P.G. Wodehouse, página 2 de 12

Sur ordre du médecin, Bertram Wooster est parti se mettre au vert dans la délicieuse campagne anglaise. Mais c'était compter sans le petit monde qui gravite autour de lui : Vanessa Cook, une ex-fiancée pour le moins entreprenante, tante Dahlia, qui s'est mise en tête de truquer le Derby à l'aide d'un vulgaire matou ; le père de Vanessa, qui ne sort jamais sans le majordome Plank, lequel a perdu tout sens commun depuis ses séjours en Afrique équatoriale... Des vacances comme on n'en souhaite pas à son pire ennemi !

Inhabiting its confines is drippy Madeline, who firmly believes that the stars are God's daisy chain. She is engaged to Bertie's old chum Gussie, but she'll happily settle for Bertie should things go amiss. So when the engagement does falter, Bertie must hope that Jeeves will forget their differences over a certain pink-feathered Alpine hat and once more come to his rescue ...

The spectacle in front of Bertie was enough to nonplus anyone - Gussie in scarlet tights and a pretty frightful false beard. When Gussie Fink-nottle abandons his beloved newts to go courting as Mephistopheles, Bertie Wooster is more than a bit nonplussed. But even the devil can rely on Jeeves.

Giving us our first jaw-dropping encounter with Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, Love among the Chickens, published in 1906 (and revised in 1920 to accommodate the inflation in egg prices) launched P.G. Wodehouse's career, and that of his larger-than-life anti-hero. Ukridge has hit upon a foolproof plan to get rich quick: he's starting a chicken farm. Dragging his adoring wife Millie and his long-suffering friend and novelist Jeremy Garnet with him to Dorset the enterprise begins. En route, however, Garnet has fallen in love. Complications in classic Wodehousian style ensure, involving the taciturn Hired Man and his bumbtious dog Bob, supercilious chickens, irascible professors, angry creditors and divided lovers. For the lucky reader, it is sheer hilarity . . .

Having dispatched Aunt Agatha's young son Thos to his seaside Borstal, Bertie Wooster has been summoned to Deverill Hall, Hampshire, to lend a hand with the village entertainment. He has two other tasks on hand: one is to ensure that his old pal Catsmeat's beloved Gertrude is never left alone with the Byronic Esmond Haddock; the other is to ensure that the Deverill aunts (of whom there are many) take goofy Gussie Fink-Nottle to their respective bosoms. But when Bertie is in charge, an imbroglio is sure to follow. Time to call on Jeeves.

This is a collection of stories in which Bingo Little and his wife encounter trouble in Monte Carlo; Oofy Prosser, the pimpled millionaire of the Drones club, is saved from a fate worse than death, and Freddie Fitch-Fitch finds romance and hypochondria at Droitgate Spa.

When Bertie's Aunt Dahlia summons him to Brinkley Court during delicate negotiations between high-minded novelist Florence Craye and her terrifyingly jealous fiancé G. D'Arcy Cheesewright (a.k.a. Stilton), the scene is set for calamity. The situation is hardly eased when Aunt Dahlia persuades Bertie to purloin her pearls. But matters go from bad to worse when he places his burglar's ladder up against the wrong window. Time for Jeeves to rally round …

'It might possibly assist your lordship if I were to bring a small bottle of champagne to the library.' 'You think of everything, Jeeves.' It was some minutes later, as Jeeves was passing through the living room with the brain-restorer on a small tray that Destiny came in through the french window ...

Distraught when an author withdraws his manuscript from publication, the publisher, Lord Tilbury, sets about retrieving his fortunes, never guessing that his final obstacle would be in the rotund for

Clarence, 9th Earl of Emsworth, is preoccupied with his prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings, and the upcoming agricultural show, while the news that his brother, Galahad Threepwood, is writing his memoirs, has many ageing aristocrats worried.

Due to the unrepentant playing of his banjolele, Bertie parts company with Jeeves, who finds employment with Bertie's old mate Chuffy. Chuffy and Pauline Stoker (previously engaged to the Wooster chap) have fallen in love, but Chuffy is reluctant to pop the question. So when Bertie and Jeeves cook up a plot to smooth out the course of true love, old entanglements look set to rear their heads