Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves: juicy quotes

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves – laugh out loud moments but not my favourite amongst the Jeeves and Wooster masterpieces.

Those who know the code of the Turners will know that the blogs on this site are consistently honest.  No fake news here, or indeed fake reviews.

So I have to report, sadly, that “Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves” was not my favourite P G Wodehouse book.

In fact, of the mouth-watering shelf-full of Wodehouse I have enjoyed so far since 2017, it comes some way behind Thank You, Jeeves, Ring for Jeeves, Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen or indeed Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, all of which I have reviewed on this site (click on links above) and all of which positively heaved with quotables.

The cover of my Folio Society edition of “Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves”

PG Wodehouse: Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves

To say that PG Wodehouse Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is less hilarious than some other P G Wodehouse masterpieces, however, is not to say it lacks humour.  I feel it has less of a story, and Bertie Wooster finds himself in fewer memorably delicious situations, than in some of the other stories.  But it is nonetheless full of laugh-out-loud moments and has plenty of quotable excerpts.

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves Quotes

So, here goes.  I particularly like the fourth quote, about Jeeves’ ability to disappear silently; the fifth, about the ventriloquist’s dummy; and the seventh, about the 26 Martinis:

• He swallowed once or twice, and his colour deepened, which took a bit of doing, for even when his soul is in repose he always looks like a clerical beetroot.
• Show me a delicately nurtured female, and I will show you a ruthless Napoleon of Crime prepared without turning a hair to put the screws on some unfortunate male whose services she happens to be in need of.  There ought to be a law.
• I suppose there’s nothing that braces one more thoroughly than the spectacle of the forces of darkness stubbing their toe.

Jeeves’ ability to disappear

• ‘You haven’t seen Gussie, have you, Jeeves?’  He made no reply, possibly because he wasn’t there.  He generally slides discreetly off when the young master is entertaining the Quality, and you never see him go.  He just evaporates.

Bertie struck dumb

• How long I remained motionless, like a ventriloquist’s dummy whose ventriloquist has gone off to the local and left it sitting, I cannot say.
• Oh blessings on the falling-out that all the more endears is the way I heard Jeeves put it once.

26 Martinis

• I once read about a man who used to drink twenty-six Martinis before dinner, and the conviction was beginning to steal over me that he had had the right idea.
• Well, I had more or less steeled myself to something along these lines, so except for quivering like a stricken blancmange and letting my lower jaw fall perhaps six inches I betrayed no sign of discomposure
• ‘So I would be disposed to imagine, sir.  And your disturbed nights left you ruffled, I am sorry to see.  You are far from soigné.’  I could, I suppose, have said something about ‘Way down upon the soigné river’, but I didn’t.  My mind was occupied by deeper thoughts.

PG Wodehouse: absolute consistency

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves was published in 1963.  So there seems to be no pattern to the excellence or otherwise of the output of “Plum” Wodehouse.  Some of his early books are terrific.  But then so is Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen, published in 1974, and the last Jeeves novel Wodehouse wrote.  I look forward to reading the rest.

What to do next

P.S. I hope you have enjoyed this review of PG Wodehouse’s Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.  If you enjoy fresh, original writing, please subscribe to my newsletter (you can unsubscribe anytime you wish).  I’ll send you a free “Hotel Story” to say thanks! Or I would be delighted if you would like to follow me on Facebook. 

P.P.S. If you, too, appreciate Wodehouse, you may wish to explore my PG Wodehouse category.  I recommend Plumtopia, a true P G Wodehouse specialist.