Bertram Wooster

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Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster is the main character and narrator in PG Wodehouse's stories about Reginald Jeeves . Jeeves is Wooster 's “gentleman's personal gentleman” ( gentleman's valet , personal butler). Bertie, a member of the British nobility and one of the so-called "idle rich" of the British Empire , is one of the most popular literary figures in the Anglo-Saxon world and at the same time an archetype of the somewhat seedy British aristocrat.

Bertie is an orphan and, despite his wealth, is under the constant influence of his aunts Agatha and Dahlia, who put him into impossible situations through authority or blackmail, from which he can free himself only with the help of his intelligent “gentleman's gentleman” Jeeves.

With the character Bertie Wooster, its creator occupied himself for more than half a century. The first story to mention Bertie appeared in 1915 and Bertie Wooster also appears in the last novel, Aunts Aren't Gentlemen , published by PG Wodehouse in 1974 . In total, he is the first-person narrator of ten novels and more than 50 short stories.

Release history

Bertie's first appearance is at the side of Reginald Jeeves in the short story Extricating Young Gussie from 1915 - but here his last name is still "Mannering-Phipps". In its current form, Bertie Wooster appears next to Jeeves for the first time in the short story The Artistic Career of Corky , published in 1916 . That same year, PG Wodehouse used the short story Jeeves Takes the Rule , first published in The Saturday Evening Post on November 18 of that year , to tell the story of Reginald Jeeves becoming Bertie Wooster's valet. Since then, Bertram Wooster has appeared in every Jeeves story and adaptation, with the exception of the novel Ring For Jeeves 1953, an adaptation of the play Come On, Jeeves from 1952.

The first full-length novel about Bertie Wooster and his valet is the story Bertie in Wild Anticipation , published in 1934 . While PG Wodehouse was still working on this novel, he was drafting the plot for Then Not, Jeeves . Stephen Fry and the literary historian Richard Usborne point out that this novel, with the two chapters describing the awarding of prizes to primary school children by the drunken Gussie Fink-Nottle, is one of the funniest written down in English literary history. Even John le Carré has recorded in a published newspaper article in 1996 that any collection of books must contain this novel and tells him to his favorite novel. The sequel to this novel is Alter Adel nicht rostet , in which Bertie has to serve as a substitute fiancé twice.

In Jeeves takes over the helm , PG Wodehouse also builds the narrative bridge to the fictional world of Blandings Castle , where Lord Emsworth , his butler Sebastian Beach , Galahad Threepwood and the famous pig, the Empress of Blandings reside. In Uncle Willoughby's scandalous memoirs, not only does Lord Worplesdon find unfavorable mention, but also the absent-minded Lord Emsworth, who apparently also had a wild youth, although today he only eats, sleeps and dreams only of pigs

In 2013, Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by British writer Sebastian Faulks was published , the first Jeeves and Wooster novel since PG Wodehouse's death in 1975.

Fictional biography

education

Wooster received the usual upper class upbringing of a British aristocrat at Eton and Magdalen College , Oxford , but without taking much of it with him. The only thing left is the ability to steal police helmets. Although he claims to have won a prize for special knowledge of the Bible, he regularly fails because of quotations and allusions from world literature.

engagement

Bertie Wooster's ex-fiancées are large. Occasionally Bertie enters into one of these engagements voluntarily, such as the one with Pauline Stoker, who is briefly mentioned in Bertie in wild anticipation . Bertie Wooster is happy, however, that this engagement to Pauline's father fails. He explains to his jealous friend Lord Chuffnell, who falls in love with Pauline Stoker three months later, that the engagement period was two days and that he spent those two days in bed with a cold. There wasn't even an engagement kiss - a waiter interrupted with roast beef sandwiches at the crucial moment. However, a short-term engagement to a young lady occurs more frequently because Bertie, as a gentleman, does not dare to refuse her offers. As a result, Madeline Bassett is never informed that Bertie by no means declared his love for her in Then Not, Jeeves , but only wants to enlighten her about the feelings of his old school friend, the fish-faced, pig-loving Gussie Fink-Nottle . When, after the unsuccessful awarding of the prize to primary school students by the drunken Gussie Madeline, in her indignation, breaks the engagement, Bertie becomes the substitute fiancé and Jeeves' psychologically skillful intervention is required to prevent a marriage between the two. In Alter Adel does not rust , Bertie is briefly engaged again to the sentimental Madeline Bassett, who thinks the stars are God's daisy chain and is convinced that a baby will be born if a fairy sneezes. In this novel too, Bertie Wooster does everything to ensure that Madeline returns to her ex-fiancé and his old friend. It is not the only engagement endured by Bertie in this novel: Stiffy Bing, Sir Watkyn Bassett's young ward , also becomes engaged to Bertie Wooster on a spontaneous basis. However, she does so in the conviction that an engagement to Bertie will trigger a change of opinion with her guardian about her intended husband. Given a choice between the eccentric Bertie and the impoverished Vicar Harold Pinker, the guardian will eventually agree to a marriage with the Pinker.

He was also very willingly engaged to Lady Florence Craye in Jeeves Takes the Role (first published in 1916). As is so often the case, Jeeves must intervene to prevent this engagement from becoming a marriage: In Jeeves' opinion, Florence and Bertie are not a match. Jeeves had had the opportunity to study his daughter's character for a year as Lord Worplesdone's valet. Based on this experience, Jeeves concluded that Florence would not make Bertie happy with her positivity and whims. Jeeves can only persuade Bertie to understand, however, when he reminds him of her attempts to make Bertie a better, more educated person. Florence has forced her fiancé to read a weighty work on the philosophy of religion, namely Types of Ethical Theory by James Martineau and Jeeves points out that Nietzsche would be next on the reading list.

In without me, Jeeves! (English title: Joy in the Morning , first published in 1946) Bertie, however, is only reluctantly Florence Craye's fiancé. Just because she thinks her current fiancé is impotent, she declares herself engaged to Bertie again, and Bertie does everything to ensure that Florence Craye returns to her previous fiancé.

Despite this numerous engagements, Bertie's life is strangely chaste. When Jeeves finds his employer's bed empty and unused in the morning, he does not suspect that he is in the arms of a young woman, but that he has got himself into trouble in some way. Aunts and friends don't shy away from visiting Bertie in his bedroom before breakfast - the thought that she might surprise him there in an intimate moment seems completely alien to them. Evelyn Waugh considers the assumption that Wodehouse could have designed its protagonists based on real models, for that reason alone is incorrect. In an article for the Sunday Times Magazine in 1961 he wrote that the protagonists in the narrative work of PG Wodehouse were by no means real-life characters from the Edwardian age , as is often claimed, but pure fantasy figures. They would occasionally have dowry-driven marriage intentions to a wealthy heiress, but seduction and adultery were completely alien to them.

Drones Club

Bertie is a member of an exclusive club in London , where many of his adventures begin. He is also friends with Lord Emsworth from Blandings Castle, another hit series from Wodehouse. Bertie, although - or perhaps because - not very intelligent, is a popular and sought-after host whose generosity and indulgence are often exploited by his friends. The stories are full of allusions to past entanglements that arose from these traits.

Aunts

Bertie's father had two sisters, namely Agatha and Dahlia . Dahlia Travers is Bertie Wooster's favorite aunt, while Aunt Agatha is the most terrifying figure in Bertie's life. Why Bertie took one so dearly, but avoided the other whenever possible, is never fully explained: Both aunts are extremely strong-willed ladies, whose wishes and intentions often drive the plot of the novel or story forward, and Aunt Dahlia regularly resorts to the purpose Blackmail to get her nephew through her wishes. For example, he should not steal a silver creamer in the shape of a cow that her husband Tom Travers has had an eye on in Alter Adelrustet. If Bertie does not fulfill this wish, she will forever exclude him from eating with her the dishes that her French chef Anatole prepares.

Both aunts are far from having a good opinion of their nephew. Aunt Agatha, for example, thinks her nephew is a spineless creature who needs his valet Jeeves as a guard. Aunt Dahlia has already cracked her young nephew as soon as she thought it appropriate.

Both aunts are extremely wealthy women thanks to their marital connections. Aunt Agatha married Spenser Gregson, who also appears as her husband in a number of Wodehouse's works. He was a stock trader and made his fortune from Sumatran rubber. After Gregson's death, he married Percy Craye, who now has the title of Earl of Worplesdon. From this point onwards, Agatha was named Lady Worplesdon. Lord Worplesdon shows his wife a good deal of respect and prompts Jeeves Aunt Agatha to comment:

"I dare to doubt that there is a gentleman who is the master of the house in which your ladyship resides."

Aunt Dahlia is also married a second time. Her first husband, mentioned briefly, drowned. Her second husband Tom Travers made his fortune while in Asia and is now collecting old silver. He is also able to fund Mylady's Boudoir, the magazine his wife Dahlia publishes today with as much passion as she was fox hunting when she was younger. Bertie Wooster is proud to have contributed to her magazine once. His article, entitled “What the Well Dressed Gentleman Wears”, is mentioned in more than one novel by first-person narrator Bertie Wooster.

In PG Wodehouse's short stories and novels, the plot repeatedly gives rise to mocking sentences about aunts. At one point he lets Bertie Wooster philosophize how happy and calm his life would be without aunts and notes how little sense it makes to differentiate between good and bad aunts. At heart they would all be the same: sooner or later their horse's foot would show itself . Wodehouse biographer Richard Usborne argues that PG Wodehouse immortalized his two aunts Mary and Louisa in Aunt Agatha and her sister Dahlia. Wodehouse grew up as a so-called Raj orphan far away from his parents in Great Britain, while his father served as a British colonial official in Hong Kong and had more contact with relatives living in Great Britain than with his parents. Osborne argues that the fictional aunts Agatha and Dahlia appear so frequently in the novels and stories of Wodehouse, where they are ridiculed and ultimately repeatedly outwitted, can be traced back to their disciplinary influence on the young Wodehouse. Usborne argues that other writers, withdrawn from parental control so early in a manner similar to Wodehouse, compensated for this traumatic loss in fantasies of revenge. Wodehouse, on the other hand, sought revenge in literary derision. Frances Donaldson, on the other hand, holds this assessment incorrect and argues that both aunts are classic literary figures of British humor.

Frances Donaldson also points out that although the reader is seduced into perceiving Aunt Dahlia as the more likeable of the two aunties, not least because the character Bertie Wooster repeatedly emphasizes his affection for Aunt Dahlia. Ultimately, however, Wooster suffered more problems and difficulties through his Aunt Dahlia than Aunt Agatha caused. Dahlia is a blackmailer who will not stop at anything and is completely unimpressed by the inconvenience and humiliation that she expects from those around her.

Other relatives

  • Tom Travers, husband of Aunt Dahlia. He collects old silver and reluctantly subsidizes the magazine his wife publishes. His sensitive stomach makes it necessary for the French celebrity chef Anatole to be employed at Brinkley Court, his country estate.
  • Bonzo Travers - their son
  • Thomas Gregson - Aunt Agatha's son, a youngster whom Bertie Wooster detests in no small measure, but whom he still has to accommodate in his apartment from time to time.
  • Willoughby Wooster - Bertie's uncle, the writer of catchy memoirs intended to get Bertie Wooster out of the way
  • Henry Wooster - another uncle, eccentric
  • Mrs. Scholfield - his sister

circle of friends

  • Augustus “Gussie” Fink-Nottle , fish-faced newt expert, who is characterized by great shyness.
  • Hildebrand "Tuppy" Glossop, nephew of Sir Roderick Glossop. He eventually married Angela, the daughter of Bertie Wooster's favorite aunt Dahlia.
  • Richard "Bingo" Little
  • Rev. Harold "Stinker" Pinker, who, contrary to all expectations, entered church service.

Bertram Wooster in Jeeves Stories

Bertram Wooster in other media

Audio

radio

  • What Ho, Jeeves! (UK, 1973–1981), voiced by Richard Briers
  • Saturday Night Theater adaptation by Right Ho Jeeves (UK, 1986), voiced by Simon Cadell
  • The Code of the Woosters (UK, 2006), voiced by Marcus Brigstocke

stage

TV

Movie

  • Thank you Jeeves! (original: Thank You, Jeeves!; UK, 1935), David Niven as Wooster
  • Thank You, PG Wodehouse (UK, 1981), Jonathan Cecil as Wooster

Others

Bertam Wooster plays, alongside Reginald Jeeves, a role in Alan Moore's comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .

literature

  • Frances Donaldson: PG Wodehouse: A Biography . London 1982, ISBN 0-297-78105-7 .
  • Richard Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. Overlook, Woodstock / NY 2003, ISBN 1-58567-441-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. P. 58
  2. Stephen Fry: What ho, My hero PG Wodehouse , The Independent, January 18, 2000 ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 24, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.drones.com
  3. Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. P. 170.
  4. John le Carré; Personal Best: Right Ho, Jeeves , Salon. September 30, 1996 , accessed April 24, 2016.
  5. PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig , p. 83.
  6. Jeeves carries on in Sebastian Faulks's Wodehouse sequel . English. In: The Guardian, March 7, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
  7. PG Wodehouse, Without me, Jeeves . Chapter 6
  8. PG Wodehouse, The Code of the Wooster , p. 15.
  9. PG Wodehouse, The Code of the Wooster , p. 16.
  10. Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. P. 174.
  11. ^ Evelyn Waugh, The Sunday Times Magazine . July 16, 1961
  12. PG Wodehouse: Jeeves takes the helm . Short story first published in 1916.
  13. a b Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. P. 111
  14. Wodehouse: Joy in the morning , p. 103. The original quote is: I am inclined to doubt whether the Gentleman exists who could be master in a home that contained her ladyship, sir.
  15. PG Wodehouse; The Code of the Wooster . P. 39
  16. ^ Donaldson: PG Wodehouse: A Biography . P. 10.
  17. ^ Donaldson: PG Wodehouse: A Biography . P. 11.
  18. ^ Donaldson: PG Wodehouse: A Biography . P. 10 and p. 11.
  19. ^ Jeeves (1975) on musicalsworld.net. English. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
  20. By Jeeves (UK, 1996) on thisistheatre.com. English. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
  21. ^ By Jeeves (2001) on International Broadway Database (ibdb). English. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
  22. Herr und Meister on Wishlist.de. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
  23. Bertram Wooster on Comic Book Database. English. Retrieved March 30, 2013.