Jeeves and the King of Clubs: A Novel in Homage to P.G. Wodehouse Hardcover – November 6, 2018

I bought this book after hearing the author interviewed and paid full price, which I do only rarely. It was worth it! A number of books have been written imitating popular authors, such as the many imitations of Jane Austen and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and I have seldom found them satisfying. This was a BIG exception.From the first page I knew that Jeeves and the King of Clubs had captured the voice of Bertie. My long-suffering spouse had his own reading interrupted regularly as I laughed out loud. How could I resist when Bertie described the seventh Earl of Sidcup as a “sore for sighted eyes” or mentioned an MP whose colleagues called him “Whiner the Poo” or declared his Aunt Dahlia “chews broken glass to sharpen her tongue”?When author Ben Schott calls his book an homage to P. G. Wodehouse, he is not kidding. Not only is it a delightful read, but it is meticulously researched. Notes at the end document references to Wodehouse’s work and also to historical information like real gentlemen’s clubs that are mentioned in the book or were used as a basis for fictional associations.Jeeves and the King of Clubs is lots of laughs, a fun story, and informative, too! “Plum” would be delighted!

Bertie Wooster and his omnicompetent valet Jeeves are the main characters of a large number of short stories and novels written in the years between 1915 and 1974, by P. G. Wodehouse, hereafter referred to as The Master. The incredible narrative trick pulled off successfully by The Master is that the adventures are narrated by Wooster himself, and while the adventures frame Wooster as a hopeless dunce, the narrative itself is a masterpiece of English literature. Not since Shakespeare has there been anything displaying such an absolute command of simile, or such a free coinage of new words.So to write a new adventure of Wooster and Jeeves is to bite off something much too large for any mere human to chew. The time warps alone would defeat any prospective author who is not in command of the last two or three centuries of British cultural history. Take Bertie's age. The Master keeps him between about 25 and 29 throughout the saga, and existing within a timeless era which is usually pre-World-War 1, but sometimes appears to jump inexplicably to the interval between the two World Wars, and even eventually shows awareness of things happening in the 1960s.So how does Ben Schott do? I think, all things considered, he does amazingly well. This new adventure seems to take place near the eve of World War 2, and Bertie is both older and wiser than in the works of The Master. Indeed, Bertie is so mature and perspicacious that for once he attracts the attention of a beautiful, intelligent, multi-talented young girl, who clearly finds him an interesting companion! As in the usual tale by The Master, Bertie's troubles mainly result from the fact that he is so good-natured that he can't say no to any request for a favor from a friend or relative, no matter how insane and life-complicating the favor's consequences must and will turn out to be.I enjoyed it throughout. At first, when a main new character turned out to be a Scottish Laird named MacAslan, I thought Schott might be paying a tribute to novelist D. E. Stevenson, but a glance at the back jacket flap revealed that Schott has a photographer friend named MacAslan. At the end of this latest saga are also quite a few pages of helpful notes indicating what's real and what's imaginary in the various institutions, individuals, situations and games of chance that Bertie encounters.By the way, one of the novel's main villains, the infamous and odious Roderick Spode, familiar from many works of The Master, is here seen newly energized, and giving political speeches to crowds of ruffians and hooligans, speeches that map fairly closely onto the incoherent babble of Donald Trump. Good fun.If you are a fan of The Master, as I am, I believe you will find this effort worthy of your attention.

Enjoyed Ben Schott’s continuance of J&W’s antics, who did a most excellent job of emulating P. G. Wodehouse’s inimitable style.

Jeeves and Wooster sprang from the fertile mind of P. G. Wodehouse. They are a mannered, spoiled English gentleman and his valet, not in that order as listed above. Their adventures are more misadventures that always result is some measure of happiness for most, crises adverted for some, a clever ruse executed almost always and Bertie Wooster somehow landing (unsteadily, usually) on his feet. Ben Schott has written a homage that is a terrific book on its own. Funny, creative, cleverly plotted and a winder for follow up books that cannot come to soon. Read this and laugh then, if you haven’t read Wodehouse, do so and enjoy the ride

This was a mildly entertaining book, keeping in mind how difficult comedy must be to write,( we have so little of it), I didn’t expect much.But what I do expect is a credible and sensible ending. It seems like the author got tired and just quit on the book without bothering to wrap thing up. I actually turned the page and was amazed to find that it was over and that if there was a wrap up , I missed it. Very disappointing .

My first brush with P G Wodehouse was probably sixty years ago when I was a teenager and I have never lost my affection for his books, particularly those about Jeeves and Bertie. In recent years there are have been several reasonably good "carry on" titles but none has reached the pinnacle. This one does it in spades, also hearts, damonds and clubs! It is a very engaging, very charming and very enjoyable romp through London club land back in the day. Some years ago there was a TV series based on Lord Emsworth and his beloved pig "the Empress of Blandings" -- although very enjoyable some of the characters were mere caricatures of inanity. Not so in this book, and it would be wonderful to see either a movie or a TV series based on the characters!

I was impressed that a contemporary author could strike this level of wit and sophistication. He is quite as good as Wodehouse in regard to style. The only problem is that the plot is a bit lacking. It's more about the shimmer of dialogue than the substance of the story. Still, for those who enjoy the verbal banter and funny scenes, it's a definite place to go when you've run out of Plum's novels (which we have actually done in our family).

Einfach nur grandios. Steht dem Original in nichts nach, finde ich. Volle Punktzahl und vielen Dank für ein paar schöne Stunden und das Training für die lachmuskeln

Being a Wodehouse lover, I was keen to read this book. The book is well researched and a labour of love. The writer has tried his best to mimic the style of the great master of farce . It will be liked by the Wodehouse fans, though original is original.

C'est un projet ambitieux - et périlleux - que de vouloir inventer de nouvelles aventures à Jeeves et Wooster et donc de succéder au génial Wodehouse. Mais force est de de constater que le pari est réussi: l'auteur parvient à capter l'esprit de Wodehouse et à rendre quelque chose de son style. Le lecteur passe un excellent moment et s'amuse beaucoup.

A faithful narrator and plot true to Woodhouse and a treat to read. Would thoroughly recommend to any fans of original Jeeves & Wooster.

I've been a reader of P G Wodehouse, and am particularly fond of his books featuring the characters of Bertie Wooster and his gentlemen's personal gentleman Jeeves. I've read the shorts stories and the novels all several times over. Given that Wodehouse passed away way back in 1975, to discover a "new" Jeeves and Wooster book is a real treat, even if - obviously - it's written as an homage by a different author.Several years back Sebastian Faulks penned "Jeeves and The Wedding Bells" which seemed to want to serve as a finale to the whole series. Although well-written I felt it wasn't entirely convincing to be considered part of the official canon. Recently I learnt that Ben Schott had written two further Jeeves novels and so I eagerly tracked down a copy of the first of these, "Jeeves and the King of Clubs".Ben Schott has obviously studied and scrutinised P G Wodehouse's work very closely, and his narration in the voice of Bertie Wooster is an absolute delight. There are also copious notes on each chapter at the back-end of the book, giving insight into the various Wodehousian references and historical details.The story builds and builds with various different strands happening involving a cast of characters that will be well known to the Wodehouse aficionado: Aunt Dahlia Travers, her husband Tom and chef Anatole, Tuppy Glossop and other members of the Drones club, Percy Gorringe, Florence Craye, Madeline Bassett and Lord Sidcup a.k.a. Roderick Spode - would-be fascist dictator and leader of the Black Shorts movement.Jeeves and Wooster find themselves embroiled in espionage on behalf of the Junior Ganymede organisation which in turn is working for His Majesty's Government, with Spode's worrying fascist inclinations being the focus of their investigations.Just when I thought Wooster has been set up for an almighty fall, or that things would go awry and he'd end up with egg on his face, only for Jeeves to save the day with another of his schemes, the story just seemed to fizzle out and I realised we'd come to the end. All in all, it felt unfinished to me. Maybe the story is picked up again in the next volume, "Jeeves and the Leap of Faith".Still, it's an enjoyable read although it could have been much more of a "romp". Schott's version of Bertie Wooster does seem to be a more mature, wiser version of the character. He even betters Jeeves in deducing the answer to a particular conundrum at one point.