Classic Wodehouse Illustrations, Part 14: "Jeeves and the Chump Cyril", "Extricating Young Gussie"

[wotwotleigh]

Hi! Remember these? I'm finally back with a couple more, after a long and frustrating adventure with my computer's service board blowing out, and then being out of the country for two months. Sort of bunged a spanner into the works. Alas, this is about all I have at the moment anyway, but I'll be doing my best to get my hands on more as soon as I

Comments

[ladymoondancer]

YAY, I love these compilations ever so much! Wow, it's sort of stunning how much that policeman resembles BBC!Spode. His doppelganger, perhaps? I like the Bertie in the title illustration of "Extricating Young Gussie", although he looks more like one of Bertie's friends would look, IMO, than Bertie himself. Aunt Agatha? Perfection.

I wonder how many aunts Bertie actually has. Obviously Aunt Dahlia and Aunt Agatha are the "main" aunts, but I am pretty sure I remember him mentioning an Aunt Charlotte and Aunt Julia in one of the books. But I think it might be a different Aunt Julia than this cheerful vaudevillian lady, as that one, if I recall correctly, made Bertie "feel like a worm" when he talked to her. Of course, this Aunt Julia is his aunt by marriage, so while the other could be a sister of his father.

[ladymoondancer]

Oh, thanks! For some reason I thought Aunt Julia was their mother, which is one of the reasons this lady who's Gussie's mother confused me so much.

[saylee]

I think that might actually be the same Aunt Julia - she's learned to fake being an aristocratic lady so well that her dignity scares Bertie; it's only when she meets the Broadway producer from her past that it's revealed how much she's sick of it.

[chocolate_frapp]

I know what you mean. Much as I love the stories, one of them had Bertie using the n word for no reason which is kind of like finding a turd in your omelet.

[wotwotleigh]

Very true. I think that's part of the reason I waited so long to post these . . . a few make me squirm a bit.

[mxdp]

Love these posts! <3

[wotwotleigh]

Thanks! :)

[hbomb90]

My word, those are some technically very good drawings but lawks a mercy, completely not my mental image of Bertie and Jeeves! Thanks ever so much for posting these, very interesting.

[wotwotleigh]

Glad to share! Yeah, that's the problem with a lot of these old illustrations -- especially the ones by Skidmore (see some of the earlier posts in this series). Technically brilliant, but not always so good at capturing the characters or the mood of the stories. I think Mills did the best of the three usual illustrators (he drew the Bertie in my icon), but his Jeeves still doesn't feel quite right.

[hbomb90]

I've had a quick skip through the pics and you're right, Mills' Jeeves is a bit... Frankenstein's Monster-ish? Head bulging squarely in all directions rather than just the back. It really is fascinating, one wonders if readers at the time were influenced by these illustrations the same way Holmes' readers were by Sidney Paget (although Paget did stick rather close to ACD's descriptions, even if he did insist on putting Holmes in non-canonical yet rather natty hats)?

[ladymoondancer]

Mills' Jeeves reminds me of an older, more prim and proper Kryten.

[annereeve]

Thank you for sharing!