Ring for Jeeves
Categories: [ Books/Wodehouse ]
© Amazon.fr
Published in 1953.
While Bertie Wooster is attending a school where he learns to darn his own socks (in the 1950s, the rich are not that rich anymore, and Bertie is preparing for a potentially less bright future), Jeeves is employed by Lord Bill Rowcester who is in desperate need for money if he wants to marry Jill, the girl he's engaged to. With Jeeves' help, he has become a bookmaker at a horse racing field, but because of two horses who won against all odds, he now owes three thousand pounds to a Captain Biggar. He and Jeeves manage to escape him and go back to Lord Rowcester's home, an old abbey he cannot afford to maintain and that his sister Monica, who is staying there too, hopes to sell to a rich American widow, Mrs Spottsworth. As it happens, Mrs Spottsworth knows Captain Biggar from her past, and since Biggar arrived at the abbey (in search for the owner of the car the bookmaker had fled in) and was recognized by Mrs Spottsworth, Monica invites him to stay. Additionally, Bill had met the widow in Cannes years ago and knows her too (which make Jill terribly jealous). Biggar eventually identifies Bill as the bookmaker and is distressed to learned that he is unable to pay him. Biggar needs the money to bet on a horse in the coming Derby in order to become wealthy enough to propose to Mrs Spottsworth (they are in love with each other, but Biggar doesn't want to be accused of marrying her for her money). Biggar then manages to convince Bill to steal Mrs Spottsworth's pendant, which Bill does successfully. Biggar disappears on the morning of the Derby, but the theft is dicovered and the local police is called. Biggar's horse comes second, but Biggar comes back and returns the jewel (he didn't dare pawning it). Mrs Spottsworth claims it doesn't matter if he's poor and they get engaged. She also buys the Abbey (to be taken appart and moved to California where the climat is not so damp), allowing Bill and Jill to get married.
[ Posted on April 25th, 2010 at 23:00 | no comment | permanent link ]
