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=                       The_Inimitable_Jeeves                        =
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                            Introduction
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'The Inimitable Jeeves'  by P. G. Wodehouse was the first of the
Jeeves novels, although not originally conceived as a single
narrative, being assembled from a number of short stories featuring
the same characters. The book was first published in the United
Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, on 17 May 1923 and in the United
States by George H. Doran, New York, on 28 September 1923, under the
title 'Jeeves'.


                              Overview
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The novel combined 11 previously published stories, of which the first
six and the last were split in two, to make a book of 18 chapters. It
is now often printed in 11 chapters, mirroring the original stories.

All the stories had previously appeared in 'The Strand Magazine' in
the UK, between December 1921 and November 1922, except for one,
"Jeeves and the Chump Cyril", which had appeared in the 'Strand' in
August 1918. That story had appeared in the 'Saturday Evening Post'
(US) in June 1918. All the other stories appeared in 'Cosmopolitan' in
the US between December 1921 and December 1922.

This was the second collection of Jeeves stories, after 'My Man
Jeeves' (1919); the next collection would be 'Carry On, Jeeves', in
1925.

All of the short stories are connected and most of them involve
Bertie's friend Bingo Little, who is always falling in love.


                              Contents
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The original story titles and publication dates were as follows (with
split chapter titles in parentheses):
* "Jeeves in the Springtime" -- Bertie's friend Bingo is in love with
a waitress, Mabel, but fears his uncle won't approve of her. Jeeves
suggests a plan using romance novels to sway Bingo's uncle.
** UK: 'Strand', December 1921
** US: 'Cosmopolitan', December 1921
: ("Jeeves Exerts the Old Cerebellum" and "No Wedding Bells for
Bingo")
* "Aunt Agatha Takes the Count" -- Aunt Agatha pushes an unwilling
Bertie to marry a girl named Aline Hemingway, who, along with her
brother Sidney, appears to be quiet and respectable.  (The plot of
this story is somewhat altered from the original published story, in
which Bertie pursues Aline on his own initiative rather than being
pressured to do so by Aunt Agatha.)
** UK: 'Strand', April 1922
** US: 'Cosmopolitan', October 1922 (as "Aunt Agatha Makes a Bloomer")
: ("Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind" and "Pearls Mean Tears")
* "Scoring off Jeeves" -- Bingo is in love with Honoria Glossop, whom
Aunt Agatha wants Bertie to marry. Bertie tries to sort out this
dilemma without Jeeves's help.
** UK: 'Strand', February 1922
** US: 'Cosmopolitan', March 1922 (as "Bertie Gets Even")
: ("The Pride of the Woosters Is Wounded" and "The Hero's Reward")
* "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch" -- Reluctantly engaged to Honoria
Glossop, Bertie must demonstrate to her father, Sir Roderick Glossop,
that he is mentally sound. Meanwhile, Bertie's cousins Claude and
Eustace appear.
** UK: 'Strand', March 1922
** US: 'Cosmopolitan', April 1922 (as "Jeeves the Blighter")
: ("Introducing Claude and Eustace" and "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch")
* "Jeeves and the Chump Cyril" -- While staying in America, Bertie is
instructed by Aunt Agatha to keep Cyril Bassington-Bassington, son of
an aristocratic friend of hers, from becoming a performer.
** UK: 'Strand', August 1918
** US: 'Saturday Evening Post', 8 June 1918
: ("A Letter of Introduction" and "Startling Dressiness of a Lift
Attendant")
* "Comrade Bingo" -- Bingo falls in love with Charlotte Corday
Rowbotham, a member of a communist group called Heralds of the Red
Dawn, and joins the group to win her affection.
** UK: 'Strand', May 1922
** US: 'Cosmopolitan', May 1922
: ("Comrade Bingo" and "Bingo Has a Bad Goodwood")
* "The Great Sermon Handicap" -- At Twing Hall, Bertie, Bingo, and
Bertie's cousins Claude and Eustace bet on a race involving the
lengths of local parsons' sermons. Concurrently, Bingo is in love with
Cynthia Wickhammersley.
** UK: 'Strand', June 1922
** US: 'Cosmopolitan', June 1922
* "The Purity of the Turf" -- Bertie, Jeeves, and Bingo place bets on
contests at the annual village school treat at Twing Hall. The
bookmaker, Steggles, intends to undermine their bets.
** UK: 'Strand', July 1922
** US: 'Cosmopolitan', July 1922
* "The Metropolitan Touch" -- Bingo falls in love with Mary Burgess,
niece of the parson Heppenstall, and hopes to impress her by producing
the Village School Christmas Entertainment at Twing.
** UK: 'Strand', September 1922
** US: 'Cosmopolitan', September 1922
* "The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace" -- Claude and Eustace are
being sent to South Africa following expulsion from Oxford, but they
both fall in love with Bertie's friend Marion Wardour and refuse to
leave.
** UK: 'Strand', October 1922
** US: 'Cosmopolitan', November 1922
* "Bingo and the Little Woman" -- Bingo falls in love with a waitress
again, and wants Bertie to get his uncle to approve the match. But
there is something different about this waitress.
** UK: 'Strand', November 1922
** US: 'Cosmopolitan', December 1922
: ("Bingo and the Little Woman" and "All's Well")


                        Publication history
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Along with 'Right Ho, Jeeves' and 'Very Good, Jeeves', the novel was
included in a collection titled 'Life With Jeeves', published in 1981
by Penguin Books.  The short story omnibus collection 'The World of
Jeeves' (1967) included the original versions of the eleven stories
that were modified by Wodehouse to make up 'The Inimitable Jeeves'.


                           External links
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*
*
* [http://wodehouse.ru/31.htm The Russian Wodehouse Society's page],
with numerous book covers and lists of characters
*


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