The Inimitable Jeeves

Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville), 1881-1975Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.5

Word count: 374K words
Chapters: 38

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. WodehouseAuthor: Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville), 1881-1975,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Apr 11, 2019

Editor's review

The Inimitable Jeeves is a loosely linked collection of short pieces in Wodehouse's Jeeves series, centred on the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. Its value lies not in intricate plotting but in verbal wit and the comic tension of the characters' relationships: Bertie's self-assurance, the absurd requests of family and friends, and Jeeves's unruffled resolutions form a steady, rereadable structure of humour. Wodehouse's carefully wrought sentences and light irony give the English original a brisk rhythm, making it a good entry point into British humour and twentieth-century social comedy. This Project Gutenberg public-domain e-edition is convenient for reading in short stretches on an electronic device. As for settings, it suits commutes, bedtime or travel, one piece at a time, with no need to push straight through; it also suits English learners who want to close-read selected passages and observe euphemism and comic timing in dialogue and narration. A caveat: the characters and class assumptions bear the marks of their era, and readers should take them as comedy rather than social realism.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy British humour and light comedy and want an easy read
Upper-intermediate and advanced learners who want to make English reading more enjoyable in the original
Commuters who need a short-piece structure they can pick up and put down
Readers interested in twentieth-century British gentlemanly culture and social comedy

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting strong plotting, suspense or deep social criticism
Beginners in English unused to early twentieth-century English expression
Readers who prefer serious literature and weighty themes and have no patience for light banter

Reading tips

Read one short piece at a time and pause after each to review the jokes and character relationships.
Pick dialogue passages between Bertie and Jeeves to read aloud and feel the tone and rhythm of the irony.
When you meet period expressions, guess from context first, then check a dictionary and note them down.
You may first read a Chinese introduction to understand the character setup, then return to the English original for close reading.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Does this book need to be read in order from start to finish?

No. It is made up of relatively independent short pieces linked by continuing characters. Reading in order gives a better sense of how the characters build up, but starting with any piece does not prevent you from understanding its individual humour.

Can I read this book if my English is only average?

The book is dialogue-heavy, with carefully wrought sentences, early twentieth-century British expressions and euphemisms, so it poses a barrier for beginners. It suits readers at intermediate level or above who are willing to look up words and adjust to the idiom; you can also begin with selected passages and work up gradually.

What is special about this edition?

This is a public-domain e-edition released by Project Gutenberg, and the work itself is Wodehouse's original English text. It is convenient for free reading and browsing in sections on electronic devices, but it usually contains no modern annotations or introduction, so readers must look up background and unfamiliar words themselves.

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About the author

Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville), 1881-1975 Author

P. G. Wodehouse (Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, 1881–1975) was a British humorist and novelist known for his light, witty comic style. The library holds 41 of his works, including the Jeeves books Right Ho, Jeeves, My Man Jeeves, and The Inimitable Jeeves, as well as The Clicking of Cuthbert, The Girl on the Boat, A Damsel in Distress, The Man Upstairs and Other Stories, and Psmith, Journalist. These works often turn on the mismatched relations between idle aristocrats, clumsy young men, and shrewd servants, with plots driven by misunderstanding, coincidence, and role reversal, and prose marked by irony and exaggeration. Wodehouse's easy elegance, brisk dialogue, and comic invention had a lasting influence on twentieth-century English humorous writing. Public information is limited, so no biographical details are conjectured here.