Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves

"Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves" is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on March 22 1963 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, and in the United Kingdom on August 16 1963 by Herbert Jenkins, London. It features Wodehouse's famous characters, valet Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster.

"Bertie Wooster would rather run a mile in tight shoes than visit the rural nightmare known as Totleigh Towers."

Inhabiting its confines is Madeline Bassett, who firmly believes that the stars are God's daisy chain. She is engaged to Bertie's old chum Gussie, but she'll happily settle for Bertie should things go amiss. So when the engagement does falter, Bertie must hope that Jeeves will forget their differences over a certain pink-feathered Alpine hat and once more come to his rescue...

Plot

In "Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves", fate conspires to draw Bertie Wooster back to Totleigh Towers, the site of an earlier ordeal that nearly landed our hero in prison and, worse still, in continuing danger of marriage to Madeline, the svelte and sadly syrupy daughter of the house. Only one thing stands between Bertie and the dreaded state of matrimony, and that is his good friend Gussie Fink-Nottle, lover of newts and Madeline. So long as Gussie and Madeline continue to profess their undying love for each other, Bertie is safe...but disaster looms when Gussie rebels at Madeline's attempt to turn him into a vegetarian. Throw in the intrigues of Miss Stiffy Byng and her dog Bartholomew to gain the Reverend Stinker Pinker a vicarage, the renewed rivalry of art collectors Sir Watkyn Bassett and Bertie's Uncle Tom (husband of Aunt Dahlia), and the irresistible cooking skills of American Emerald Stoker (who happens to be the younger sister of Bertie's old friend Pauline, whom he also narrowly avoided marrying), and you have trouble of the sort that only Jeeves can mend.

In the TV series Jeeves and Wooster, the book was dramatised as Season IV, Episode 5: Trouble at Totleigh Towers.

External links

* [http://wodehouse.ru/85.htm The Russian Wodehouse Society's page] , with a list of characters
* [http://www.worldofwodehouse.com Summaries of most of P.G. Wodehouses books, information on characters, quizzes]