The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves). P.G. Wodehouse. 1923. 225 pages.
The Inimitable Jeeves is my favorite Wodehouse yet. (I've also read
The Man With Two Left Feet and
My Man Jeeves.) I loved this short story collection because it is
all devoted to Bertie and Jeeves! Featured stories include: "Jeeves Exerts the Old Cerebellum," "No Wedding Bells for Bingo," "Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind," "Pearls Mean Tears," "The Pride of the Woosters is Wounded," "The Hero's Reward," "Introducing Claude and Eustace," "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch," "A Letter of Introduction," Startling Dressiness of a Lift Attendant," Comrade Bingo," "Bingo Has a Bad Goodwood," "The Great Sermon Handicap," "The Purity of the Turf," "The Metropolitan Touch," "The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace," "Bingo and the Little Woman," and "All's Well."
These stories introduce one of Bertie's friends, Bingo Little. He is quite the character. He is always falling in love with someone. And there's always drama that Bertie and Jeeves get drawn into! But Bingo Little isn't the only source of drama! There's also Bertie's family, including Aunt Agatha and two of his cousins, Claude and Eustace, to name a few. Some of the stories are set in the city, others take place in the country. All are delightful!!!
My favorite sequence of stories is "The Hero's Reward," "Introducing Claude and Eustace," and "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch." In this sequence, Bertie finds himself accidentally engaged to a girl, Honoria, a young woman that Bingo was once quite smitten with! Sir Roderick is Honoria's father, and their lunch together is quite delightful! He's not quite sure he likes Bertie, not quite sure Bertie is sane... enter an insane number of cats, fish under Bertie's bed, and a stolen hat... and you've got an unforgettable chapter!
Read The Inimitable Jeeves
- If you like short stories
- If you love short stories
- If you hate short stories
- If you enjoy P.G. Wodehouse
- If you want more Bertie and Jeeves
- If you love to laugh
© 2013 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
A Murder on the Links. Agatha Christie. 1923. 272 pages.
I just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this mystery novel starring Hercule Poirot and his close friend Arthur Hastings. The novel, I believe, is narrated by Hastings, the same narrator introduced in Poirot's first novel, The Mysterious Affair At Styles.
I usually find Christie's Miss Marple novels to be more delightful, more charming, more satisfying than those starring Hercule Poirot. But this one is definitely an exception. I just loved it from cover to cover.
This mystery, for the most part, occurs in France. And it just works really, really well. I don't want to say too much about the mystery itself. I mean the less you know the better...but you really should give Agatha Christie a try!
© 2011 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
Whose Body? Dorothy L. Sayers. 1923/1995. HarperCollins. 224 pages.
"Oh damn!" said Lord Peter Wimsey at Piccadilly Circus. Whose Body? is Sayers first mystery novel. It stars Lord Peter Wimsey, a man who enjoys doing detective work as a hobby. In Whose Body? Wimsey becomes fascinated by a curious case. His mother phones him to say that a dead body has been found in Mr. Thipp's bathroom. Though he had plans for the day, he reasons that it's not every day you get to go see a crime scene like this one. The dead man is naked in a bath tub, naked except for a pince-nez. He is able to examine the crime scene thoroughly before Inspector Sugg--the 'official' investigator arrives. Wimsey does NOT get along with Sugg! However, he is quite good friends with Inspector Parker, who has quite an interesting case of his own.
These two friends exchange details about their cases and decide to help one another out as needed. Parker is happy to 'help' Wimsey piece together the details of his case. (Why did the dead body have such horrible teeth--and toenails? He has well manicured hands. He's well scented. He's clean-shaven.) And Wimsey is happy to 'help' Parker with his case. (Parker has no body, no "proof" that a murder has been committed. But this important (Jewish) financier has gone missing.)
Can both crimes be solved? Are they in any way connected?
I loved Whose Body. I just LOVED it. I think Lord Peter Wimsey is such a great narrator! The writing style is 'just right' for me. It matches my taste exactly. It's funny--witty--and charming. Wimsey has quirks and flaws--which are necessary in my opinion. But he's also very intelligent, very clever.
Some of my favorite lines:
"Sugg's a beautiful, braying ass," said Lord Peter. "He's like a detective in a novel." (18)
"I love trifling circumstances," said Lord Peter. "so many men have been hanged by trifling circumstances." (20)
"Parker, acushla, you're an honour to Scotland Yard. I look at you, and Sugg appears a myth, a fable, an idiot-boy, spawned in a moonlight hour by some fantastic poet's brain. Sugg is too perfect to be possible." (23)
"Look here, Wimsey--you've been reading detective stories; you're talking nonsense." (29)
Assigning a motive for the murder of a person without relations or antecedents or even clothes is like trying to visualize the fourth dimension--admirable exercise for the imagination, but arduous and inconclusive. (82)
"One demands a little originality in these days, even from murderers," said Lady Swaffham. "Like dramatists, you know--so much easier in Shakespeare's time, wasn't it? Always the same girl dressed up as a man, and even that borrowed from Boccaccio or Dante or somebody. I'm sure if I'd been a Shakespeare hero, the very minute I saw a slim-legged young page-boy I'd have said: "Odsbodikins! There's that girl again!" (123)
© 2011 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
I really must read some Agatha Christie...
Becky, I loved it, too! And I am a big fan of Poirot! If you'd like to see what I wrote, it is here:
http://lettersfromahillfarm.blogspot.com/2010/02/murder-on-links-by-agatha-christie.html
Oh, I just started reading Christie, recently. I'm living the cover on this one.
I love Poirot! I even like the old Poirot reruns that play sometimes on PBS!
This sounds really cool! I'll have to check it out! Thanks for sharing :)
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I love this book! I've also started an Agatha Christie page on my blog and this one is definitely on my next to re-read list :)