PREVIEW： Chronicles #54 ｜ The Inimitable Jeeves Part 2
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
sentences flagged
Toxicity
5
sentences flagged
Hate speech
23
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode, we continue our exploration of The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Woodhouse. We re covering chapters 9-18 of the classic comedy-drama, and covering some of our favourite moments from the series.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello and welcome back to Chronicles, where today we're going to be continuing on with
00:00:17.960
The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Woodhouse. Where we last left off last week, we talked all about
00:00:25.500
the character dynamics between Jeeves and Worcester. We talked somewhat about Woodhouse,
00:00:31.900
his own quite turbulent, very exciting life himself, a very well-travelled man, very cultural
00:00:38.620
and a remarkable humorist. Just some of the adages and the way that he spins cliches
00:00:47.140
in his writing, it's just such an eminently readable book. And because of the nature of it,
00:00:52.720
is actually less than, though there is one, as we'll see towards the end, there is something of
00:00:58.860
an overarching story to the entire thing, even though it just feels like Bertie just constantly
00:01:05.020
bungling his way through problem after problem. Well, we do actually get something of a final act
00:01:13.600
in this particular story. But for the most part, it is very episodic. It's very much a short story
00:01:19.160
structured because that's how they were originally conceived and written in the first place and then
00:01:24.040
Woodhouse has basically retroactively gone back and threaded through some materials you know for
00:01:31.240
you to follow the strands. So we're going to start with talking all about chapters I believe
00:01:40.440
9 through to 18. So we're going to cover the latter half and talk all about a really whole
00:01:48.600
colorful and clever set of stories. First of all, Bertie goes to New York, then we find him back in
00:01:55.560
Blighty, basically just having to deal with Bingo's love troubles again. There's also a really
00:02:02.920
humorous episode involving a bunch of communists as well from Speaker's Corner. Also, we get this
00:02:12.240
absolutely hilarious episode where he's constantly just making fun of rural village life and the way
00:02:20.300
that Bertie is thrown into all of this and having to deal again with Bingo's love troubles, etc,
00:02:26.360
etc. So, first we'll go through the actual narrative, as we always do, and then when
00:02:32.820
I see you on the other side of it we'll talk all about these stories, why they're so funny,
00:02:37.540
why they're so magical, and some of my personal favourite moments from the collection. So,
00:02:47.120
Hot off the heels of Bertie bungling his engagement to Anoria, he flees across the Atlantic to
0.73
00:02:57.000
America, a land perfectly free from his wrathful relations, such as Aunt Agatha. But as swift
00:03:03.880
as he can flee, her letters pursue him, and Bertie Worcester is startled at the civility
00:03:09.060
of her tone. What follows is a letter of introduction from Mr. Cyril Bassington Bassington from Aunt
00:03:16.720
Agatha. Homesick, and looking to return to his aunt's good graces, and his native Blighty,
00:03:23.580
Bertie decides that giving this fish-faced figure a few days of good dinners would be the most
00:03:28.880
expedient means of fulfilling such reasonable ambitions. I've never heard of him. Have you
00:03:34.460
ever heard of him, Jeeves? I am familiar with the name Bassington, Bassington, sir. There are three
00:03:41.420
branches of the Basington Basington family. The Shropshire Basington Basingtons, the Hampshire
00:03:48.540
Basington Basingtons, and the Kent Basington Basingtons. England seems pretty well stocked
00:03:54.620
up with Basington Basingtons. Tolerably so, sir. She say she wants me to look after this
00:04:01.100
excrescence while he's in New York. By Jove, Jeeves. If I only fawn on him a bit so that he sends back
00:04:07.980
a favourable report to headquarters, I may yet be able to get back to England in time
00:04:13.800
Now is certainly the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party, Jeeves.
00:04:18.960
We must rally round and cosette this cove in no uncertain manner."
00:04:24.760
He started to put out my things, and there was an awkward sort of silence.
00:04:29.220
"'Not those socks, Jeeves,' I said, gulping a bit, but having a dash at the careless
00:04:35.820
offhand tone. Give me the purple ones. I beg your pardon, sir. Those jolly purple ones.
00:04:44.400
Very good, sir. He lugged them out of a drawer as if he were a vegetarian fishing a caterpillar
00:04:50.900
out of the salad. You could see he was feeling deeply. Juiced painful and all that, this sort
00:04:57.400
of thing. But a chappy has got to assert himself every now and then. Absolutely. Before having to
0.86
00:05:03.880
acquaint himself with Cyril. Bertie goes to lunch with George Caffin, a playwright he's befriended
00:05:10.360
in New York, currently underway with the rehearsal period for his new play, Ask Dad.
00:05:16.180
Just as all evidence begins to suggest a rather uncomplicated day, Jeeves comes to Bertie for a
00:05:22.320
discreet word. Jeeves was in the waiting room. He gave the socks one pained look as I came in,
00:05:28.180
then averted his eyes. Overcoming the unsettling sight of the socks, Jeeves informs Bertie that
00:05:35.060
Mr. Bessington Bessington is in prison, and after this startling revelation is put to George,
00:05:41.700
the yank accompanies Bertie to see what can be done about Cyril's release. Upon finding him doing
00:05:47.600
porridge in a cell, it becomes clear how such an outcome may arise. Cyril gormlessly lacks social
00:05:54.880
awareness and practical intelligence, making him a perfectly overqualified aristocrat.
00:06:01.560
Bertie goes to settle his bail, a grave error, as Cyril is left in the company of Mr. Caffin,
00:06:07.880
and before Bertie can assess the magnitude of his error, his charge has found his way
00:06:12.980
onto the theatrical scene, with a part in George's play. In fact, Cyril had come to New York with the
00:06:21.060
secret purpose of becoming a great thespian, an outcome expressly prohibited by Aunt Agatha,
00:06:27.180
and greatly in defiance of his father's expectations of cultivating a career in
00:06:32.080
Washington as a diplomat. Aid from Jeeves seemingly unforthcoming, on account of the
00:06:38.100
Saga of the Socks, Bertie can do nothing but watch as Cyril begins obsessing over the rehearsals,
00:06:44.820
and Bertie slips into further despair as he watches a key to his return to London,
00:06:50.080
fawning about on stage with all the grace of a sack of gravel.
00:07:00.340
I then perceived that the stout stripling had trickled into the room after Jeeves.
00:07:04.760
He was standing near the door looking at Cyril,
00:07:12.620
The child remained there, drinking Cyril in for about half a minute.
00:07:24.280
The child, who had evidently been taught at his mother's knee to speak the truth,
00:07:34.040
He spoke as if Cyril was more to be pitied than censured,
00:07:37.600
which I'm bound to say I thought rather decent and broad-minded of him.
00:07:41.600
I don't mind admitting that whenever I looked at Cyril's face,
00:07:45.220
I always had the feeling that he couldn't have got that way without it being mostly his own fault.
00:07:57.800
It seemed to take Cyril a moment or two to really grasp the thing,
00:08:01.460
and then you could hear the blood of the Bessington Bessingtons begin to sizzle.
00:08:09.820
I wouldn't have a face like that, proceeded the child with a good deal of earnestness.
00:08:15.900
Not if you gave me a million dollars. He thought for a moment, then corrected himself.
00:08:22.160
Two million dollars, he added. The crass little child makes another appearance at the theatre,
00:08:29.100
where the offspring is revealed to be the son of Mr. Blumenfield, the theatre manager,
00:08:34.240
the big cheese himself. The little sprong constantly puppeteers his own father's opinions.
00:08:41.180
Don't you like it, darling? It gives me a pain. You're dead right. You want something zippy
1.00
00:08:47.740
there? Something with a bit of jazz to it? Quite right, my boy. I'll make a note of it.
00:08:53.440
All right, go on. The boy remembers dear fish-faced Cyril, and he never has a chance to break a leg
00:09:00.080
on opening night. His short-lived sojourn into theatre is over. He meekly and defeatedly tells
00:09:06.980
Bertie that he will go to Washington as his father had hoped. Bertie realises that Jeeves
00:09:13.000
has gently engineered the whole satisfactory outcome. Peace of a sort descends, and the purple
00:09:19.320
socks, once a bone of contention, find a startling new home on the feet of the lift attendant,
00:09:24.800
who thanks Bertie profusely for the dazzling gift.
00:09:28.780
Jeeves, as ever, has tidied everything away with his customary quiet genius.
00:09:36.120
On his return to London, Bertie takes in a stroll around Marble Arch,
00:09:40.340
where he encounters the bread and butter of the modern man.
00:09:45.160
On the edge of the mob, farthest away from me,
0.99
00:09:47.900
a gang of top-hatted chappies were starting an open-air missionary service.
0.90
00:09:53.240
Nearer at hand, an atheist was letting himself go with a good deal of vim,
0.83
00:09:57.740
though hand-capped a bit by having no roof to his mouth.
00:10:01.280
While in front of me, there stood a little group of serious thinkers
00:10:05.360
with a banner labelled Heralds of the Red Dawn.
00:10:09.920
And as I came up, one of the heralds, a bearded egg in a slouch hat and a tweed suit,
00:10:14.820
was slipping it into the idle rich with such breadth and vigour
00:10:22.620
At the protest, Bertie encounters Bingo's uncle, Old Mortimer Little, now elevated to Lord Bittlesham
00:10:31.260
and owner of the hot favourite horse Ocean Breeze for the upcoming Goodwood Cup.
00:10:36.460
A thoroughly upper-class conversation ensues until Bertie realises that the heralds of the
00:10:42.060
Red Dawn have been listening in with decided revulsion.
00:10:46.220
Yes, look at them. Drink them in, he was yelling, his voice rising above the perpetual motion
00:10:52.480
fellows and beating the missionary service all to nothing. There you see two typical members of the
0.99
00:10:59.220
class which have downtrodden the poor for centuries. Idlers. Non-producers. Look at the
0.98
00:11:06.540
tall, thin one with a face like a motor mascot. Has he ever done an honest day's work in his life?
00:11:13.420
No, a prowler, a trifler, and a bloodsucker.
0.98
00:11:18.480
And I bet he still owes his tailor for those trousers.
00:11:22.140
He seemed to me to be verging on the personal, and I didn't think a lot of it.
00:11:26.960
Old Bittlesham, on the other hand, was pleased and amused.
00:11:30.100
A great gift of expression these fellows have, he chuckled.
00:11:42.920
"'That's Lord Bittlesham, one of the worst. What has he ever done except eat four square meals a day, his goddess's belly, and he sacrifices burnt offerings to it. If you open that man now, you would find enough lunch to support ten working-class families for a week.'
00:12:04.520
You know, that's rather well put, I said, but the old boy didn't seem to see it.
0.62
00:12:09.980
He had turned a brightish magenta and was bubbling like a kettle on the boil.
00:12:13.700
Come away, Mr. Worcester, he said, I am the last man to oppose the right of free speech,
00:12:20.300
but I refuse to listen to this vulgar abuse any longer.
00:12:24.040
The bearded orator turns out to be none other than young Bingo himself, now Comrade Little.
00:12:30.960
Being deeply smitten with comrade Charlotte Corday Rowbotham, the fiery daughter of a
00:12:36.720
revolutionary, Bingo has decided to try his hand at communism, as she seems to find rhetoric about
00:12:43.440
the streets of London running with the blood of the rich rather romantic. Bingo persuades the
00:12:49.520
ever-manipulable Bertie into hosting tea for the comrades at his residence, including for
00:12:55.280
the alarming and zealous Comrade Butt, Bingo's rival for Charlotte's love. The gathering is a
00:13:01.520
social nightmare, as Bertie reminisces. And I think the most gruesome part of the whole affair
00:13:08.080
was the fact that, for the first time since I'd known him, I saw Jeeves come very near to being
00:13:13.680
rattled. I suppose there's a chink in everyone's armour, and young Bingo found Jeeves' right at
1.00
00:13:19.280
at the drop of the flag when he breezed in with six inches or so of brown beard hanging
1.00
00:13:26.000
I'd forgotten to warn Jeeves about the beard, and it came on him absolutely out of
00:13:32.080
I saw the man's jaw drop, and he clutched at the table for support.
00:13:35.900
I don't blame him, mind you, few people have ever looked fouler than young Bingo
00:13:44.440
Then the weakness passed and he was himself again, but I could see he had been shaken.
00:13:49.260
Duty insists that Jeeves endures the evening, as he watches this grotty gang of comrades
00:13:54.980
seizing the scrambled eggs and sardines at the table.
00:13:58.420
Charlotte's father, Old Rowbotham, sounds out Bertie's Marxist credentials.
00:14:03.700
Mr. Worcester, said Old Rowbotham, may I say, Comrade Worcester?
00:14:18.780
Well, I don't know that I exactly yearn. I mean to say, as far as I can make out,
00:14:24.220
the whole Hubbard scheme seems to be to massacre coves like me,
00:14:28.380
and I don't mind owning that I'm not frightfully keen on the idea.
00:14:33.100
Old Rowbotham is further disappointed when he finds evidence of hierarchical language in the home.
00:14:39.500
Presently, the hot water gave out, and I turned to Jeebs.
00:14:45.740
Hey. What's this? What's this? Old Robothma had lowered his cup and was eyeing us sternly.
00:14:54.580
He tapped Jeeves on the shoulder. No civility, my lad. No civility. I beg your pardon, sir.
00:15:02.940
Don't call me sir. Call me comrade. Do you know what you are, my lad? You're an obsolete relic of
00:15:10.380
exploded feudal system. Very good, sir. The day after this vulgar event, Bertie totters down the
00:15:17.820
street to meet Bingo, nervously considering how best to break it to his chum that the girl just
00:15:23.740
won't do. He meets both Mortimer and Bingo, only to discover that the nephew is pretending to
00:15:29.500
investigate his uncle's harassers for a fee. But all of Bingo's hijinks come to ruin when he is
00:15:36.460
unbearded by Comrade Butt at the Goodwood Cup, all orchestrated by Jeeves, naturally.
0.69
00:15:43.220
It seems that the revolution isn't for Bingo after all, and once again the Worcester Fortunes
00:15:52.020
Still smarting from his gambling losses at Goodwood, Bertie decamps to Twing Hall for
00:15:59.200
There he finds his cousins Claude and Eustace, Bingo Little, and a lively reading party.
00:16:05.780
The enterprising Steggles has organised a novel sporting event, the Great Sermon Handicap.
00:16:12.100
A dozen local parsons are clocked for length of sermon, the longest wins.
00:16:17.240
Odds are offered, handicaps are allotted, and the syndicate, with Bertie supplying the capital, naturally, piles in.
00:16:24.660
Despite Bertie's certainty that old Heppenstall is a sure bet,
00:16:29.260
recounting a 50-minute belter of a sermon on brotherly love he'd heard many years ago,
00:16:34.300
But disaster strikes on Saturday, when the parson is incapacitated by hay fever, and
00:16:41.020
Jeeves bags a winnings due to a deft bet on a young man who borrowed that same sermon.
00:16:47.400
Their gambling thrills not quite satisfied, however.
00:16:50.480
The group engaged themselves in the great comedic affair of betting on the village school
00:16:57.100
Steggels opens another book on the various races, Mother's Sack, Egg and Spoon, Choir
00:17:02.480
boy's dash and so forth. The syndicates study the contestants and back several certainties,
00:17:09.200
all these unsuspecting children now being evaluated like horses for the Grand National,
00:17:14.720
notably the fleet-footed pageboy Harold for the choir boy's hundred yards,
00:17:20.480
but panic strikes when Steggles nobbles Harold, stuffs a leading mother before the sack race,
00:17:26.480
and generally rigs every event against them. Once returned to Barclay Square, it isn't long before
00:17:33.280
Bertie gets a letter from Bingo, demanding he return to Twing Hall for a rather predictable
00:17:38.640
drama. Bingo's in love. Again. This time with Miss Mary Burgess, whom Jeeves assures is a very
00:17:46.080
estimable young lady. But all these mishaps with love begin to gnaw at Bingo's self-belief,
00:17:56.080
Jeebs personally makes a journey to see what can be done to seal a deal for old Bingo,
00:18:00.520
and advises him to do good works about the village to engender affectionate feelings in Miss Burgess' heart.
00:18:08.180
Returning to Bertie with his assessment, Jeebs says,
00:18:14.820
but I did venture to indicate to Mr. Little a course of action which might prove of advantage.
00:18:20.320
I recommended him to busy himself with good works.
00:18:25.360
Good works? About the village, sir, reading to the bedridden, chatting with the sick,
00:18:31.700
that sort of thing, sir. We can but trust that good results will ensue.
00:18:37.120
Yes, I suppose so, I said doubtfully. But by gosh, if I was a sick man, I'd hate to have a loony like
0.98
00:18:43.960
young Bingo coming and gibbering at my bedside. There is that aspect of the matter, sir.
0.86
00:18:50.320
said Jeeves. Bingo bungles it, as usual, becoming wayward from Jeeves' advised path,
00:18:56.680
and finding himself organising for the village a calamitous rendition of the school Christmas
00:19:02.360
entertainment. It seems Miss Mary may not be the lady for Bingo, after all.
00:19:08.360
The next part of Bertie's life is even more eventful. A quiet life is what I like,
00:19:13.860
and that's why I felt that the curse had come upon me, so to speak, when Aunt Agatha sailed
00:19:19.000
into my sitting room while I was having a placid cigarette and started to tell me about Claude and
00:19:24.560
Eustace. Oh, thank goodness, said Aunt Agatha. Arrangements have at last been made about Eustace
00:19:31.300
and Claude. Arrangements, I said, not having the foggiest. They sail on Friday for South Africa.
00:19:39.340
Mr. Van Alstyn, a friend of poor Emily's, has given them berths on his firm at Johannesburg,
00:19:45.620
and we are hoping that they will settle down there and do well.
00:20:00.840
But what's the idea? I mean, aren't they in the middle of their terms at Oxford?
00:20:11.620
that you take so little interest in the affairs of your nearest relatives
00:20:16.700
that you are not aware that Claude and Eustace were expelled from Oxford over a fortnight ago?
00:20:31.820
They poured lemonade on the junior dean of their college.
00:20:41.160
I said horridly. I wasn't laughing. Joking. Got something stuck in my throat, you know.
00:20:47.620
Poor Emily, went on Aunt Agatha. Being one of those doting mothers who are the ruin of their
0.99
00:20:53.800
children, wish to keep the boys in London. She suggested that they might cram for the army,
0.56
00:20:59.620
but I was firm. The colonies are the only place for wild youths like Eustace and Claude,
0.98
00:21:05.780
So they sail on Friday. The catch to being rid of these interminable miscreants is that Aunt Agatha
00:21:12.880
insists on their being lodged at Bertie's overnight before ensuring they board the ship
00:21:17.980
the next morning. As may be suspected, this final step is blundered somewhat.
00:21:24.200
Following a raging all-nighter, Bertie wakens to the twins still being at his place. Far from
00:21:30.680
sailing down the Atlantic Ocean, Claude selfishly explains how he met a girl last night.
00:21:36.740
Two hearts that beat us one, I mean, and all that sort of thing. So the long and short of it is that
00:21:42.240
I gave old Eustace a slip at Waterloo and slid back here. The idea of going to South Africa and
00:21:47.960
leaving a girl like that in England doesn't appeal to me a bit. I'm all for thinking imperially and
1.00
00:21:54.000
giving the colonies a leg up and all that sort of thing, but it can't be done. After all,
00:21:59.600
said Claude reasonably. South Africa has got along all right without me until now, so why shouldn't
00:22:06.800
it stick it? Eustace has an identical alibi, and after several days of relentlessly stalking this
00:22:13.880
poor girl, Jeeves resolves to have them sent off at last. Good riddance, Claude and Eustace.
00:22:20.980
The final chapter is dedicated to a most unexpected matter. Bingo's actually gone and done it. He's
00:22:29.000
engaged at last to a pretty and kindly waitress. Not the same waitress as previously, of course.
00:22:36.880
Nevertheless, all that remains to unite the couple in matrimony is for Uncle Mortimer to open his
00:22:42.920
coffers again and forgive Bingo for that sad little fling with communism. Once more, Bertie is forced
00:22:49.820
into the task. He puts his greatest dedication to reading the latest Rosie M. Banks novel,
00:22:55.800
and despite his victory in restoring Bingo's stipend, he cannot gain Mortimer's blessing for
00:23:02.360
the marriage. But Bingo throws caution to the wind and finally marries her anyway. Bertie is sent to
00:23:09.380
break it to Mortimer and leaves the newlyweds outside to reconcile with him. During his absence
00:23:15.740
from the scene, a terrible confusion befalls as it turns out that the pen name that Bertie had
00:23:21.900
been feigning of Rosie M. Banks is, in fact, Bingo's new wife. This gaping lie having been
00:23:29.200
exposed, Jeeves is left in charge to fix a mess in whatever way he can. So, whilst Bertie is up
00:23:36.160
in Norfolk, Jeeves informs Uncle Mortimer that Bertie is quite assuredly mad, and truly believes
00:23:43.020
himself to be the writer of Rosie M. Banks. Quite uncharacteristically, Bertie erupts when he
00:23:49.840
discovers the reputational damage that Jeeves has thrust upon him. I pushed on to the old flat,
00:23:55.820
seething like the Dickens. One thing I was jolly certain of, and that was that this was where Jeeves
00:24:00.880
and I parted company. A topping valet, of course, none better in London, but I wasn't going to allow
00:24:07.300
that to weaken me. I buzzed into the flat like an east wind, and there was a box of cigarettes on
00:24:14.200
the small table, and the illustrated weekly papers on the big table, and my slippers on the floor,
00:24:20.800
and every dashed thing so badly right, if you know what I mean, that I started to calm down in the
00:24:27.600
first two seconds. It was like one of those moments in the play where a chappie about to
0.99
00:24:32.560
steep himself in crime suddenly hears the soft, appealing strains of the old melody he learned at
0.65
00:24:38.520
his mother's knee. Softened, I mean to say. That's a word I want. I was softened. And then,
00:24:46.860
through the doorway, there shimmered good old Jeeves, in the wake of a full tray of unnecessary
00:24:51.920
ingredients, and there was something about the mere look of the man. However, I steeled the old
00:24:58.460
heart and had a stab at it. I have just met Mr. Little Jeeves. I said, Indeed, sir. He told me
00:25:07.480
you had helped him. I did my best, sir, and I am happy to say that matters now appear
00:25:13.020
to be proceeding smoothly. Whiskey, sir? Thanks. Uh, Jeeves? Sir. Another time, sir? Oh, nothing.
00:25:27.720
Not all the soda, Jeeves. Very good, sir. He started to drift out. Oh, Jeeves? Sir?
00:25:51.480
Dinner will be ready at a quarter to eight precisely, unless you desire to dine out.
00:26:10.800
If you enjoyed this piece of premium content from the Lotus Eaters, head to our website