Jeeves And The Hard-Boiled Egg by P.G. Wodehouse, 1917
The magic trick:
Finely tuning the brilliant understatement of Jeeves
It’s my birthday tradition, reading a Wodehouse story. This one this year is kind of a proto-Jeeves story. The band is all here, but the instruments are not yet perfectly tuned.
It’s still a funny story.
I will highlight here something that is a fundamental part of all Wodehouse stories, so it almost seems stupid to mention it. He is just such a master of understatement.
Jeeves has a few particularly hilarious moments of conversation here. The plots are chaos. Bertie is an overemotional roller coaster. Jeeves is just the eye of the storm, nothing but understated calm. It just works.
And that’s quite a trick on Wodehouse’s part.
The selection:
“Great Scot, Jeeves! This is awful.”
“Somewhat disturbing, sir.”
“I never expected anything like this!”
“I confess I scarcely anticipated the contingency myself, sir.”
“I suppose it bowled the poor blighter over absolutely?”
“Mr. Bickersteth appeared somewhat taken aback, sir.”
My heart bled for Bicky.
“We must do something, Jeeves.”
“Yes, sir.”
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