Okay, I admit it. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the letter J coming up was Jeeves. P.G. Wodehouse's brilliant creation. The ultimate butler.
Now, Wodehouse is someone you either love, or someone you just don't get. British humor and lots of "what-what's" and "I say old chap" and absurd situations that no one but Wodehouse could dream up (and no one but Jeeves could untangle). On top of all that, Bertie Wooster, who really can't seem to do much of anything right. And truly terrifying Aunts, who are often behind Bertie's most absurd actions.
So I'm not reviewing any of Wodehouse's 96 books (and I don't even know how many of them I've read; I just keep stumbling to the library, or the electronic version of same, and checking out the books, the recorded books, whatever I can lay a hand on when in need of a bit of lightening up, and I don't always even care if I've read it before or not). I just wanted to give a shout-out to Jeeves, and to his creator, who might well have noted that it's hard to get taken seriously when you're writing humor.
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And the other bit in my title? Just another reminder to pop on over to visit Jemima Pett and enter the raffle to win a copy of The Ninja Librarian and other great kids' books. While you're there, check out her beautifully written and illustrated books about Fred and George, a pair of princely guinea pigs! Actually, this should have been a review of The Princelings of the East, but, well, another J word: I just didn't get to it.Tomorrow: more fiction. Also sort of related to J, since for the first time Crazy Jake (and Wild Harry) speak up about the Ninja Librarian's first day in town.
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My mother-in-law was a huge Jeeves and Wooster fan and we watched it a few times- really funny. I have to admit though, I've never read any of them.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to tomorrow's post!
Never saw any cinematic versions. Not sure I'd want to. I like the cartoons inside my head. I DO like some fruity-voiced Englishman reading them to me :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout-out, Rebecca!
ReplyDeleteI've never read any Jeeves, but I've seen the odd episode on tv. It's one of those funny things about fashion - they were a bit too old-fashioned when I was younger, now they've got into the classic status I might read some of them!
I'm looking forward to tomorrow's post too... but if anyone is interested, I'll be posting about my wonderful cover illustrator under K - with one of my favourite pics of hers - "Monsters have nightmares too!"
Jemima at Jemima's blog