| Bertie Wooster's friend Gussie Fink-Nottle must spend two weeks in jail for illegal fountain wading. Worse, Gussie's fiancee Madeline, a volatile young woman who turns to Bertie when Gussie upsets her, will probably not take the news very well. Bertie's idea of impersonating Gussie triggers an array of comic complications in this witty romp. As always, Jeeves, who dons his own disguise, comes through to save the day. |
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 Cecil still makes the best Jeeves reader |
| Review Date: May 10, 2003 |
| Reviewer: F. Behrens, Keene, NH USA |
| In a world sorely in need of a few good innocent laughs if not guffaws, there are always the Jeeves novels of P.G. Wodehouse. For those who spend too much time driving to read actual books, many of them are now on audio tape under the Audio Partners label and the latest of them is "Jeeves and the Mating Season" (61318), complete and unabridged. (Is that last phrase a tautology?) I have reviewed so many of these Jeeves books that I can only say they take place in a mythical time between the world wars when featherbrains like Bertie Wooster cannot survive without clever man servants like his Jeeves. Always intending the best and always creating the worst until Jeeves pulls him out of it, Bertie tries very hard to live up to the Code of the Woosters, a long list of chivalric ideals, one of which is that if a woman is convinced you want to marry her, marry her you must. So to avoid walking down the aisle with the most bubbleheaded female of them all, Bertie must make sure her present affianced does not desert to the camp of a glamorous actress. And so on. To reveal more details can only diminish your enjoyment of this romp, but I can give the basic situation. Gussie Fink Nottle (lover of newts) is engaged to Madeline Bassett but falls into the clutches of Corky Pirbright who is engaged to Esmond Haddock (a man dominated by aunts) and whose dog has bitten Constable Dobbs who is in love with the maid and daughter of Jeeves' Uncle Charley who.... Well, you must by now know the Swiss clockwork plots of Wodehouse. Suffice it to say that Bertie has to pose as Gussie while a chap named Catsmeat poses as.... Again, I leave it to you to sort out.And always remember, it is not only the funny situations in the Jeeves novels but Bertie's (that is Wodehouse's) funny way in which they are told. I got a good loud laugh about once a page as read by the wonderful character actor Jonathan Cecil, the best of the readers in this series. There are six cassettes with a running time of just short of 7 hours. Very funny and highly recommended. |
Delightful
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| Review Date: July 3, 2004 |
| Reviewer: Terry Wilemon, McDonald Observatory. TX |
Do yourself a big favor and disregard the ill tempered blighter that gave this CD a poor review because of Cecil's reading...he preferred Davidson. Amazing! Yawn.....
Cecil is brilliant and far better in his interpretations than most others. A master of his art. A sensational deal too! Hear for yourself. |
Wodehouse+Cecil=Perfection
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| Review Date: July 6, 2005 |
| Reviewer: RD, Palo Alto, CA, USA |
We have sampled most of the narrations of Wodehouse's books over the years - from cast dramatisations from the BBC with Richard Briers to Jarvis to Jonathan Cecil and can tell you that Cecil comes out on top.
I can comfortably tell you to ignore the blighter who most ill-advisedly recommends Jarvis over Cecil. Jonathan Cecil brings consistency and clarity to some incredibly convoluted passages, the voices and affectations are appropriate and help the narrative. Pure joy is the only way to describe our experience of Cecil's reading of Wodehouse.
On my last rip to London, I picked up the remaining Wodehouse audiobooks narrated by Jonathan Cecil for our next long driving trip. One of joys was discovering that the U.K. release includes the narration of the preface/introduction written by P.G. Wodehouse (now missing from most paperback editions).
As for Wodehouse - All hail the master. I hope that your lives can slow down long enough to let the gentle humour and joy of his stories cast its spell on you. |
LAUGHTER ALL THE WAY
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| Review Date: April 22, 2003 |
| Reviewer: Gail Cooke, TX, USA |
| British humorist P. G. Wodehouse's most famous character invention, Jeeves, the quintessential gentleman's gentleman, has become an iconic figure. He has even captured the internet with the popular "Ask Jeeves" site. Jeeves's gentleman, Bertie Wooster, the often wrong but always cheery has almost reached the same exalted state. They are both brought to vibrant, laughable life by the voice of Jonathan Cecil in "Jeeves and the Mating Season." When Gussie Fink-Nottle is temporarily incarcerated, Bertie sees fit to impersonate Gussie at Deverill Hall in order to keep the engagement between Gussie and Madeline on course. No one knows Gussie at Deverill Hall, so this imitation seems possible. No so. Not when a number of really wacky aunts and a capricious dog are involved. Leave it to Bertie to turn what seems like a plausible plot into a madcap mix-up. It's laughter all the way and Jeeves, of course, saves the day. - Gail Cooke |
Not up to usual standard.
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| Review Date: March 14, 2006 |
| Reviewer: June Birnie, Canada |
| This is not P.G. Wodehouse at it's best amd this,I think, is due to the narration. For me, Jonathan Cecil just cannot compare with Martin Jarvis as a narrator. |
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