Soaking It In: Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit

What I've been reading, seeing, listening to and otherwise absorbing.

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
(1954)
by P. G. Wodehouse
Audio Partners audio recording
Read by Jonathon Cecil.

Never mind that the tale appears predictable and seems like most sitcom episodes you've seen. We can envision Three's Company's Jack Tripper attempting to fake a late-night burglary and accidentally climbing into the bedroom window of the women whose romantic advances he's trying to avoid. (Which is one of the situations in which Bertie Wooster finds himself in Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit.) But you can blame any apparent familiarity on Wodehouse' successful influence on Western fiction. When so many writers have tried for so many years to out-Wodehouse Wodehouse, the original is bound to seem a bit unoriginal.

But never mind all that. The delight is in the language and the characterization, especially as read by the always-enjoyable Jonathon Cecil. I highly recommend this book.

Incidentally, the trail between P.G. Wodehouse and Three's Company leads through the British sitcom Man About the House, the British screwball comedy on which Three's Company was based.