Book: 'The Code Of The Woosters' (1938) by PG Wodehouse

For some reason, perhaps due to overexposure to the ITV series in the 1990s, I've always managed to avoid reading a 'Jeeves and Wooster' novel or short story. Maybe it was a fear of comparisons, or a worry of something being overhyped, but 'The Code Of The Woosters' (henceforth to be referred to as 'Code') has put it all to rest. It is absolutely brilliant, and much better than the closest reference point here on the QM, which is 'Leave It To Psmith'. 'Code' feels much more substantial, although that feeling might be inherited from the relevant series episode. Mutter mutter. 'Code' feels like a building block, whereas 'Psmith' felt like a gossamer thread.

There is almost no point in trying to describe the plot of 'Code', but the keypoints include the purloining of a cow creamer (a silver milk jug) and of a police helmet, Bertie being imperilled by a possible marriage to the endlessly wet and soppy Madeline Bassett, Gussie Fink-Nottle being an oaf, the introduction of Stinker Pinker and Sir Roderick Spode (leader of the proto-fascist 'Brownshorts'), much blackmail from all corners, and the invention of the Junior Ganymede Club.

The plot of this story is a fascinating and neverending ordeal for Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves, which would probably have toppled lesser beings, as circumstance and plot pile upon circumstance and plot in a grand recursive mountain until you begin to wonder if there's any possible escape for Bertie from his brief sojourn at Totleigh Towers. From beginning to end, there is no stop to the troubles being pushed on him from all corners, but he does ultimately prevail. There is an utterly stomach-clenching moment involving a police helmet being found in a suitcase, which doesn't really belong in a comedic romp but which works perfectly. Twists and turns, twists and turns.

'Code' leaps straight into the rarified heights of my book list, which is a great achievement. It really is brilliant, and now it is clearly time to begin making progress through the rest of the pre-War 'Jeeves and Wooster' stories, and begin to put them all into context. It would be nice for the novels to take prominence over the television show, as 'Code' has over the relevent episodes. At the novel's beginning, the extreme similarity between the text and the episode was offputting, but this went away as the differences became established in the latter portions of the story. It became its own entity and flourished.

This is a very nice, very witty, and very accomplished work. Excellent.

O.