It is first mentioned in Jill the Reckless/ The Little Warrior (1920) and continues through Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen/ The Cat-nappers (1974). The Drones Club in Dover Street is a magnet for Wodehouse’s idle young men about London, named after the male bees who do no work. Here the allusion seems to be to a mirage, now seen, now unseen. Jeeves’s movements in and out are usually described as noiseless and somewhat mystical. Gentlemen have told me they have found it extremely invigorating after a late evening.In other stories the recipe provides aid and succour to other gentlemen as well.

It is the dark meat-sauce that gives it its color. It is a little preparation of my own invention. We learn of Jeeves’s “pick-me-ups,” “morning revivers,” or “bracers” in several stories the first mention (in story chronology) is in “Jeeves Takes Charge” (1916): With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run 5)Ĭonspiring with him how to load and bless Chapter 1Īutumn - season of mists and mellow fruitfulness (p. Notes flagged with ° are substantially revised notes flagged with * are new in 2021–23. Page references are to the Penguin edition, using the 1953 “set in Monotype Garamond” plates, reprinted at least through the 1980s. It was serialized inthe Saturday Evening Post and the Daily Mail prior to book publication see this page for details of serial appearances. The Code of the Woosters was published simultaneously in the UK and US, by Herbert Jenkins, London, and by Doubleday, Doran, New York, on 7 October 1938. They have been edited, expanded, and somewhat reformatted by Neil Midkiff and others as credited below. These notes were originally written by Terry Mordue, and can be seen in their original form here.

The following notes attempt to explain cultural, historical and literary allusions in Wodehouse’s text, to identify his sources, and to cross-reference similar references in the rest of the canon.

The code of the woosters book review