My Man Jeeves

My Man Jeeves is a collection of eight comic short stories. Four are narrated by Bertie Wooster, a wealthy, cheerfully dim young Englishman living in New York, who depends entirely on the intellect of his valet, Jeeves. The remaining four are narrated by Reggie Pepper, a similar well-off bachelor and an early prototype of the Wooster character.

In "Leave It to Jeeves," Bertie introduces Jeeves as a figure of near-infallible judgment. Bertie is living in New York after botching an assignment from his formidable Aunt Agatha. His friend Bruce Corcoran ("Corky"), a struggling portrait painter, wants to marry Muriel Singer but fears the reaction of his rich uncle, Alexander Worple. Worple is a magnate in the jute trade (jute is a plant fiber used in coarse textiles) and a passionate ornithologist who opposes Corky's every independent step. Jeeves has Muriel publish a flattering book about Worple's ornithological work. Worple is charmed, but the scheme backfires when he marries Muriel himself. She gives birth to a son, eliminating Corky's inheritance prospects. Worple commissions Corky to paint the baby's portrait, but the result is grotesque, and Worple threatens to cut Corky off. Jeeves salvages the situation by noting the portrait's bold humorous qualities suit newspaper comic strips. Corky sells the idea to the Sunday Star and achieves financial independence.

"Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest" finds Bertie locked in a dispute with Jeeves over a hat and a pink tie. Lady Malvern, a friend of Aunt Agatha's, arrives with her sheltered, teetotaling son, Lord Pershore ("Motty"), and insists Bertie house him while she researches a book across America. Freed from his mother's control, Motty throws himself into the city's temptations, bringing rowdy friends home at all hours and winning a bull terrier in a raffle. Bertie flees to Long Island but returns to find Motty in prison for assaulting a policeman. When Lady Malvern returns early and reveals she saw Motty in a prison uniform, Jeeves claims Motty went voluntarily to gather firsthand material for her book. Grateful, Bertie surrenders the clothing war. Jeeves then reveals he engineered Motty's arrest by wagering him 50 dollars that he would not punch a passing policeman.

In "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg," Bertie's friend Francis Bickersteth ("Bicky"), a hapless Englishman, faces a crisis. His uncle, the tight-fisted Duke of Chiswick, sent him to America to learn ranching in Colorado, but Bicky stayed in New York. Now the duke is arriving unexpectedly. Jeeves arranges for Bicky to pose as the owner of Bertie's flat. The duke is impressed but, convinced Bicky is thriving, cancels his monthly allowance. Jeeves then arranges for 87 convention attendees from Birdsburg, Missouri, to pay for the privilege of meeting a real duke. The reception collapses when a skeptical visitor exposes the scheme. Jeeves suggests Bicky could sell the embarrassing story to a newspaper, and the horrified duke capitulates, agreeing to employ Bicky as his secretary at 500 pounds a year. In gratitude, Bertie sacrifices the moustache Jeeves has been silently loathing.

The narrator shifts to Reggie Pepper for the next four stories. In "Absent Treatment," Reggie tells of his friend Bobbie Cardew, whose extraordinary forgetfulness threatens his marriage to Mary Anthony, a determined former hospital nurse. Bobbie forgets their first wedding anniversary, and the neglect continues until Mary leaves, declaring she will return only when he remembers her birthday. After an extended comic investigation involving personality booklets, theater archives, and a restaurant check stub, Reggie and Bobbie determine the date is May eighth. Reggie phones Mary, who is overjoyed for an instant, then turns on him furiously: She made Reggie promise not to reveal the date but expected him to break that promise. Reggie loses access to their home permanently.

"Helping Freddie" follows Reggie's attempt to reunite his friend Freddie Meadowes with his former fiancée, Angela West, at Marvis Bay in Dorsetshire. Reggie kidnaps a small child he wrongly assumes is Angela's cousin, planning to have Freddie return the boy and earn her gratitude. The child is a stranger named Tootles Medwin, and Angela is unimpressed. Reggie's playwright friend Jimmy Pinkerton scripts a reconciliation scene, coaching Tootles to ask Angela to kiss Freddie. After days of unreliable rehearsals, the moment arrives by accident when Angela offers the child toffee, triggering the rehearsed line. Angela laughs, and the story ends with the couple embracing on the porch.

In "Rallying Round Old George," Reggie is aboard a yacht in Monte Carlo when his friend George Lattaker confesses to a string of disasters. George proposed to Stella Vanderley, the daughter of a fellow passenger, and was accepted, but then impulsively kissed Pilbeam, a maid aboard the yacht. Stella witnessed the act and broke off the engagement. Going ashore in despair, George got drunk and fought someone in a dark street. He now fears he assaulted the Prince of Saxburg-Leignitz, a visiting royal whose beating is front-page news, and a detective has George's hat as evidence. When a letter from George's Uncle Augustus mentions a long-lost twin brother, Reggie hatches a plan for George to impersonate the twin, using a mole on his neck as proof. The ruse works, and "Alfred" reconciles Stella on his "brother's" behalf. Uncle Augustus arrives and reveals he embezzled George's trust fund and invented the twin story to buy time. A royal attendant then delivers news that George was the prince's rescuer, not his attacker. George reclaims his identity and reunites with Stella.

"Doing Clarence a Bit of Good" centers on Reggie's visit to his former fiancée Elizabeth Shoolbred, now married to Clarence Yeardsley, a nervous artist. Elizabeth lured Reggie to their country house to steal a painting, Venus, created by Clarence's amateur-artist father and given as a wedding gift. Clarence finds the work aesthetically painful but loves his father too much to remove it. In the dark dining room, Reggie is knocked out by Elizabeth's brother Bill, who independently came to do the same job. They cut down a painting and burn it. Later they find old Mr. Yeardsley cutting down another canvas, confessing he wanted to recover his beloved Venus. His signature proves the canvas in his hands is the real Venus: Reggie and Bill burned Clarence's Jocund Spring by mistake. They escape on an early milk train to London.

The final story, "The Aunt and the Sluggard," returns to Bertie and Jeeves. Rockmetteller ("Rocky") Todd, a lazy poet on Long Island, receives a letter from his wealthy Aunt Isabel in Illinois offering a generous allowance on the condition he live in New York and write her weekly letters about its nightlife. Rocky loathes the city. Jeeves proposes that Rocky stay in the country while Jeeves tours New York's cabarets and provides notes for Rocky's letters. The vivid letters work too well: Aunt Isabel arrives unannounced, assumes Bertie's flat is Rocky's, and moves in, exiling Bertie to a hotel. Rocky must now escort his aunt through the nightlife he despises, and she cancels his allowance. Jeeves resolves the crisis by taking the aunt to a fiery revival meeting led by the evangelist Jimmy Mundy, pretending to have misunderstood her request to visit the Hippodrome, a popular theater. Mundy's denunciation of New York converts her completely. She urges Rocky to return to the country, and Bertie reclaims his flat. Jeeves reveals the strategy was inspired by his own aunt, whose compulsive cab-riding was always cured by sending for the parish clergyman. Bertie marvels at Jeeves's genius and accepts his tie recommendation without protest.