Notes for an unwritten Jeeves novel

[wotwotleigh]

I just came across a page of Wodehouse's notes, published as a photographic plate in P. G. Wodehouse: A Literary Biography by Benny Green (New York: The Rutledge Press, 1981). Oh, what might have been . . .

Comments

[haikitteh]

I'd read it!

I like this Gudgeon character, she sounds like a perfect match for Beefy. Both of them sound really funny. I'll be honest, most of this story feels like an amalgam of Jeeves stories I've read before, but I've always enjoyed them. The insurance line is funny, too.

Poor Bertie, he's always running from the girls, but usually ends up kissing more of them than any other character!

Generally I come away from the Jeeves books thinking, "Needs more Jeeves" and that's pretty much how I feel about this outline too.

[wotwotleigh]

Yeah, poor old Jeeves hardly gets a mention here. I guess Wodehouse was mostly focusing on how to work out the details of Bertie's romantic entanglements here. But yeah, there are a lot of familiar elements in this outline, stuff that he had either used before or would end up using in later works.

But I do like the idea of a well-meaning female friend actively trying to push Bertie and Madeline together because she just doesn't understand how bad that would be for all involved. It would be a nice change from, say, Stiffy trying to push them together as blackmail because she knows Bertie is terrified of La Bassett.

[godsdaisiechain]

I agree with both of you that it is a bit depressing that Jeeves is so much in the background. But Wodehouse often treated Jeeves as a sort of deus ex machina (Jeeves ex machina?) anyway, so it's not surprising.

This is so cool!

[jasperjasper]

Thanks, seeing this is super cool.