Particularize Books Conducive To The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves #7)
Original Title: | The Code of the Woosters |
ISBN: | 0393339815 (ISBN13: 9780393339819) |
Edition Language: | English |
Series: | Jeeves #7 |
Characters: | Reginald Jeeves, Dahlia Travers, Roderick Spode, Stephanie Byng, Watkyn Bassett, Bertram Wilberforce Wooster, Richard P. Little, Anatole, Augustus Fink-Nottle, Madeline Basset, Agatha Wooster, Aubrey Upjohn, Thomas Portarlington Travers, Spenser Gregson, Seppings, Mrs. Wintergreen, Eustace Oates, Harold P. Pinker, Butterfield, Cyril Fotheringay-Phipps, Pomona Grindle, Claude Cattermole Potter-Pirbright, Frederick Fotheringay Widgeon |
Setting: | United Kingdom |
P.G. Wodehouse
Paperback | Pages: 272 pages Rating: 4.36 | 20966 Users | 1459 Reviews
List Out Of Books The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves #7)
Title | : | The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves #7) |
Author | : | P.G. Wodehouse |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 272 pages |
Published | : | July 5th 2011 by W. W. Norton Company (first published 1938) |
Categories | : | Fiction. Humor. Classics. Comedy |
Description As Books The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves #7)
Review updated on January, 4 2020."I mean, imagine how some unfortunate Master Criminal would feel, on coming down to do a murder at the old Grange, if he found that not only was Sherlock Holmes putting in the weekend there, but Hercule Poirot, as well."
I love this quote. It came from this book.
For those who somehow manage to avoid knowing anything about this classic British humor series the main heroes are Bertie Wooster and his servant Jeeves. Bertie's job is to get into all kind of absurd and improbable (from the normal logic point of view) situations arising from his noble attempts to help his two aunts and countless friends and Jeeves' job is to get him out of yet another trouble using some truly ingenious tricks.
This time it all started very much innocently. Bertie suffering from a hangover from a previous night's party visited one of his aunts - Dahlia. She asked him to go to an antique dealer to pick up a cow-creamer for her husband - an antique collector.
At this point I have to talk about this particular kitchen utensil. A cow-creamer is a creamer (a vessel to serve cream in, for example for tea) made of silver in form of a cow; according to the description and Bertie's impression very ugly. I will let Bertie himself describe it.
"It was a silver cow. But when I say 'cow', don't go running away with the idea of some decent, self-respecting cudster such as you may observe loading grass into itself in the nearest meadow. This was a sinister, leering, Underworld sort of animal, the kind that would spit out of the side of its mouth for twopence."
We all know that there is a very fine line between an enthusiastic collector and fanatical one, so seemingly easy mission of Bertie turned out to be very important.
Bertie managed to fail, completely and promptly. This failure resulted in his visit to a countryside, double, triple, and quadruple blackmail, desperate attempts to help two couples in love overcome all obstacles in their way, equally desperate attempts to stay out of jail, and avoid getting beaten to pulp. May I remind you the centerpiece of all this excitement was a cow-creamer which antiquity was under serious doubt. Absurd and funny situations guaranteed.
Let me start with good parts. At times the tale was really funny. I laughed out loud several times with one scene being particular good, especially considering this whole scene was played out in Bertie's imagination. So as a humorous book it works - most of the time.
Speaking about my problems with it, during my first read I thought one of them was entirely my fault. Some scenes in the beginning depend on the knowledge of the previous adventures to be funny. Yours truly jumped from the first book straight to book seven - this one, so some jokes happily flew over my head unnoticed. The second time around I reread the book just for this reason: I recently finished all six previous books and wanted to check if the knowledge of the background would make the book funnier. It did not.
The following problems did not depend on the knowledge of the previous books. This book strongly reminded me of a joke. A very funny joke with great payoff, but overly long - like it took this whole book to tell this one joke. Before I read the previous book (more details on it below) I thought that the short story format works much better for Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. Book 6 proved otherwise.
I was not much impressed with Jeeves' solutions for the impossible situations. They seemed to me sort of ordinary; nothing like a brilliant work of mind of Jeeves in the second short story of the first anthology. That one made me an instant fan of the guy.
I compared the quotes from the previous book, Right Ho, Jeeves which I consider to be the funniest of the series so far with this one. The former has more brilliant ones, so my initial opinion is still valid: when it comes to humor, book 7 (this one) is not quite on the level with book 6.
So the final conclusion: good and at times funny one, but its length became its problem - 3 stars. I still want to continue reading the series.
Rating Out Of Books The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves #7)
Ratings: 4.36 From 20966 Users | 1459 ReviewsDiscuss Out Of Books The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves #7)
Classic Wodehouse. It doesn't get any better than this...actually it doesn't get much different than this either. Perhaps that's not entirely fair. For me at least, The Code of the Woosters contains some of my favorite scenes and some of Wodehouse's most memorable characters. Herein his hero Bertie Wooster is at his daffiest, unable to accomplish the simplest of tasks, berating a cow creamer, without getting himself in thick soup. Soon after he's got a Bassett and that malodorous Spode badgeringThe first time I got hit on the head by a bread roll was at the age of twenty one. As a grammar school boy I was an obvious target. The assailant was a Hooray Henry (the generic term for a member of the British minor aristocracy) and the venue a restaurant in the City of London. I felt quite privileged. Many people never have the chance to see the English upper classes recreate a food fight straight out of PG Wodehouse. From an anthropological perspective it was quite wonderful, although crumbs
I'm currently experiencing a confluence of multiple factors that tend to cause me to read less (moving, freelance work, being mired in the middle of a difficult non-English book) but I can always fit in a little Wodehouse. This is, of course, delightful. It's odd that I've read some Jeeves and Wooster stories many, many times (an omnibus was one of the few books I brought with me for a year in Germany) but others I've read only once or not at all. I'm going to have to make an effort to look up
Many consider this book to be the funniest of the Jeeves/ Wooster team, and I agree (though IMO, I would give that crown to Right Ho, Jeeves) that it is indeed extremely hilarious. Bertie, saved from the scaffold (i. e. marriage to Madeline Basset who thinks that the stars are God's daisy chain and every time a fairy sheds a tear, a star is born) at the last moment by Jeeves, finds himself ensconced in the country estate of the girl's father along with Gussie Fink-Nottle, her fiancée and
Classic Wodehouse humor with an insane convergence of many plots all converging with Bertie Wooster at their center. Only his man Jeeves has the brain power to extract him unscathed from the perils that threaten over the silver cow creamer, constable's helmet, a brown notebook, and possible engagement to two young ladies. At its best when being read into one's shell-like.One thing I did notice after all these years is that I now know many more of the half-uttered quotations and references Bertie
Oh my god this is so, so, so funny. I was discussing Wodehouse with someone yesterday and, as he put it, "There are passages that you want to chase people around the house with, saying, 'Wait! Wait! Just listen to this bit!'" Haven't laughed so hard in a good long while. God, but I love Wodehouse.
The first time I got hit on the head by a bread roll was at the age of twenty one. As a grammar school boy I was an obvious target. The assailant was a Hooray Henry (the generic term for a member of the British minor aristocracy) and the venue a restaurant in the City of London. I felt quite privileged. Many people never have the chance to see the English upper classes recreate a food fight straight out of PG Wodehouse. From an anthropological perspective it was quite wonderful, although crumbs
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