Classic Wodehouse Illustrations, Part 12: "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg"
So, we've all been wondering about the preponderance of story-inappropriate mustaches in these illustrations. But what about the couple of tales where Bertie actually does have a soup-strainer?
As far as I know, this only happens in one of the short stories and one of the novels, and happily I have the short story right here. It was illustrated by two of our old familiar chums, Alfred Leete (who was never guilty of inappropriate mustachio-ing) and Henry Raleigh (who, we now know, had no excuse for his improper facial-hair use in later illustrations).
Hold onto your bowlers, my friends -- this is going to be interesting.
Okay, let's start with Leete, who was (as you probably recall) working for The Strand. Leete seemed to take particular pleasure in drawing goofy-looking people, so he smacked into the task of drawing Unfortunate Facial Hair!Bertie with undisguised glee:
AUGH! Okay, uh, I have to agree with Jeeves on that one. By the way, I usually refrain from commenting on these sorts of things, but my anti spam-bot code when I uploaded this one to Tinypic was "By the short hairs." Just too perfect!
Now, Raleigh decided not to focus on the mustache debacle, perhaps because he had already been drawing Bertie with a hint of lip fuzz even before this point. Still, his work on this one is particularly, um. Intriguing?
WHAT. What is happening here. What. I guess it's supposed to be a costume ball? Although I don't think Bertie mentioned that in the narrative. And if so, why isn't Bicky in costume? *weeps in terror*
Okay, back to the relative sanity of Leete:
They both made Bicky kind of a big, oafish-looking fellow, pretty far removed from the tiny little chap in the TV show.
Let's have a look at the Birdsburg guys:
Speaking of facial hair, check out the whiskers on the duke! I'm trying to figure out if that's supposed to be Bicky collapsed in the chair behind Bertie. I also just noticed that Bertie's flat has a bearskin rug. I wonder if Jeeves would really approve.
The same scene is a two-page spread in the Leete version, and I have attempted (somewhat awkwardly) to join the halves together:
There are some very interesting head shapes in that crowd.
Raleigh and Leete also both did a similar scene of Bertie and Bicky consulting with Jeeves:
This of course goes before the scene with the Birdsburg guys, but these illustrations often appear out of order in the stories, for some reason. Isn't it interesting how much Raleigh's style changed over the years? Everything is still sketchy, but the characters are much sleeker in his Right Ho, Jeeves illustrations.
And Leete's take:
Wow, that is quite a dome on Jeeves, and Bertie's monocle seems to be growing. I'm kind of sad that Mills didn't do this one -- that would have been interesting indeed!
Other entries:
"Comrade Bingo"
"Bertie Changes His Mind"
"Leave It to Jeeves"
Right Ho, Jeeves
"The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace"
"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count"
"Jeeves in the Springtime"
"Scoring Off Jeeves" and "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch"
"Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest"
"The Great Sermon Handicap"
"The Purity of the Turf"