| abstract | - Jeeves and Wooster is the name popularly given to a series of humorous short stories and novels by P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975). Created in 1915, Jeeves continued to appear in Wodehouse's work until his last completed novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, a span of 59 years. In the series, Jeeves is the highly-competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Bertie Wooster. Jeeves becomes Bertie's protector and all-purpose problem solver, devising subtle plans to rescue Bertie and his friends from tiresome social obligations, demanding relatives, brushes with the law, and, above all, problems involving women. Wodehouse derives much comic effect from having Bertie, his narrator, remain blissfully unaware of Jeeves's machinations, until all is revealed at the end of the story. Both the name "Jeeves" and the character of Jeeves have come to be thought of as the quintessential name and nature of a valet or butler, inspiring many similar characters (as well as the name of the Internet search engine Ask Jeeves). A "Jeeves" is now a generic term in references such as the Oxford English Dictionary. The series has no official title, and was often referred to as "the Jeeves stories" until the hit ITV series Jeeves and Wooster (22 April 1990 to 20 June 1993) starring double-act Fry and Laurie (with Stephen Fry as Jeeves, and Hugh Laurie as Wooster).
|
