Ring for Jeeves

By: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrated by: Nigel Lambert

Bill, (Lord) Rowcester was well and truly in the gumbo. With the benefit of hindsight he could see that setting himself up as a Silver Ring bookie might not have been his smartest move ever. Particularly when being down on his dibbs threatens his oncoming nuptials with the sterling Jill Wyvern. Lucky for Bill he had the land-lease of Jeeves. Lucky indeed that the fish-fed mastermind's formidable genius was at liberty to take a header into such teasers as borrowing the stellar Mrs Spottsworth's pendent for an hour or three or overseeing the added ingredients of Abbey's Derby Dinner, to say nothing of his lordship's mauve pyjamas.©2014 P.G. Wodehouse (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

A fun romp

I'm a big fan of Wodehouse and have most of the audiobooks and love them all. This one have a fun story and was a bit different, being that Bertie Wooster is only mentioned and Jeeves is on lone to the hero of this story. It takes place after WWII in an England where the aristocracy had lost much of it's power and wealth and the characters watch horse races on tv. The story itself is basically the typical Wodehouse kind of story, ludicrous and pretty funny. The reader does a great job, and I enjoyed it a lot. Not quite as funny and the Jeeves and Wooster stories, but still plenty of fun.

A sort of time capsule of post-war Britain

One of the things I like most about Wodehouse books is that everyone's always talking about money - having it, losing it, marrying for it, borrowing it - in great detail. The result is that you end up learning a lot about the economic conditions of the time in which the stories are set. And that's one of the best aspects of this book.

'Ring for Jeeves' is set in post-WWII Britain, when the term 'impoverished nobility' was more applicable than ever before: the economy was a mess, the pound had been devalued, and even titled aristocrats - who formerly had lived on 'private income' or income from large country estates - had to start getting real jobs and selling their 15-bedroom castles to Americans, who were the only ones with enough money to handle the upkeep.

The male members of the leisure class are forced to take jobs at Harrods-like department stores, and the 'delicately nurtured' female members are becoming more independent and career-minded: Hilarity ensues!

In many ways, the story feels like a Blandings Castle novel onto which Jeeves has been grafted. It's not entirely successful (apparently wrote the play first, and then turned it into a book, and I think the retrofitting is apparent) but overall it's a decent story, has some good moments of humor, and provides a great insight into the upper classes in the late 40s and early 50s.

No Wooster, but classic Wodehouse

This story has everything you expect from a Jeeves story (except Wooster); gambling (horse races), lords "in the soup", complicated relationships, money trouble and the threat of violence.
Regarding the reading performance, it is very good, but the american accent is terrible. This is not something that usually disturbs me - I expect it, and it can even be endearing (the reader is English, after all), but the exaggerated intrusive 'R', which is typically found in UK accents is here used in an effort to americanise the speech (which is of course backwards) became grating. Not enough by far to make me not recommend it, but I do have to remove points for it.

Brilliantly unexpected

A series of witty coincidences and total blunders which still allow a totally unexpected happy ending.

Brilliant narration!

Nigel Lambert's narration is a perfect complement for Wodehouse's story! The characters come to life!