‘Carry On, Jeeves’ by PG Wodehouse is the first book in the
Jeeves and Wooster collection. The two main protagonists of the story – Bertie
Wooster, the master and Reginald Jeeves, Bertie’s valet. The book has ten
chapters, with Bertie being the narrator for nine, and Jeeves being the
narrator for the last chapter.
Introduction –
The First Page:
The book starts with – ‘Now, touching this business of old Jeeves,
my man, you know, how do we stand?’ Hmmm, yeah, so, who is the narrator? Who
is speaking these lines? There is no such introduction like – ‘Hey, I’m Bertie
Wooster’, or ‘Bertie here!’ throughout the book. You won’t get who the narrator
is, until you read the 18th page, where Bertie’s fiancée takes his
name. So, what I think is that there is be a book written before this one by
Wodehouse in which features Bertie but not Jeeves. And I completely failed to
find that book on the internet, or should I say, the internet completely failed
me. Thus, one has to read that book (if there is one) which precedes this one
in order to know who the narrator is. It isn’t the author’s fault, as one must
read the introduction book before moving on to the second, but still, if you
read Rick Riordan’s trilogy ‘Kane Chronicles’, each book introduces the person
who is narrating.
The first page
kind of deters you from reading on. It isn’t that nothing is understandable,
but mixing a few difficult words along with the fact that you don’t know the
narrator, does not help. One needs the willpower and determination to go to the
next page. I suggest you just need to, you know, read the first page, whether
you understand it or not, and move on. Once you complete the chapter, you’ll
know what the first page meant, after all.
Vocabulary – Difficult Words:
As for the difficult words, there are
just so many, that after a while I stopped consulting the dictionary. If you
are really interested in knowing each and every word’s meaning, you must use an
online dictionary, or maybe a dictionary app. Using the dictionary (the real book),
doesn’t make sense, since there are at least five hard words on each page, and
about 15 minutes are required to find all their meanings, while searching them
in the dictionary (the book). I once again suggest you don’t really need to
completely know their meanings, and you need to leave the word and move on. You
just need to know the meanings of a few frequently used words, and you’ll
understand everything, the plot and all, without taking much time.
Style of Writing:
The style of writing used by Wodehouse
must’ve been pretty futuristic for his time period, since I believe informal
English, slang and humour weren’t there during the War period, only
Shakespeare. For example,
‘What ho!’ I said.
‘What ho!’ said Motty.
‘What ho! What ho!’
‘What ho’! What ho! What ho!’
After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.
Wodehouse gave this style of writing
to Bertie, while giving the Shakespearean style, as I call it, to Jeeves. Bertie's informal style prevails for the nine chapters which Bertie narrates, with a
hint of the Shakespearean style, when Jeeves speaks with Bertie. The last
chapter gives you a full-fledged insight into the Shakespearean style, as the
complete chapter is narrated by Jeeves. An example of Jeeves’ style:
‘The crux of the matter would appear to be, sir, that Mr Todd is obliged
by the conditions under which the money is delivered into his possession to
write Miss Rockmetteler long and detailed letters relating to his movements,
and the only method by which this can be accomplished, if Mr Todd adheres to
his expressed intention of remaining in the country, is for Mr Todd to induce
some second party to gather the actual experiences which Miss Rockmetteler
wishes reported to her and convey these to him in the shape of a careful
report, on which it would be possible for him, with the aid of his imagination,
to base the suggested correspondence.’
Mind you, the paragraph above is only
one sentence, spoken by Jeeves to Bertie. Really, only one full stop at the
end. Spoken by a GRE student, isn’t it? Only when Bertie explains the same to
Mr Todd are we able to understand the meaning of the same.
Plots – The themes of most stories:
There are two types of plots used –
1.
Engagements
– Bertie helps his friends to get engaged with whom they want to marry, and
also helps them to break engagements with whom they unwillingly got engaged.
2.
Aunts
and uncles – Bertie helps his friends to acquire money from their rich aunts
and uncles, who had earlier stopped their allowances.
Basically, each chapter
is a different story. There is a problem to be solved. A friend might approach
Bertie for his help, for the above two situations. Bertie shows his faith in
Jeeves and asks him for his help. And Jeeves faithfully helps Bertie by giving
his helpful suggestions to solve the problems. The Wooster motto – When it
comes to helping a pal, we Woosters have no thought of self. Thus, Bertie
executes the solution, putting himself through all sorts of funny situations,
and in the end, the problem is solved.
There is never a tragic
end to a story. However difficult a problem may be, it always gets sorted with
the help of Jeeves at the end. Each story seems to lift your spirits,
irrespective of whether you’ve gone into a depression, or if you’re feeling
topping. You get the hope that even the biggest of the problems has a solution.
Very well said by Marian Keyes:
‘The ultimate in comfort reading, because nothing bad ever happens in
P.G. Wodehouse land. Or even if it does, it’s always sorted out by the end of
the book. For as long as I’m immersed in a P.G. Wodehouse book, it’s possible
to keep the real world at bay and live in a far, far nicer, funnier one where
happy endings are the order of the day.’
Type of book:
The book is supposed to be a
humorous, funny sort of book. There are quite a few instances which were pretty
funny. But I wouldn’t call the book altogether funny. I’d say only those
situations which Bertie encounters while helping a friend are hilarious. The
rest of the book is like a normal storybook. Concerned with the fact that
Wodehouse was an English humourist, you won’t find funny one-liners every now
and then. Still, I’d call this as a ‘different’ storybook. This is the book
which one really wants to read. It is like ‘What will happen next? Will Bertie
be able to solve the problem?’ So, you have a bit of suspense in there as well.
Humour, suspense, climax, problems, solutions and happy endings. Bored of
normal novels? Go for this one.
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Manas Trivedi
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