Carry On, Jeeves
by P. G. Wodehouse (Herbert Jenkins, 1925); audiobook read by Jonathan Cecil (1991)
This collection of short stories forms the perfect introduction to one of literature’s great characters: the valet Jeeves, who carries himself with a reserved brand of Holmesian all-knowingness, manipulates social situations and takes on a near omnipotence in saving Bertie Wooster’s bacon.
Psmith in the City
by P. G. Wodehouse (A & C Black, 2010); audiobook read by Jonathan Cecil (Chivers, 1997)
Wodehouse’s glib paean to the banking profession exhibits some of the style but little of the intricate substance of his later works. The loquacious Psmith has his charms, yet the narrative voice is comparatively lacking, the plot rather straightforward in its weave.
Pigs Have Wings
by P. G. Wodehouse (Doubleday, 1952); audiobook read by Jeremy Sinden (AudioGO, 1994)
The era of Blandings Castle may be well and truly bygone, the language with which Wodehouse describes it may not endear modern writers to their prospective publishers, yet Wodehouse’s charm is undeniable and his weaving together of plot strands constitutes a masterclass.
Leave it to Psmith
by P. G. Wodehouse (Herbert Jenkins, 1923)
Wodehouse set his stories in the dreamy, self-satirising world of betwixt-wars upper-crust England; yet it is perhaps the hint of modernity — in this instance the irreverent Psmith, unrepentantly shrugging off mores — that brings mirth beyond even the situational comedy so drolly related.