Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 in the short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 and novels of P. G. Wodehouse

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...

, being the valet

Valet

Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer.- Word origins :In the Middle Ages, the valet de chambre to a ruler was a prestigious appointment for young men...

 of Bertie Wooster

Bertie Wooster

Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse. An English gentleman, one of the "idle rich" and a member of the Drones Club, he appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose genius manages to extricate Bertie or one of...

 (Bertram Wilberforce Wooster). Created in 1915, Jeeves would continue to appear in Wodehouse's works until his final, completed, novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in Britain on October 17, 1974 by Barrie & Jenkins, London, and in the U.S. under the title The Cat-nappers on April 14, 1975 by Simon & Schuster, New York...

in 1974, making him Wodehouse's most famous character. The name "Jeeves" comes from Percy Jeeves

Percy Jeeves

Percy Jeeves was a British first-class cricketer from England, playing 50 matches for Warwickshire County Cricket Club from 1912 to 1914. He joined the British Army in the First World War and was killed in action in 1916. P. G...

, a Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

 cricketer killed in the First World War.

Both the name "Jeeves" and the character of Jeeves have come to be thought of as the quintessential name and nature of a valet

Valet

Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer.- Word origins :In the Middle Ages, the valet de chambre to a ruler was a prestigious appointment for young men...

, butler

Butler

A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...

, or chauffeur

Chauffeur

A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine.Originally such drivers were always personal servants of the vehicle owner, but now in many cases specialist chauffeur service companies, or individual drivers provide...

, inspiring many similar characters (as well as the name of the Internet search engine Ask Jeeves

Ask.com

Ask is a Q&A focused search engine founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California. The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky from his own design. Warthen, Chevsky, Justin Grant, and others built the early AskJeeves.com website around that core engine...

). A "Jeeves" is now a generic term in references such as the Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...

.

In a conversation with a policeman in "Jeeves and the Kid Clementina," Jeeves refers to himself as both a "gentleman's personal gentleman" and a "personal gentleman's gentleman." This means that Jeeves is a valet

Valet

Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer.- Word origins :In the Middle Ages, the valet de chambre to a ruler was a prestigious appointment for young men...

, not a butler

Butler

A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...

—that is, he serves a man and not a household. However, Bertie Wooster has lent out Jeeves as a butler on several occasions, and notes: "If the call comes, he can buttle with the best of them."

Character

The premise of the Jeeves stories is that the brilliant valet is firmly in control of his rich and foppish young employer's life. When Bertie gets into an unwanted social obligation, legal trouble, or engagement

Engagement

An engagement or betrothal is a promise to marry, and also the period of time between proposal and marriage which may be lengthy or trivial. During this period, a couple is said to be betrothed, affianced, engaged to be married, or simply engaged...

 to marry, Jeeves invariably comes up with a subtle plan to save him, often without Bertie's knowledge.

Jeeves is known for his convoluted yet precise speech and for quoting from Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 and famous romantic poets

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

. In his free time, he likes to relax with "improving" books such as the complete works of Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza

Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...

, or to read "Dostoyevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....

 and the great Russians". He "glides" or "shimmers" in and out of rooms and may appear or disappear suddenly and without warning. His potable concoctions, both of the alcoholic and the morning-after variety, are legendary.

Jeeves frequently displays mastery over a vast range of subjects, from philosophy (his favourite philosopher is Spinoza; he finds Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...

 "fundamentally unsound") through an encyclopaedic knowledge of poetry, science, history, psychology, geography, politics, and literature. He is also a "bit of a whizz" in all matters pertaining to gambling, car maintenance, etiquette, and women. However, his most impressive feats are a flawless knowledge of the British aristocracy and making antidotes (especially for hangovers). His mental prowess is attributed to eating fish, according to Bertie, and the latter often offers the dish to Jeeves.

Jeeves has a distinct—and often negative—opinion of items about which Bertie is enthusiastic, such as a garish vase, an uncomplimentary painting of Wooster created by one of the many women with whom he is briefly infatuated, a moustache, monogrammed handkerchiefs, a straw boater, an alpine hat, a scarlet cummerbund, spats in the Eton

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 colours, white dinner jacket, or purple socks. Wooster's decision to take up playing the banjolele

Banjolele

The banjolele is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. "Banjolele," sometimes also spelled "banjelele" or "banjulele" is a generic nickname given to the instrument, which was derived from the "banjulele-banjo", introduced by Alvin D...

 in Thank You, Jeeves

Thank You, Jeeves

Thank You, Jeeves is a Jeeves novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on March 16, 1934 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on April 23, 1934 by Little, Brown and Company, New York....

almost led to a permanent rift between the two.

Jeeves is a member of the Junior Ganymede Club

Junior Ganymede Club

The Junior Ganymede Club is a recurring fictional location in the Jeeves stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a London club for "gentlemen's gentlemen", i.e. valets, especially for those whose employers are members of the Drones Club. Bertie Wooster's valet Jeeves is a member of...

, a London club for butlers and valets, in whose club book all members must record the exploits of their employers to forewarn other butlers and valets. The section labeled "WOOSTER, BERTRAM" is the largest in the book. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on October 15, 1954 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on February 23, 1955 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, under the title Bertie Wooster Sees It Through...

it contained "eleven pages", and by Much Obliged, Jeeves

Much Obliged, Jeeves

Much Obliged, Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on October 15, 1971 by Barrie & Jenkins, London and in the United States on October 15, 1971 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York under the name Jeeves and the Tie that Binds.The two editions have slightly...

it has grown to eighteen pages. However, at the end of Much Obliged, Jeeves, Jeeves informs Wooster that he has destroyed the eighteen pages, anticipating that he will never leave the latter's employment.

Only once in the Wodehouse canon does Jeeves appear without Wooster: Ring for Jeeves

Ring for Jeeves

Ring for Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 22 April 1953 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 15 April 1954 by Simon & Schuster, New York, under the title The Return of Jeeves....

, in which he is on loan to the 9th Earl

Earl

An earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...

 of Rowcester while Wooster attends a school where the idle rich learn self-sufficiency in case of social upheaval. The novel was adapted from Wodehouse's play Come On, Jeeves, which he felt needed a more conventional ending; but he was unwilling to marry Wooster off.

Jeeves's first job was as a page boy

Page boy

A page boy is a young male attendant at a wedding or cotillion. This type of wedding attendant is less common than it used to be, but is still a way of including young relatives or the children of relatives and friends in a wedding. A page is often seen at British royal weddings...

 at a girls' school, after which he had at least eleven other employers. Before entering the employ of Bertie Wooster, he was with Lord Worplesdon

Lord Worplesdon

Percival "Percy" Craye, later Earl of Worplesdon, is a recurring fictional character from the Jeeves stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being Agatha Gregson's second husband, who would have been her first but for Agatha's discovering that he had behaved shamefully at a ball at Covent...

, resigning after nearly a year because of Worplesdon's eccentric choice of evening dress; Mr Digby Thistleton (later Lord Bridgnorth), who sold hair tonic; Mr Montague Todd, a financier who was in the second year of a prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 term when Jeeves mentioned him to Bertie; Lord Brancaster, who gave port

Port wine

Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties...

-soaked seedcake to his pet parrot; and Lord Frederick Ranelagh, swindled in Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....

 by recurring antagonist Soapy Sid. His tenure with Bertie had occasional lapses, during which he was employed elsewhere: he worked for Lord Rowcester for the length of Ring for Jeeves; Marmaduke "Chuffy" Chuffnell for a week in Thank You, Jeeves

Thank You, Jeeves

Thank You, Jeeves is a Jeeves novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on March 16, 1934 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on April 23, 1934 by Little, Brown and Company, New York....

, after giving notice because of Bertie's unwillingness to give up the banjolele

Banjolele

The banjolele is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. "Banjolele," sometimes also spelled "banjelele" or "banjulele" is a generic nickname given to the instrument, which was derived from the "banjulele-banjo", introduced by Alvin D...

; J. Washburn Stoker for a short period; Gussie Fink-Nottle

Gussie Fink-Nottle

Augustus "Gussie" Fink-Nottle is a fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a lifelong friend of Jeeves's master Bertie Wooster and a possible member of the Drones Club...

, who masqueraded as Bertie in The Mating Season; and Sir Watkyn Bassett

Watkyn Bassett

Sir Watkyn Bassett CBE is a recurring fictional character in the stories of English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse.Bassett is the father of Madeline Bassett, whose mistaken belief that Bertie Wooster wishes to marry her is the basis of a major sub-plot in several stories...

 as a trick to get Bertie released from prison in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, published in the United States on March 22, 1963 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, and in the United Kingdom on August 16, 1963 by Herbert Jenkins, London...

.

Richard Usborne

Richard Usborne

Richard Alexander Usborne , or simply Dick Usborne, was a journalist and author. He is widely regarded as the leading scholar of the life and works of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse ....

, a leading scholar of the life and works of Wodehouse, describes Jeeves as a "godlike prime mover" and "master brain who has found to have engineered the apparent coincidence or coincidences".

Jeeves's first name of Reginald was not revealed until the penultimate novel in the series, Much Obliged, Jeeves (1971), when Bertie hears a "Hullo, Reggie" greeting Jeeves. The readers may have been surprised to learn Jeeves's first name, but Bertie was stunned by the revelation "that he had a first name" in the first place.

Inspiration and effect

In his 1953 semi-autobiographical book written with Guy Bolton

Guy Bolton

Guy Reginald Bolton was a British-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the U.S., he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G...

, Bring on the Girls!, Wodehouse suggests that Jeeves was based on an actual butler called Eugene Robinson that Wodehouse employed for research purposes. He recounts a story where Robinson extricated Wodehouse from a real-life predicament. Wodehouse also recounts that he named his Jeeves after Percy Jeeves

Percy Jeeves

Percy Jeeves was a British first-class cricketer from England, playing 50 matches for Warwickshire County Cricket Club from 1912 to 1914. He joined the British Army in the First World War and was killed in action in 1916. P. G...

 (1888–1916), a then-popular English cricketer for Warwickshire

Warwickshire County Cricket Club

Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...

. Percy Jeeves was killed at the Battle of the Somme during the attack on High Wood

High Wood

High Wood is a small forest near Bazentin le Petit in the Somme département of northern France which was the scene of intense fighting for two months from 14 July to 15 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme.-Background:...

 in July 1916, two months before the first appearance of the eponymous butler who would make his name a household word.

Jeeves' propensity for wisdom and knowledge is so well known that it inspired the original name of the Internet search website Ask.com (called "AskJeeves" from 1996 to 2006). In the twenty-first century, a "Jeeves" is a generic term (in the fashion of "a Jonah") for any useful and reliable person, found in dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...

or the Encarta World English Dictionary

Encarta Webster's Dictionary

The Encarta Webster's Dictionary of the English Language is the second edition of the Encarta World English Dictionary, published in 1999 . Slightly larger than a college dictionary, it is similar in appearance and scope to the American Heritage Dictionary, which Soukhanov previously edited...

. The term has even infiltrated World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...

, where an engineering character may construct a "Jeeves" robot

Robot

A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

 to repair equipment.

Family

Jeeves has three aunts who, he informs Wooster, are very placid in nature, in contrast to Wooster's aunts. One of Jeeves's aunts is resident in the vicinity of Maiden Eggesford and owns a cat, which features in Aunts Aren't Gentlemen

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in Britain on October 17, 1974 by Barrie & Jenkins, London, and in the U.S. under the title The Cat-nappers on April 14, 1975 by Simon & Schuster, New York...

. Her address is mentioned to be "Balmoral Castle, Mafeking Road". In Right Ho, Jeeves he refers to his Aunt Annie: "in times of domestic disagreement it was necessary only to invite my Aunt Annie for a visit to heal all breaches between the other members of the household. In the mutual animosity excited by Aunt Annie, those who had become estranged were reconciled almost immediately." The third aunt had varicose veins in her legs that were hideous to view, though improved to such a great extent by a patent medicine that she allowed them to be photographed for an advertisement for the product.

Jeeves also has an uncle, Charlie Silversmith, who is butler at Deverill Hall in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

. Jeeves frequently writes letters to his uncle and Wooster holds Charlie in high regard. On occasion, Jeeves has been known to take the place of his uncle when circumstances necessitate his absence.

By virtue of Uncle Charlie, Jeeves has a cousin, Queenie. Queenie is engaged to a police constable named Dobbs. She is also briefly engaged, in complicated circumstances, to Catsmeat Pirbright.

In The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy, we learn he also has a niece named Mabel, who falls in love with Charles Edward "Biffy" Biffen during an ocean voyage. An old friend of Bertie's, Biffy is so absent-minded that he subsequently forgets everything but her first name and that he successfully proposed to her. Feeling she has been toyed with, Mabel breaks off the engagement, only to resume it when Jeeves intervenes and sends Bertie, Biffin, and Roderick Glossop (to whose daughter, Honoria, Biffy became betrothed after the disappearance of Mabel) to see a historical sideshow at a fair in which Mabel is appearing.

Stories

The Jeeves "canon" consists of 35 short stories and 11 novels. With minor exceptions, the short stories were written and published first (between 1915 and 1930); the novels later (between 1934 and 1974).

The concept which eventually became Jeeves actually preceded Bertie in Wodehouse's imagination: he had long considered the idea of a butler—later a valet—who could solve any problem. A character named Reggie Pepper

Reggie Pepper

Reginald Pepper, known as "Reggie", is a fictional character who appears in seven short stories by P.G. Wodehouse. He is a young man-about-town with far more money than brain cells...

, who was very much like Bertie but without Jeeves, was the protagonist of seven short stories. Wodehouse decided to rewrite the Pepper stories, switching Reggie's character to Bertie Wooster and combining him with an ingenious valet.

Jeeves and Bertie first appeared in "Extricating Young Gussie

Extricating Young Gussie

"Extricating Young Gussie" is a short story by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the first appearance of two of his most popular characters, the ingenious valet Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster. It was first published in the U.S. in the 15 September 1915 issue of The Saturday Evening...

", a short story published in September 1915, in which Jeeves's character is minor and not fully developed and Bertie's surname appears to be Mannering-Phipps. The first fully recognisable Jeeves and Bertie story was "The Artistic Career of Corky", published in early 1916. As the series progressed, Jeeves assumed the role of Bertie's co-protagonist; indeed, their meeting was told in November 1916 in "Jeeves Takes Charge

Jeeves Takes Charge

"Jeeves Takes Charge" is a short story written by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United States in The Saturday Evening Post on November 18, 1916, and in the United Kingdom in the April 1923 edition of Strand Magazine. Its first book publication was in Carry on, Jeeves in 1925...

".

Bertie narrates all the stories but two, "Bertie Changes His Mind" (which Jeeves himself narrates), and Ring for Jeeves

Ring for Jeeves

Ring for Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 22 April 1953 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 15 April 1954 by Simon & Schuster, New York, under the title The Return of Jeeves....

(which features Jeeves but not Bertie and is written in the third person). The stories are set in three primary locations: London, where Bertie has a flat and is a member of the raucous Drones Club

Drones Club

The Drones Club is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a gentlemen's club in London. Many of his Jeeves and Blandings Castle stories feature the club or its members....

; various stately homes in the English countryside, most commonly Totleigh Towers

Totleigh Towers

Totleigh Towers is a recurring fictional location in the stories of English humorist P. G. Wodehouse. A country house, it is the home of widower Sir Watkyn Bassett, his ward Stephanie Byng, and his daughter Madeline Bassett...

 or Brinkley Court

Brinkley Court

Brinkley Court is a recurring fictional location, a country house in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Tom and Dahlia Travers...

; or New York City and a few other locations in the United States. All take place in a timeless world based on an idealised vision of England before World War II, essentially the same world found in the fiction of Wodehouse's near-contemporary, Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

. Only Ring for Jeeves

Ring for Jeeves

Ring for Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 22 April 1953 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 15 April 1954 by Simon & Schuster, New York, under the title The Return of Jeeves....

mentions World War II.

Most of the Jeeves stories were originally published as magazine pieces before being collected into books, although 11 of the short stories were reworked and divided into 18 chapters to make an episodic semi-novel called The Inimitable Jeeves. Other collections, most notably The World of Jeeves, restore these to their original form of 11 distinct stories.

• The Man with Two Left Feet
  The Man With Two Left Feet
  The Man With Two Left Feet, and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on March 8, 1917 by Methuen & Co., London, and in the United States in 1933 by A.L. Burt and Co., New York...
  
  (1917)—One story in a book of thirteen
  • "Extricating Young Gussie
    Extricating Young Gussie
    "Extricating Young Gussie" is a short story by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the first appearance of two of his most popular characters, the ingenious valet Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster. It was first published in the U.S. in the 15 September 1915 issue of The Saturday Evening...
    
    "—The first appearances of Jeeves and Bertie, originally published 1915.
• (My Man Jeeves
  My Man Jeeves
  My Man Jeeves is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom in May 1919 by George Newnes. Of the eight stories in the collection, half feature the popular characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, while the others concern Reggie Pepper, an early prototype...
  
  (1919)—Four stories in a book of eight, all four reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves. The non-Jeeves stories feature Reggie Pepper
  Reggie Pepper
  Reginald Pepper, known as "Reggie", is a fictional character who appears in seven short stories by P.G. Wodehouse. He is a young man-about-town with far more money than brain cells...
  
  .)
  • ("Leave It to Jeeves", was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves as "The Artistic Career of Corky"), originally published 1916.
  • ("Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest", was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves), originally published 1916.
  • ("Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg", was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves), originally published 1917.
  • ("The Aunt and the Sluggard", was reprinted in Carry on, Jeeves), originally published 1916.
• The Inimitable Jeeves
  The Inimitable Jeeves
  The Inimitable Jeeves is a semi-novel collecting Jeeves stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, on May 17, 1923, and in the United States by George H...
  
  (1923)—A semi-novel consisting of eighteen chapters, originally published as eleven short stories (some of which were split for the book):
  • "Jeeves Exerts the Old Cerebellum" with "No Wedding Bells for Bingo" (together "Jeeves in the Springtime
    Jeeves in the Springtime
    "Jeeves in the Springtime" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the December 1921 edition of Strand Magazine in two parts, "Jeeves Exerts the Old Cerebellum" and "No Wedding Bells for Bingo", and appeared in the same format when first published in a book, The Inimitable...
    
    ", originally published 1921)
  • "Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind" with "Pearls Mean Tears" (together "Aunt Agatha Takes the Count", originally published 1922.)
  • "The Pride of the Woosters Is Wounded" with "The Hero's Reward" (together "Scoring Off Jeeves", originally published 1922.)
  • "Introducing Claude and Eustace" with "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch" (together "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch", originally published 1922.)
  • "A Letter of Introduction" with "Startling Dressiness of a Lift Attendant" (together "Jeeves and the Chump Cyril", originally published 1918.)
  • "Comrade Bingo" with "Bingo Has a Bad Goodwood" (together "Comrade Bingo
    Comrade Bingo
    "Comrade Bingo" is a comic story by P. G. Wodehouse. It is part of the "Bertie Wooster" series.-Plot:Richard "Bingo" Little falls in love with the daughter of a left-wing, probably, communist or socialist leader called Charlotte Corday Rowbotham...
    
    ", originally published 1922.)
  • "The Great Sermon Handicap", originally published 1922.
  • "The Purity of the Turf", originally published 1922.
  • "The Metropolitan Touch", originally published 1922.
  • "The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace", originally published 1922.
  • "Bingo and the Little Woman" with "All's Well" (together "Bingo and the Little Woman", originally published 1922.)
• Carry on, Jeeves
  Carry on, Jeeves
  Carry on, Jeeves is a collection of ten short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United Kingdom on 9 October 1925 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on October 7, 1927 by George H. Doran, New York...
  
  (1925)—Ten stories:
  • "Jeeves Takes Charge
    Jeeves Takes Charge
    "Jeeves Takes Charge" is a short story written by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United States in The Saturday Evening Post on November 18, 1916, and in the United Kingdom in the April 1923 edition of Strand Magazine. Its first book publication was in Carry on, Jeeves in 1925...
    
    " – Recounts the first meeting of Jeeves and Bertie, originally published 1916.
  • "The Artistic Career of Corky", a rewrite of "Leave It to Jeeves", originally published in My Man Jeeves
  • "Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest", originally published in My Man Jeeves
  • "Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg", originally published in My Man Jeeves
  • "The Aunt and the Sluggard", originally published in My Man Jeeves
  • "The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy", originally published 1924.
  • "Without the Option", originally published 1925.
  • "Fixing It for Freddie", a rewrite of a Reggie Pepper story, "Helping Freddie", originally published in My Man Jeeves
  • "Clustering Round Young Bingo"
  • "Bertie Changes His Mind"—The only story in the canon narrated by Jeeves, originally published 1922.
• Very Good, Jeeves
  Very Good, Jeeves
  Very Good, Jeeves is a collection of eleven short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, all featuring Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. It was first published in the United States on 20 June 1930 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 4 July 1930 by Herbert Jenkins, London...
  
  (1930)—Eleven stories:
  • "Jeeves and the Impending Doom", originally published 1926.
  • "The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy", originally published 1926.
  • "Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit" (US title: Jeeves and the Yuletide Spirit), originally published 1927.
  • "Jeeves and the Song of Songs", originally published 1929.
  • "Episode of the Dog McIntosh" (US title: Jeeves and the Dog McIntosh), originally published 1929.
  • "The Spot of Art" (US title: Jeeves and the Spot of Art), originally published 1929.
  • "Jeeves and the Kid Clementina", originally published 1930.
  • "The Love That Purifies" (US title: Jeeves and the Love That Purifies), originally published 1929.
  • "Jeeves and the Old School Chum", originally published 1930.
  • "The Indian Summer of an Uncle", originally published 1930.
  • "The Ordeal of Young Tuppy" (US title: Tuppy Changes His Mind), originally published 1930.
• Thank You, Jeeves
  Thank You, Jeeves
  Thank You, Jeeves is a Jeeves novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on March 16, 1934 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on April 23, 1934 by Little, Brown and Company, New York....
  
  (1934)—The first full-length Jeeves novel
• Right Ho, Jeeves
  Right Ho, Jeeves
  Right Ho, Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, the second full-length novel featuring the popular characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, after Thank You, Jeeves. It also features a host of other recurring Wodehouse characters, and is mostly set at Brinkley Court, the home of Bertie's Aunt Dahlia...
  
  (1934) (US title: Brinkley Manor)
• The Code of the Woosters
  The Code of the Woosters
  The Code of the Woosters is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York...
  
  (1938)
• Joy in the Morning
  Joy in the Morning (1946 novel)
  Joy in the Morning is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on August 22, 1946 by Doubleday & Co., New York, and in the United Kingdom on June 2, 1947 by Herbert Jenkins, London...
  
  (1946) (US title: Jeeves in the Morning)
• The Mating Season (1949)
• (Come On, Jeeves—1952 play with Guy Bolton, adapted 1953 into Ring for Jeeves, produced 1954, published 1956)
• Ring for Jeeves
  Ring for Jeeves
  Ring for Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 22 April 1953 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 15 April 1954 by Simon & Schuster, New York, under the title The Return of Jeeves....
  
  (1953)—Only novel without Bertie (US title: The Return of Jeeves), adapting the play Come On, Jeeves
• Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
  Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
  Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on October 15, 1954 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on February 23, 1955 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, under the title Bertie Wooster Sees It Through...
  
  (1954) (US title: Bertie Wooster Sees It Through)
• A Few Quick Ones
  A Few Quick Ones
  A Few Quick Ones is a collection of ten short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United States on 13 April 1959 by Simon & Schuster, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 26 June 1959 by Herbert Jenkins, London....
  
  (1959)—One short story in a book of ten
  • "Jeeves Makes an Omelette", a rewrite of a Reggie Pepper story originally published in My Man Jeeves
• Jeeves in the Offing
  Jeeves in the Offing
  Jeeves in the Offing is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 4 April 1960 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, under the title How Right You Are, Jeeves, and in the United Kingdom on 12 August 1960 by Herbert Jenkins, London....
  
  (1960) (US title: How Right You Are, Jeeves)
• Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
  Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
  Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, published in the United States on March 22, 1963 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, and in the United Kingdom on August 16, 1963 by Herbert Jenkins, London...
  
  (1963)
• Plum Pie
  Plum Pie
  Plum Pie is a collection of nine short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on September 22, 1966 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on December 1, 1967 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York....
  
  (1966)—One short story in a book of nine
  • "Jeeves and the Greasy Bird"
• Much Obliged, Jeeves
  Much Obliged, Jeeves
  Much Obliged, Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on October 15, 1971 by Barrie & Jenkins, London and in the United States on October 15, 1971 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York under the name Jeeves and the Tie that Binds.The two editions have slightly...
  
  (1971) (US title: Jeeves and the Tie That Binds)
• Aunts Aren't Gentlemen
  Aunts Aren't Gentlemen
  Aunts Aren't Gentlemen is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in Britain on October 17, 1974 by Barrie & Jenkins, London, and in the U.S. under the title The Cat-nappers on April 14, 1975 by Simon & Schuster, New York...
  
  (1974) (US title: The Cat-nappers)

The collection The World of Jeeves (first published in 1967, reprinted in 1989) contains all of the Jeeves short stories (with the exception of "Extricating Young Gussie") presented more or less in narrative chronological order. An efficient method of reading the entire Jeeves canon is to read The World of Jeeves followed by the eleven novels in order of publication. The novels share a certain amount of sequential narrative development between them, and the later novels are essentially sequels to the earlier ones.

Films

There have been a few theatrical films based upon or inspired by Wodehouse's novels:-

• Thank You, Jeeves!
  Thank You, Jeeves!
  Thank You, Jeeves! is a comedy film starring Arthur Treacher and David Niven.Although the film bears the same title as one of P.G. Wodehouse's novels, and the two leading characters are Jeeves and Bertie Wooster , the screenplay, by Stephen Gross and Joseph Hoffman, bears no similarity to any...
  
  (1935)—Arthur Treacher
  Arthur Treacher
  Arthur Veary Treacher was an English actor born in Brighton, East Sussex, England.Treacher was a veteran of World War I. After the war, he established a stage career and in 1928, he went to America as part of a musical-comedy revue called Great Temptations...
  
   as Jeeves, and David Niven
  David Niven
  James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
  
   as Bertie, meet a girl and help her brother stop two spies trying to get his secret plans. The film has almost nothing to do with the book of that title. Although Treacher looks the part, the script calls on him to play the character as unhelpful and rather unpleasant, with none of the trademark brilliance of the literary Jeeves.
• Step Lively, Jeeves! (1936)—Arthur Treacher
  Arthur Treacher
  Arthur Veary Treacher was an English actor born in Brighton, East Sussex, England.Treacher was a veteran of World War I. After the war, he established a stage career and in 1928, he went to America as part of a musical-comedy revue called Great Temptations...
  
   as Jeeves is conned by two swindlers who claim he has a fortune waiting for him in America, where Jeeves meets some gangsters. Bertie does not appear, Jeeves is portrayed as a naive bumbler, and the film has nothing to do with any Wodehouse story.
• By Jeeves
  By Jeeves
  By Jeeves, originally Jeeves, is a 1975/1996 musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn, based on the novels of P. G. Wodehouse....
  
  (2001)—A recorded performance of the musical, released as a video (with UK Martin Jarvis as Jeeves, and U.S. John Scherer as Bertie). It was also aired on TV.

Plays

• Come On, Jeeves (opened 1954, still played from time to time under its name or as Ring for Jeeves)—A 1952 play by Guy Bolton and Wodehouse (adapted into the 1953 novel Ring for Jeeves
  Ring for Jeeves
  Ring for Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 22 April 1953 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 15 April 1954 by Simon & Schuster, New York, under the title The Return of Jeeves....
  
  ), opened 1954 in Worthing
  Worthing
  Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
  
  , England (cast unknown), published in 1956.

Television

• The World of Wooster (30 May 1965 to 17 November 1967, 20 episodes of 30 minutes)—A half-hour comedy series for BBC1 (with Dennis Price
  Dennis Price
  Dennis Price was an English actor, remembered for his suave screen roles, particularly Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and for his portrayal of the omniscient valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G...
  
   as Jeeves, and Ian Carmichael
  Ian Carmichael
  Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE was an English film, stage, television and radio actor.-Early life:Carmichael was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA...
  
   as Bertie, plus Derek Nimmo
  Derek Nimmo
  Derek Robert Nimmo was an English character actor. He was particularly associated with upper-class "silly-ass" roles, and clerical roles.-Career:...
  
   playing Bingo Little
  Bingo Little
  Richard P. "Bingo" Little is a recurring fictional character from the Drones and the Jeeves stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a friend of Jeeves's master Bertie Wooster and a member of the Drones Club.-Overview:...
  
  ).
• Jeeves and Wooster
  Jeeves and Wooster
  -External links:*—An episode guide to the series, including information about which episodes were adapted from which Wodehouse stories.*—Episode guides, screenshots and quotes from the four series....
  
  (22 April 1990 to 20 June 1993, 23 episodes of 55 minutes)—A hit ITV
  ITV
  ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
  
   series starring double-act Fry and Laurie
  Fry and Laurie
  Fry and Laurie, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, were a successful English comedy double act, mostly active in the 1980s and 1990s. Having met in 1980 through mutual friend Emma Thompson , Fry and Laurie have since collaborated on numerous projects together, including Jeeves and Wooster, in which...
  
   (with Stephen Fry
  Stephen Fry
  Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
  
   as Jeeves, and Hugh Laurie
  Hugh Laurie
  James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
  
   as Bertie).

Musicals

• Jeeves
  By Jeeves
  By Jeeves, originally Jeeves, is a 1975/1996 musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn, based on the novels of P. G. Wodehouse....
  
  (22 April 1975 to 24 May 1975, 38 performances)—An unsuccessful musical loosely based on Wodehouse, opened in London (with Michael Aldridge
  Michael Aldridge
  Michael William ffolliott Aldridge was an English actor. While it was his role as Seymour in the television series Last of the Summer Wine which made him widely recognised, his long career as a successful character actor on stage and screen dated back to the 1930s.-Early life:The son of Dr...
  
   as Jeeves, and David Hemmings
  David Hemmings
  David Edward Leslie Hemmings was an English film, theatre and television actor as well as a film and television director and producer....
  
   as Bertie). Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Lyrics & Book by Alan Ayckbourn and based on the Wodehouse book: "Code of The Woosters."
• By Jeeves
  By Jeeves
  By Jeeves, originally Jeeves, is a 1975/1996 musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn, based on the novels of P. G. Wodehouse....
  
  (1 May 1996 to 12 February 1997; 28 October 2001 to 30 December 2001, 73 performances)—A more successful complete rewrite of the earlier version, opened in London (with Malcolm Sinclair
  Malcolm Sinclair
  Malcolm Sinclair is a British stage and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as 'Assistant Chief Constable Freddy Fisher' in the television series Pie in the Sky , although he has an extensive number of film, television and theatre roles to his credit...
  
   as Jeeves, and Steven Pacey
  Steven Pacey
  Steven Pacey is an English actor, best known for his role as Del Tarrant in the third and fourth seasons of the sci-fi series Blake's 7....
  
   as Bertie), and premiered in the U.S. in November 1996 (with Richard Kline
  Richard Kline
  Richard Kline is an American actor and television director. He is best known for playing the sleazy neighbor and used car salesman, Larry Dallas, on the sitcom, Three's Company.-Early life:...
  
   as Jeeves, and John Scherer as Bertie). It was produced again in 2001 on Broadway (with Martin Jarvis as Jeeves, and Scherer as Bertie), with one recorded performance released as a video film and aired on TV.

Radio

• What Ho, Jeeves! (1972 to 1981)—A popular BBC Radio 4
  BBC Radio 4
  BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
  
   series adapting various Jeeves stories (with Michael Hordern
  Michael Hordern
  Sir Michael Murray Hordern was an English actor, knighted in 1983 for his services to the theatre, which stretched back to before the Second World War.-Personal life:...
  
   as Jeeves, and Richard Briers
  Richard Briers
  Richard David Briers, CBE is an English actor whose career has encompassed theatre, television, film and radio.He first came to prominence as George Starling in Marriage Lines in the 1960s, but it was in the following decade when he played Tom Good in the BBC sitcom The Good Life that he became a...
  
   as Bertie).
• The Code of the Woosters (2006)—A BBC Radio 4
  BBC Radio 4
  BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
  
   dramatisation of The Code of the Woosters
  The Code of the Woosters
  The Code of the Woosters is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York...
  
  (with Andrew Sachs
  Andrew Sachs
  Andrew Sachs is a German-born British actor. He made his name on British television and is best known for his portrayals of Manuel in Fawlty Towers, a role for which he was BAFTA-nominated, and Ramsay Clegg in Coronation Street.-Early life:Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Katharina , a...
  
   as Jeeves, and Marcus Brigstocke
  Marcus Brigstocke
  Marcus Alexander Brigstocke is an English comedian, actor and satirist who has worked extensively in stand-up comedy, television, radio and in 2010-2011 musical theatre. He is particularly associated with the 6.30pm comedy slot on BBC Radio 4, having frequently appeared on several of its shows...
  
   as Bertie).

Comics

• In Alan Moore
  Alan Moore
  Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
  
  's comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
  The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
  The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is an original graphic novel in the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. It was the last volume of the series to be published by DC Comics. Although the third book to be...
  
  , Jeeves appears in the segment "What Ho, Gods of the Abyss?" in which he contacts the League through a cousin in the British Museum to help combat the arrival of a Mi-go
  Mi-go
  The Mi-go are a race of extraterrestrials in the Cthulhu Mythos created by H. P. Lovecraft and others. The name was first applied to the creatures in Lovecraft's short story "The Whisperer in Darkness" , taking up a reference to 'What fungi sprout in Yuggoth' in his sonnet cycle Fungi from Yuggoth...
  
   to Brinkley Court
  Brinkley Court
  Brinkley Court is a recurring fictional location, a country house in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Tom and Dahlia Travers...
  
   and Bertie's Aunt Dahlia
  Aunt Dahlia
  Dahlia Travers is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being best known as Bertie Wooster's bonhomous, red-faced Aunt Dahlia. She is much beloved by her nephew, in contrast with her sister, Bertie's Aunt Agatha...
  
  's possession
  Demonic possession
  Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
  
   by Cthulhu
  Cthulhu
  Cthulhu is a fictional character that first appeared in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. The character was created by writer H. P...
  
  . The Lovecraftian menaces are driven off by a League consisting of Mina Murray, Allan Quatermain
  Allan Quatermain
  Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various prequels and sequels. Allan Quatermain was also the title of a book in this sequence.- History :...
  
  , Carnacki
  Carnacki
  Thomas Carnacki is a fictional supernatural detective created by English fantasy writer William Hope Hodgson. Carnacki was the protagonist of a series of six short stories published between 1910 and 1912 in The Idler magazine and The New Magazine....
  
  , and Orlando
  Orlando: A Biography
  Orlando: A Biography is an influential novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. A semi-biographical novel based in part on the life of Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West, it is generally considered one of Woolf's most accessible novels...
  
  .

Biography

A fictional biography of Jeeves, entitled Jeeves: A Gentleman's Personal Gentleman by Northcote Parkinson

C. Northcote Parkinson

Cyril Northcote Parkinson was a British naval historian and author of some sixty books, the most famous of which was his bestseller Parkinson's Law, which led him to be also considered as an important scholar within the field of public administration.-Early life and education:The youngest son of...

, fills in a great deal of background information about him.

Also, both Jeeves and Bertie Wooster make cameo appearances in Spider Robinson

Spider Robinson

Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author.- Biography :Born in the Bronx, New York City, Robinson attended Catholic high school, spending his junior year in a seminary, followed by two years in a Catholic college, and five years at the State...

's Lady Slings the Booze.

See also

• List of characters in the Jeeves stories
• List of fictional butlers, also including once-butler valets such as Jeeves

External links

TV adaptations

• BBC's World of Wooster (March 2007 Archive.org cache) at the BBC Comedy Guide (down)
• ITV's Jeeves and Wooster (March 2007 Archive.org cache) at the BBC Comedy Guide