Jeeves In the Morning

a.k.a Joy In the Morning
by P.G. Wodehouse
1946

In the episode that "my biographers will probably call the Steeple Bumpleigh Horror," Bertie goes to his Aunt Agatha’s manor, Steeple Bumpleigh, where Jeeves tries to arrange a discreet business meeting between Bertie’s uncle and an American magnate.  Meanwhile, Bertie’s friends Boko, a writer, and Nobbie, want to get married, but Bertie’s uncle, her ward, will not give his consent; and Bertie finds himself inadvertently affianced to Florence Craye, a woman given to exhorting mental improvement, and who is also engaged to oafish, jealous police constable Stilton Cheesewright.  Naturally, Jeeves, stuffed with fish, overcomes all difficulties to arrange a satisfactory resolution to all problems.  It's a delightfully clever, tortuous plot, peppered with sharp dialogue and less than flattering descriptions of everyone except the urbane Jeeves himself.  I was very amused by Jeeves’ blatantly blunt solution at the end.

five stars

[Read three times: 3/15/97, 5/16/08, 2/10/12]