My Man Jeeves
My Man Jeeves is a collection of cheerful short stories by the British-American writer PG Wodehouse , which were first published in book form in Great Britain in May 1919, but had previously appeared as articles in British and American journals and magazines.
Four of the total of eight short stories are told from Bertie Wooster's point of view and have his valet Jeeves as a further protagonist . These stories are set in New York - to escape the wrath of his Aunt Agatha , Bertie Wooster chose to leave British soil and stay in the United States. These tales are among the early Jeeves and Wooster stories. Jeeves was first introduced in the short story Extricating Young Gussie , first published in 1915 , but he is only mentioned with two lines in the short story.
The other four short stories are older and are told from the perspective of the character Reggie Pepper. This figure is considered the forerunner of the Wooster figure, but the valet Jeeves is still missing in these stories. Six of the eight stories were taken up in the short story collection Carry on, Jeeves (first published in 1925). Two of the stories originally told by Reggie Peppers reappear here as Jeeves and Wooster stories and the setting has been relocated to Great Britain.
On My Man Jeeves followed with Carry on, Jeeves and the incomparable Jeeves two more short story collections. The first Wodehouse novel with Jeeves and Wooster as protagonists did not appear until 1934 under the title Bertie in Wild Anticipation .
The individual short stories
- "Leave It to Jeeves" ( revised for Carry on, Jeeves and published under the title "The Artistic Career of Corky")
- "Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest"
- U.S.: Saturday Evening Post , December 9, 1916
- UK: Strand , March 1917
- "Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg"
- U.S.: Saturday Evening Post , March 3, 1917
- UK: Strand , August 1917
- "Absent Treatment" (Reggie Pepper)
- UK: Strand , March 1911
- US: Collier's Weekly , August 22, 1911
- "Helping Freddie" (Reggie Pepper)
- UK: Strand , September 1911
- US: Pictorial Review , March 1912 (under the title "Lines and Business")
- "Rallying Round Old George" (Reggie Pepper)
- UK: Strand , December 1912
- US: Collier's Weekly , September 27, 1913 (under the title "Brother Alfred")
- "Doing Clarence a Bit of Good" (Reggie Pepper)
- UK: Beach , May 1913
- US: Pictorial Review , April 1914 (under the title "Rallying Round Clarence")
- "The Aunt and the Sluggard" (Jeeves and Wooster story)
- U.S.: Saturday Evening Post , April 22, 1916
- UK: Strand , August 1916
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
- Felicitas von Lovenberg: Jeeves had a wooden expression on his face . Review of Woodhouse's work on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his first novel, Frankfurter Allgemeine, September 17, 2002
- Stephen Fry: What ho, My hero PG Wodehouse , The Independent, January 18, 2000