Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
| Company type | Weekly publication |
|---|---|
| Industry | Publishing |
| Headquarters | Brinkley Court (fictional) , United Kingdom |
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit is a comic novel authored by P. G. Wodehouse, initially released in the United Kingdom on 15 October 1954 by Herbert Jenkins and later in the United States on 23 February 1955 through Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, under the title Bertie Wooster Sees It Through. This book marks the seventh installment featuring the adventures of Bertie Wooster alongside his valet, Jeeves.
The narrative unfolds at Brinkley Court, the residence of Bertie's Aunt Dahlia, who is intent on selling her weekly publication, Milady's Boudoir. Important figures in the story include Florence Craye and G. D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright.
Plot
Bertie decides to grow a moustache, much to Jeeves's disapproval. Stilton Cheesewright, a fellow member of the Drones Club, becomes envious when his fiancée Florence compliments Bertie's moustache. Stilton mistakenly assumes Bertie harbors feelings for Florence and also becomes jealous of Percy Gorringe, a playwright adapting Florence's book Spindrift for the stage.
Florence requests Bertie's company for research purposes at a nightclub. During a police raid, Bertie inadvertently trips an officer chasing him, resulting in an overnight jail stay and a fine. Following this incident, Florence reconciles with Stilton after he agrees to grow a moustache himself.
At Brinkley Court, Aunt Dahlia is focused on selling Milady's Boudoir to newspaper tycoon Mr. Trotter, who arrives with his wife and stepson Percy Gorringe. To win over Mr. Trotter, Aunt Dahlia recruits novelist Daphne Dolores Morehead to contribute a serial story to the magazine and depends on her French chef Anatole’s culinary skills, although Anatole’s efforts do not impress Mr. Trotter.
Florence also makes an appearance at Brinkley Court. Aunt Dahlia asks Bertie to lift Percy's spirits, as Percy adores Florence but is troubled by her preference for Stilton. Upon discovering Florence and Bertie's nightclub visit, Stilton ends their engagement and seeks retribution; Bertie manages to evade him.
Aunt Dahlia reveals she pawned her pearl necklace—originally purchased by her husband Tom Travers—to finance the new serial and now wears a counterfeit necklace. She fears that Lord Sidcup, an expert on jewelry visiting Tom’s silver collection, will detect the forgery. Jeeves proposes that Bertie impersonate a burglar to recover the necklace. However, Bertie mistakenly enters Florence’s room during this endeavor; she interprets his presence as a declaration of love and consents to marry him when Stilton arrives. To prevent conflict with Stilton, Bertie reminds him that attacking him would cost Stilton fifty-six pounds ten shillings in the Drones Club darts sweep. Lord Sidcup is revealed to be Roderick Spode.
After selling his darts sweep ticket to Percy, Stilton threatens Bertie once more but quickly loses interest upon meeting Daphne Dolores Morehead. Bertie takes a pearl necklace from Tom's unlocked safe but later discovers that Aunt Dahlia had removed the fake necklace; the one he took actually belongs to Mrs. Trotter. He is unable to replace it before Mr. Trotter secures the safe.
During breakfast, Aunt Dahlia’s butler Seppings presents Mrs. Trotter’s pearl necklace found in Jeeves’s room. Bertie prepares to admit to stealing it but Jeeves clarifies that he intended to identify its owner after realizing it was counterfeit and likely belonged to a housemaid. Spode confirms that the pearls are fake. Percy confesses he pawned his mother’s genuine necklace to finance the play based on Florence’s novel; Florence and Percy become engaged.
Mr. Trotter expresses displeasure with Anatole’s cuisine but enjoys one of Jeeves’s special cocktails and ultimately purchases Milady's Boudoir. In gratitude, Bertie consents to shave off his moustache.
Style
This novel adopts the episodic problem-and-solution format characteristic of the later Jeeves stories, incorporating abrupt plot twists such as Spode's sale of Eulalie Soeurs and Mrs. Trotter's surprising resistance to receiving a knighthood. The relationship between Bertie and Jeeves remains consistent, marked by their typical quarrels over a minor issue while collaborating harmoniously on other matters; their disputes serve primarily as a source of humor rather than driving the narrative structure.
Wodehouse utilizes various stylistic techniques to generate comedy, including the transferred epithet, exemplified by the phrase "He waved a concerned cigar" (chapter 11), and inventive nonce-compounds like lip-joy to denote a "moustache" (chapter 4). Bertie's deployment of erudite vocabulary acquired from Jeeves, such as the Latin expression rem acu tetigisti in chapter 21, further contributes to the comedic tone.
Wordplay is also prominent; for instance, after spending a night incarcerated, Bertie responds to Florence's worry with the pun, "Well, I have a pinched look" (chapter 6). Humorous character names add to the levity, including Lemuel Gengulphus Trotter—who opposes knighthood specifically to avoid being addressed as Sir Lemuel—and the whimsically named nightclubs The Mottled Oyster, The Feverish Cheese, and the Startled Shrimp.
Additional amusement arises from Bertie's difficulty in recalling exact terms, illustrated when he describes his cousin Thos: "Let a plugugly like young Thos loose...and you are inviting disasters and…what's the word? Something about cats." "Cataclysms, sir?" "That's it." (chapter 16).
Villains express outrageously violent threats for comic exaggeration, such as Stilton’s vow to "tear me limb from limb and dance buck-and-wing dances on my remains" (chapter 2), emphasizing the ridiculousness of such imagery.
Allusions to theatrical elements reinforce the story’s stage-like atmosphere. Dialogue often resembles scripted exchanges, while characters are depicted using theatrical conventions—seen when Bertie observes Florence clapping her throat in distress "a thing I didn't know anybody ever did off the stage" (chapter 10).
Background
In correspondence dated 1954 with William "Bill" Townend, Wodehouse disclosed that Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit originated as a 30,000-word short story rejected by periodicals. Upon expanding it into a full-length novel, he encountered a plot inconsistency concerning how Jeeves identified a pearl necklace as faux. To resolve this, Wodehouse consulted a jeweller who explained that cultured pearls possess a core—a detail incorporated into the narrative.
This novel represents the second occasion where Jeeves disapproves of Bertie's moustache; the first was in "Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg". Bertie defends his facial hair by citing actor David Niven, whom Jeeves concedes but insists that while it suits Niven, it does not suit Bertie. Interestingly, David Niven portrayed Bertie Wooster sporting a moustache in the 1936 film Thank You, Jeeves!.
Publication history
Beyond its UK and US releases, the story was published in Canada under the title Double Jeopardy in Star Weekly on 4 December 1954, accompanied by illustrations from Alex Redmond. The American edition includes an extensive dedication to editor Peter Schwed. Additionally, it appeared as Bertie Wooster Sees It Through within the US anthology Five Complete Novels (Avenel Books, May 1983).
Reception
- In a 1954 review for The Sketch, G. B. Stern commended the novel for revitalizing the dynamic between Jeeves and Bertie, describing it as "a real beauty" and appreciating familiar figures such as Aunt Dahlia and Chef Anatole. Stern also lauded Wodehouse’s skillful and complex narrative construction.
- Writing for The New York Times in 1955, Rex Lardner emphasized Wodehouse’s characteristic sharp wit and spirited conversations. He remarked on Bertie's narrowly avoided predicaments, which ultimately conclude smoothly in this sixtieth installment by the author.
Television
This narrative was transformed into the Jeeves and Wooster episode titled "The Delayed Arrival", broadcast on 6 June 1993. While the storyline closely follows the original, certain alterations were made:
- When American writer Daphne Dolores Morehead is unable to attend Brinkley Court, Jeeves assumes her identity; meanwhile, Bertie briefly takes on the guise of a maid named Beryl.
- To facilitate the sale of Milady's Boudoir, Jeeves proposes blackmailing Mr. Trotter, who had refused a knighthood—contrasting with the original tale where this scheme fails, here it succeeds.
- The character Roderick Spode is substituted with Mr. Burwash, an expert in jewellery.
- The darts competition is portrayed, concluding with a draw between Bertie and Freddie Widgeon.
Radio
In 1979, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit was adapted for radio as part of the series What Ho! Jeeves, featuring Michael Hordern as Jeeves and Richard Briers portraying Bertie Wooster.
References
- Notes
- Sources
External links
- The Russian Wodehouse Society's page, containing a character list