Customer Reviews
The Code of the Feudal Spirit. - By: Ian Wood, Author of 'Here's 2 Absent Fathers', 24 May 2008 
`Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves' carries on the saga starting with `Right Ho, Jeeves' & continuing through `The Code of the Woosters', `The Mating Season' & `Jeeves & the Feudal Spirit'. The same cast of characters are reassembled at TotleighTowers the ancestral home of Sir Watkyn Bassett father of Madeline Basset whom is yet again estranged to her fiancé Gussie Fink-Nottle. Once the engagement is under the cosh, Bertie & Jeeves are summand to restore the larch to the thorn & God to the heavens. Matters are not helped by the further complication of the engagement of Madeline's cousin `Stiffy' Byng to the local Curate `Stinker' Pinker & that they require Sir Watkyn to give Stinker the Vicarage that isin his giftin order for the banns to be read. Also present is Wodehouse's most unfortunate Character, one Roderick Spode recently ascended to the title Lord Sidcup.
Gussie on being pushed to far by having to become vegetarian to curry favour with Madeline elopes with the cook & Jeeves must find away to prevent Madeline from marrying Bertie as the old standby whilst setting up Stinker up with a vicarage. He eventually brings about a fantastic conclusion with the un-witted assistance of Major Plank whom had previously conspired with Uncle Fredin `Uncle Dynamite'.
And so Wodehouse, again, leaves usin the best of all possible worlds with Godin his heaven.
Vintage Wodehouse, as usual! - By: Censuwine, 12 Oct 2007 There is no point repeating what others have said before me. Sometimes I wonder who is the better author: Dickens or Wodehouse. It's not comparing like with like, I know, but to elevate someone to the high podium so often allocated to Dickens, well, that is something.
Dickens edges through thanks to the extent of his grasp of vocabulary. Wodehouse runs away with it on the fluidity of the diction used, if I may put it like that. There is simply no better literary work that can help one improve the quality of one's English so entertainingly as Wodehouse's.
Good old-fashioned farce, Wodehouse does it best - By: Mr. Stuart Bruce, 05 Aug 2007 
When I was growing up I watched the ITV "Jeeves & Wooster" series starring Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie before I'd read any of the books, so the books are now irrevocably tinged with Hugh Laurie's voice when I read them. Not necessarily a bad thing, as it seems the TV adaptation was pretty faithful.
It is of course a fun little run-around farce, complete with some classical farcical elements- what Wooster discovers as he has to hide behind the sofa, the midnight snack, being chased by out of control dogs, the works. Wodehouse really does do it best.
The fact that this book is effectively a sequel didn't detract anything from the story for me, as everything is neatly & wittily recapped near the beginning. You won't end up confused.
A good laugh.
Terrifying Trials at Totleigh Towers! - By: Donald Mitchell, 23 Jan 2005 Dante had his Inferno. Odysseus had to get past Scylla & Charybdis. And Bertie Wooster has to darken the dangerous halls of Totleigh Towers again to avoid the unwelcome bands of matrimony with Miss Madeline Bassett.
Madeline's engagement to that world-class newt lover, Gussie Fink-Nottle, is on the rocks when Madeline insists that the meat-loving Gussie become a vegetarian. That's dangerous because Madeline has always made it clear that she will have no other man than Bertie as her husband if Gussie isn't available. So Bertie volunteers to enter that place where all others abandon hopein order to try to repair the engagement. But he's soonin trouble because Emerald Stoker, daughter of the American millionaire, has taken a temporary job as the cook at Totleigh Towers & is tempting Gussie with steak & kidney pie & ham sandwiches. Soon love is following the growls of Gussie's stomach, & Gussie insults the sunset & Madeline's favorite fictional character.
At the same time, Stiffi Byng's engagement to Stinker Pinker is on the rocks as well because Pop Bassett won't come through with the vicar's job that Stinker needs to be able to afford to marry. A rocky day at the school treat makes progress even more problematical.
Jeeves is the source of the all the solutions as he often is, but relations are strained even there by Bertie's new hat which Jeeves feels is unsuitable.
Stiffi also takes to absconding with Pop Bassett's prize gee-gaw, which Bertie's Uncle Tom covets, & matters develop to make Bertie look like a thief again. Can Bertie escape the goal?
In the best of the Jeeves stories, the plot unfoldsin a fairly straightforward fashion that holds Bertie at ransom to fate. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves has such a plot. I highly recommend this book to you.
This book should also remind you to read the Jeeves booksin order of their publication. Many of the best are sequels to the finest of the early stories. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is one of those sequels. Enjoy!
Are you ready for something to wet the old tonsils?
Not quite the right cast - By: Paul Donovan, 02 Mar 2004 
To make it clear from the outset - the book is great. There is no point saying the same thing over twice, so if anyone wishes to get my views on the Wodehouse text, there is a review out there somewherein the system, with five stars.
The danger with a dramatisation of a favourite book - radio or TV - is that it never matches your mental image of the characters. Coming to a dramatisation like this, therefore, one always has to brace ones self for a bit of jarring. This dramatisation jarred me a little too much, however. The actors were fine, the adaptation of the script was very good - if occasionally a little clumsyin communicating some of the scene setting. The problem was that the principle characters of Richard Briers as Bertie Wooster & Michael Hordern as Jeeves.
Hordern comes across as very remote, & more than a little disdainful of the young lord & master. This may have been how the very early Jeeves was written, but it did not last long. Wodehouse wanted to build Jeeves into a sympathetic character, tolerant - even indulgent - of Wooster. Hordern plays Jeeves as if he were on the verge of resigningin irritation with Wooster.
Jeeves is given a fairly limited presencein the dramatisation. This is generally the casein the book, of course, where (with the exception of one short story) Bertie Wooster is the narrator. However, Jeeves always "punches above his weight" because the text always gives Bertie's thoughts on Jeeves, or reactions to him - & that is quite lacking here. The limited role for Jeeves also exposes the second key flaw, which is that Richard Briers (though puttingin a commendable performance) can not pull-off the voice of a young manin his mid twenties. Briers sounds like a middle aged person playing a young person, & it gratesin a role like that of Bertie Wooster. This far more pronounced than with the TV part played by Hugh Laurie - who was also playing a younger person - perhaps because Briers has chosen to emphasise the "breathless schoolboy" enthusiasmin the part. Unfortunately for Briers this does not create an image of a social butterflyin his twenties, & instead reminds the listener of Briers playing "Tom"in "The Good Life" sitcom. We have the same endearing boyishness, but it is a middle aged man exhibiting this attitude, & that does not come across correctly.
There are, of course, a limited number of these dramatisations available, & as previous critics have noted there are far worse ways of passing a drive. The story is good, & that helps carry the audiobook. The actors are not bad by any means, but the interpretation of the two principle characters makes it very difficult to suspend disbelief & give oneself over to enjoyment of Wodehouse's sparkling prose.
