The five volumes in this series of the complete Jeeves and Wooster are completely out of order, and it's a fact that frustrates me far more than necessary. These are frothy comic gems to be enjoyed individually, but there's no point making it difficult for fans to appreciate them in the right chronology!

The final volume is an attempt to collect the odds-and-ends of the series. The final two novels are here: the rather amusing Much Obliged, Jeeves and the slightly tired Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (still humourous, but written well into the author's 10th decade). These are followed by the three short stories that aren't always found in other collections. "Extricating Young Gussie", the earliest Jeeves short story which is usually seen as a blueprint or pilot episode; "Jeeves Makes an Omelette", a reworking of an early (1913) Wodehouse story which the author resurrected in 1958 for magazine publication; and "Jeeves and the Greasy Bird", the last of the short stories, published in magazine form in late 1965. ( )

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Title: The Jeeves Omnibus #5
Series: Jeeves Omnibus #5.3
Author: PG Wodehouse
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages: 120
Words: 43K

Synopsis:

A trio of short stories consisting of:

Extricating Young Gussie

Jeeves Makes An Omelette

Jeeves and the Greasy Bird

My Thoughts:

This was a fitting end to the Jeeves and Wooster Omnibus series. While each of the short stories had been published before, they had never been published in one volume.

Nothing spectacular but at the same time I think the short story format works best for the Jeeves and Wooster stories. There's only so much Bertie Wooster one can stomach in one go and short stories allow one to dash in for a bite, then skip out again until one is hungry for another bite. Whereas a novel forces you to sit down at the monstrously huge mahogany table with the Edwardian chairs and dine on each course as they are served to one. That is great if Chef Anatole is doing the cooking, but if it's Chef Boyardee, well, that's a different matter altogether!

I started this Jeeves Omnibus read back in April of 2018 with Thank You, Jeeves. Here I am now, 2 ½ years later, finishing things up. I have loved reading this and looked forward to them each time. Some were definitely better or worse than others but I never regretted my time reading these.

Given the nature of this series, if I ever choose to do a re-read, I suspect I'll only re-read the stories that got 4stars from me. But who knows? Wodehouse tickles my funny bone and very few authors can do that as consistently as he has done.

So let's give 3 cheers for Jeeves and Wooster, give a hearty “What Ho” to their antics and then have some tea to cool ourselves off from all that exertion. Pip, pip, cheerio and God save the Queen, govnah!

★★★★☆ ( )