wodehouse's male domestic servants, Jeeves is always known by his surname. For more than fifty years after his appearance, Wodehouse gave him no other name, but in the late novel Much Obliged, Jeeves (1971), Bertie describes the revelation of Jeeves full monicker:

'"Hullo Reggie," he said and I froze in my chair, stunned by the revelation that Jeeves's first name was Reginald...'

Jeeves is well known for his convoluted, yet precise, speech and for quoting from the plays of Shakespeare and famous romantic poets. He has distinct opinions about certain items that Bertie adopts, such as a moustache, handkerchiefs with initials, straw boater, an alpine hat, or purple socks. Should Jeeves express his disapproval for an accessory of Bertie's, it is certain that Bertie will reluctantly dispose of it in some way or another before the end of the story, or will announce his intention to do so only to find Jeeves has already 'taken the liberty' of disposing of it himself.

Jeeves is a member of the Junior Ganymede Club, a club for butlers and valets, in whose club book all members must write down all the wrongdoings of their employers; the section labeled WOOSTER B, the largest in the book, contains eleven pages.

Only once in the Wodehouse canon does Jeeves appear without Bertie: Ring for Jeeves, in which he is on loan to the 9th Earl of Rowcester while Bertie attends a school where the idle rich learn self-sufficiency in case of social upheaval. The novel was adapted from one of Wodehouse's attempts to write a Jeeves play, and he felt that the play needed a more conventional ending, but was unwilling to marry off Bertie.

Jeeves's first job was as a page-boy at a girls' school, after which he had at least eleven other employers. Before entering the employ of Bertie Wooster, he was with Lord Worplesdon, resigning after nearly a year because of Worplesdon's choice of evening dress; Mr Digby Thistleton (later Lord Bridgenorth), who sold hair tonic; Mr Montague Todd, a financier who was in the second year of a prison term when Jeeves mentioned him to Bertie; Lord Brancaster, who gave port-soaked seedcake to his pet parrot; and Lord Frederick Ranelagh, swindled in Monte Carlo by the reappearing character Soapy Sid. His tenure with Bertie contained several gaps, during which he was employed elsewhere: he worked for Lord Towcester for the length of Ring for Jeeves; Chuffy Chufnell for a week in Thank You, Jeeves, after giving notice due to Bertie's unwillingness to quit playing the banjolele; J. Washburn Stoker for a short period; Gussie Fink-Nottle, who masqueraded as Bertie in The Mating Season; and Sir Watkyn Bassett as a trick to get Bertie released from prison in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.

Jeeves's propensity for wisdom and knowledge is so well known that it inspired the search website Ask Jeeves.

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The Jeeves books

Main article: List of books by P. G. Wodehouse

Wodehouse's work is often divided according to certain recurring characters and settings; the stories and novels about Bertie and Jeeves are often called "the Jeeves canon" or simply "the Jeeves books".

The concept which eventually became Jeeves actually preceded Bertie in Wodehouse's mind: he had long considered the idea of a butler – later a valet – who could solve any problem. A character named Reggie Pepper, who was in all respects very much like Bertie but without Jeeves, was the protagonist of four short stories; Wodehouse soon decided to rewrite the Pepper stories, switching Reggie's character to Bertie Wooster and combining him with an ingenious valet. In his autobiographical Bring on the Girls!, Wodehouse suggests that Jeeves was based on an actual butler of his called Robinson, and recounts a story where Robinson extricated Wodehouse from a real-life predicament.

The Jeeves and Wooster canon was written between 1917 and 1974, and includes Wodehouse's final complete novel, Aunts Aren't Gentlemen. Bertie narrates all the stories but one, "Bertie Changes His Mind", which Jeeves himself narrates. The stories are set in three primary locations: London, where Bertie has a flat and is a member of the raucous Drones Club; various stately homes in the English countryside, most commonly Totleigh Towers; or New York City and a few other locations in the United States. All take place in a timeless world based on an idealized version of England before World War II.

Jeeves and Bertie first appeared in "Extricating Young Gussie", a short story published in 1917, in which Jeeves's character is minor and not fully developed. In the later stories, he assumed the role of Bertie's co-protagonist; indeed, in recent years they have come to be called a comic duo. The Jeeves canon consists of eleven novels and thirty-five short stories:

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Television and radio portrayals

Image:Jeeves-n-wooster.jpg

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BBC1 1960s

May 1965 - November 1967 The World of Wooster was a half hour comedy series for BBC1 starring Ian Carmichael as Bertie and Dennis Price as Jeeves. Derek Nimmo played Bingo. The 1967 run was Blandings Castle.

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BBC Radio 4 Series

There was also a popular BBC Radio series in the 1970s starring Michael Hordern as Jeeves and Richard Briers as Bertie.

In 2006, Radio 4 also dramatised The Code of the Woosters, with Andrew Sachs as Jeeves and Marcus Brigstocke as Bertie.

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ITV Series

In the early 1990s, double act Fry and Laurie starred in Jeeves and Wooster, with Hugh Laurie as Bertie and Stephen Fry as Jeeves.

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References

  1. {{cite book 
| author = Usborne, Richard
| title = Plum Sauce: A P.G. Wodehouse Companion
| publisher = New York: The Overlook Press
| year = 2003
| pages = 81–93, 187
| id = ISBN 1585674419
}}
  1. {{cite book 
| author = Wodehouse, P. G.
| title = Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
| publisher = New York: Simon & Schuster
| year = 1963
| pages = 1–2
| id = ISBN 0743204107
}}
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External links

fr:Jeeves it:Jeeves

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