Product Description

A colourful array of characters including Gussie Fink-Nottle, the soupy Madeleine Bassett, and the Rev. H.P. ('Stinker') Pinker, add an 18th century cow-creamer, a small notebook and mix with Aunt Dahlia. It all spells trouble for Bertie and Jeeves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87468 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

The classic Jeeves and Bertie novel in a great new edition.
Here it is: 'the sinister affair of Gussie Fink-Nottle, Madeleine Bassett, old Pop Bassett, Stiffy Byng, the Rev. H.P. ('Stinker') Pinker, the eighteenth-century cow-creamer and the small, brown, leather-covered notebook'. A terrific introduction to the world of Bertie and Jeeves for novices, and one of the finest examples of Wodehouse's genius for those already familiar with his work. Presented here in the brilliant new Everyman edition (that will eventually encompass everything Wodehouse wrote) the book is well put-together, and definitely deserves pride of place in your home library.

Trouble for Bertie at Totleigh Towers
`The Code of the Woosters' carries on from where `Right Ho, Jeeves' left off with the same cast of characters but with the location shifted from Brinkley Manor to Totleigh Towers the ancestral home of Sir Watkyn Bassett father of Madeline Basset whom had been restored to her fiancé Gussie Fink-Nottle at the end of `Right Ho, Jeeves'. Once again the engagement is under the cosh and Bertie and Jeeves are summand to restore the larch to the thorn and God to the heavens. Matters are not helped by the further complication of the estranged engagement of Madeline's cousin `Stiffy' Byng to the local Curate `Stinker' Pinker and also that Sir Watkyn, in his role as magistrate, has recently fined Bertie £5 for stealing a Police Constables helmet on Boat Night.

`The Code of the Woosters' also features the debut of Wodehouse's most unfortunate Character, one Roderick Spode. Spode is somewhat unfortunately a light send up of Oswald Mosley, being leader of the Black Shorts as apposed to the Black Shirts. Written in 1938 no-one at the time knew the full nightmare of fascism or that it could lead to such horror as the holocaust, however with the benefit of hindsight Spode is Wodehouse's biggest blot on the old escutcheon. Coupled with Wodehouse's later faux par of the broadcasts the Nazis induced him to make when interned in occupied France, the existence of the Black Shorts in Wodehouse's inoffensive world do jar against the readers sensibilities. This is a great shame as this is possibly the only flaw in such a perfect farce.

So leaving aside the rise of fascism, `The Code of the Woosters' is another fantastic piece of prose chronicling our favourite drone and his faithful manservant.

Articulate Fluff
THE CODE OF THE WOOSTERS defied my usual reading style. That style is interactive and generates marginalia, which absolutely fills the white space of books I enjoy. But my copy of TCofW is nearly pristine, with the reading experience provoking few comments. Not to sound pompous; but for me, this novel was dull fluff, albeit a masterful demonstration of voice. Still, I recognize my limits. If I were a Brit or more aware of the conventions of 1930's British social satire, then maybe...

TCofW gains life after Wodehouse establishes the character Sir Watkyn Bassett, who is the antagonist of Bertie Wooster, as Bertie is charged with snatching a silver cow creamer and battles, in his twitish way, to foster the nuptials of Stiffy and Madeline. Sir B is a magistrate, host, and wealthy man who Wodehouse eventually endows with gravitas. Once this exists, Bertie's shenanigans become funny, especially in Chapter Nine, when he asks Sir B for permission to marry Stiffy. Without Sir B's grounding, the novel is merely highly-mannered farce and not especially amusing.

A good way to read TCofW is to tic the margins whenever Wodehouse uses an archaic or obscure word or expression. "How my Aunt Agatha's McIntosh niffed to heaven..." "She biffed off and I leaned..." "That's where you're making your bloomer." "... a bucket of cold water right into the mazzard." "Snootered to the bursting point..." "...and come a purler in the bathtub." In his use such use of language, Wodehouse shows he is an exacting and playful writer.