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It has been claimed that the Jeeves Books by P.G. Wodehouse are the greatest pinacle of Literature in the 20th Century. Now I don't think that that is true, or that anything could be judged until at least 50 years after the century is finished so that we can view everything in perspective. It is certainly premature to make that claim before the century is finished.
However, when the final scores are added up, I'm pretty sure that P.G. Wodehouse will be in the final shortlist. His works are considered "classics" to the extent that other literature assumes you have read them. They are one of those items that, if you don't read them, you won't understand what others are going on about.
Although Wodehouse has written many other fine books, including some long running series (see here), it is for the Jeeves books that he is most famous.
Set in the upperclass England of the 1920s and 30s, these books are narrated by the person of Bertie Wooster. Bertie is wealthy, handsome, went to all the right schools, is unencumbered by a family except in the form of two Aunts, and in all respects should be living a life of carefree ease. Such is not the case. Indeed Bertie spends his time lurching from one crisis to another, constantly at risk of being married or worse!
Fortunately for Bertie, he has a manservent, a gentleman's gentleman, who always steps in at the nick of time to save the day. This is of course Jeeves.
Jeeves has become a synonym for the quintessential English butler. His calm, unflustered air when dealing with a crisis, his insistance on wearing the right sort of tie even when everyone else is running around panicing, and his knack for always serving the right drink or discretely mentioning the correct fact at the exact moment required to make everything all right again. All these aspects reach their peak in the figure of Jeeves.
Indeed his only rival is in Alfred of the Wayne household in Gotham.
And the stories themselves? Well you always know that Jeeves will save the day, but you never know how. There are twists and turns in the plot as Bertie gets himself deeper and deeper into trouble in his efforts to do the right thing. But mostly, it's the dialogue.
The witty repartee of Bertie and his pals as they enjoy the fading sunset of the British Empire; the deadpan comments of Jeeves as he makes casual comments that upon closer inspection are revealed to be far more witty and incisive than those of his employer; the frantic series of miscommunications and misinterpretations that lead up to the crisis points of the story; these are what makes Wodehouse truly funny.
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