I remain perplexed as to why the Jeeves Omnibus chose to include the books in a non-chronological order. It's especially odd since the first two volumes of this collection end up with the absolute best of the books.

Here, we find three enjoyable volumes: the novels The Mating Season and Ring for Jeeves - the former largely omitting Jeeves, the latter entirely omitting Bertie - and the final short story collection, Very Good, Jeeves. ( )

Ring for Jeeves:
Bertie Wooster has lent out Jeeves to Lord Rowcester, an impoverished nobleman working in disguise as a bookie.

Jeeves without Bertie Wooster doesn't really work. It doesn't help that the setting is closely tied to the early 1950s rather than a never-never land vaguely resembling the interwar period. Only for real aficionados.

The Mating Season
Bertie has to impersonate Gussie Fink-Nottle to prevent Madeline Bassett from finding out Gussie has been arrested and sent to prison. What could go wrong?

I've read this several times but I can't find any record of it on LT so it must have been before I joined in 2006. It's still the one that sticks in my mind as the quintessential Jeeves and Wooster tale, though perhaps it's getting a bit too familiar as I didn't find it quite so funny this time round.

Very Good, Jeeves
A collection of short stories featuring Jeeves and Wooster. Hit the spot. ( )

Since there are three books in this omnibus, I shall review each of them separately.

Ring For Jeeves: This story, the longest in the omnibus, is also the one with the least amount of Bertie Wooster. Bertie has been bundled off to aristocrats' school, where he is to learn how to fend for himself in the event that he can no longer afford Jeeves' services. So Jeeves is in the temporary employ of the Earl of Rowcester, who is less rich than you would think, to the extent of preparing to sell off his childhood home to an American, Mrs. Spottsworth, and even posing as a bookie to scrape together enough cash for a ring for his betrothed, Jill. However, as all Wodehouse-book schemes are wont to do, things become very complicated very quickly, but Jeeves is able to save the day. This story was fun, but I did miss Bertie.

The Mating Season: Bertie is back now, and he is embroiled in a scheme involving several people's engagements, an identity swap with newt-fancier Gussie Fink-Nottle, and complications springing from people breaking off engagements and hooking up with others. A Wodehouse plot is never simple to explain, so forgive me if this all sounds thoroughly confusing. However, it is brilliantly done, and if you are the laugh-out-loud-while-you-read type, you will enjoy this story.

Very Good, Jeeves: This was my favourite, by far. Each chapter is a separate adventure in the life of Bertie Wooster and his pals, and some of these will be familiar to fans of the Fry and Laurie "Jeeves and Wooster" series, such as "Jeeves and the Song of Songs" (an absolute scream, probably my favourite story) and "The Ordeal of Young Tuppy". As always, Jeeves is brilliant, and the foibles of Bertie and his friends are amusing to read about.

The main appeal of Wodehouse is his writing style -- his characters all have excellent dialogue that suits them perfectly, and many lines are hilarious. The best way to prove this is to quote directly from the books, so here's a great quote from "The Love That Purifies", a chapter in Very Good, Jeeves:

Bertie: "I don't know why it is, but I've never been able to bear with fortitude anything in the shape of a kid with golden curls. Confronted with one, I feel the urge to step on him or drop things on him from a height."

Vicious? Yes. Cruel? Sure. Hilarious? Heck yes. It's just such a preposterous thing to say, so it makes one laugh.

Wodehouse is also a master of subtle wit, as in this quote from "Ring for Jeeves". Sorry, I can't remember which characters were involved.

"He is tall...and wears a ginger moustache and a black patch over his left eye."
"No, dash it, that's not possible...Oh, I see what you mean. A black patch over his left eye and a ginger moustache on the upper lip. I thought for a moment..."

So all in all, this omnibus is a valuable addition to the bookshelves of any Wodehouse fan (assuming, of course, that they don't have separate copies of each book in the omnibus already). ( )