About the Papers
A note on the undertaking
The affairs of Bertram Wilberforce Wooster, Esq., have, over the years, involved an unusually large number of engagements, misunderstandings, stolen objects, formidable aunts, and narrow escapes.
It was felt that some attempt ought to be made to put these matters in order.
The present collection brings together the available accounts, identifies the persons concerned, and records the incidents in which they figured. Where one affair bears upon another, the connection has been noted. Where an engagement has been entered into and subsequently dissolved, both events have been preserved.
No attempt has been made to explain the behaviour of those concerned.
A precedent of sorts
It should be acknowledged that the Junior Ganymede Club has long maintained a similar record. Under Rule Eleven, its members are required to set down the affairs of their employers in a confidential club book, for the instruction and benefit of their fellow gentlemen's gentlemen.
The present undertaking is entirely independent. The Junior Ganymede's records remain strictly confidential, and no access to them has been obtained.
The principle, however, seemed sound.
What may be found here
The papers may be consulted by incident, person, place, or book. They also contain a number of special collections devoted to matters which have proved difficult to keep straight.
Among these are an inventory of objects and decisions to which Jeeves has taken exception, the pictures that accompanied the accounts in The Strand Magazine, a ledger of engagements, and an account of incidents remembered only in passing.
The original accounts remain the authority in all cases. References are supplied wherever possible.
On the arrangement of the papers
The collection is an independent reader's companion to the Jeeves and Wooster stories of P. G. Wodehouse.
The texts have been indexed by scene and annotated with the characters, places, incidents, and relationships they describe. The search is intended to recover events even when the precise wording has been forgotten.
The accounts published before 1931 are in the public domain in the United States and are given here in full. The later accounts remain in copyright and are given a passage at a time; the reader is warmly recommended to the books themselves.
- Other Stories 1915, in full
- My Man Jeeves 1919, in full
- The Inimitable Jeeves 1923, in full
- Carry On, Jeeves 1925, in full
- Very Good, Jeeves 1930, in full
- Right Ho, Jeeves 1934, in passages
- Thank You, Jeeves 1934, in passages
- The Code of the Woosters 1938, in passages
- Joy in the Morning 1946, in passages
- The Mating Season 1949, in passages
- Ring for Jeeves 1953, in passages
- Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 1954, in passages
- Jeeves in the Offing 1960, in passages
- Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves 1963, in passages
- Much Obliged, Jeeves 1971, in passages
- Aunts Aren't Gentlemen 1974, in passages
Summaries, classifications, and connections are editorial additions, and may contain errors. Corrections, particularly those supported by chapter and verse, are welcome.
The compiler
The papers are compiled and maintained by Vignesh Saptarishi, an admirer of Wodehouse and a person who evidently thought that these matters required indexing.
Correspondence, corrections, and accounts of overlooked incidents are welcome.