Much Obliged, Jeeves

The Jeeves and Wooster Series

By: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrated by: Dinsdale Landen

Everyone - even Augustus the cat - has cause to be obliged to Jeeves when he manages to retrieve the infamous Book, the book kept under lock and key at the Junior Ganymede Club and which lays bare the private lives of three-quarters of the upper classes - and which could prove to be political dynamite at the Market Snodsbury by-election! It once again falls to Bertie Wooster's manservant to save the day.

©1971 P.G. Wodehouse (P)2016 Blackstone Audio

PGW is always great but thisnis not my favorite wooster-jeeves.

It might have been the reader — who was fine but can’t compare to the fantastic Jonathan Cecil — but I didn’t like this as much as other Jeeves and Wooster audiobooks.

Listen to this one at 0.75 speed.

Another installment of Jeeves & Wooster, with pretty much the same type of hijinks as the others. Worth reading as much as any other in the series, but... well, Disdale Landsdon is no Jonathan Cecil. The distinction between character voices is very inconsistent, and half the time he runs words and sentences together so much that during dialog I can't understand where one character's statement ends and the next one's begins. One wonders if this narrator didn't have an appointment immediately after the reading and did it all in one take, leaving in all the parts that ought to have been recorded over. Still, it's useful for a completionist to listen to this one, as some plot regarding the Junior Ganymede Club book and Florence happens, which will probably be alluded to in future installments. Just listen to it on 0.75x speed if you want to understand any of the exchanges between Bertie and Dalia.

decent Wodehouse

Earlier Jeeves and Wooster stories offer more excitement and interest, but it is still a decent and funny story. Performance a bit subpar at times, as the narrator doesn't give consiatent differentiation of the character voices.

Nothing better

Love the story, love the narration, love it all. I listen to Jesus in Worcester while I’m outside gardening, and as I dig in the dirt and we my raised beds, I am chuckling with the story.

same old same old

Wodehouse had approximately three original ideas in his life, and unfortunately he wrote 27 books with them.

Not as Bad a Read as Suggestd!

Listen to the book at regular speed, and the reader does, indeed, seem to be in a bit of a rush. But slow it to .9 and the reading is just fine, with Bertie and Jeeves clearly defined by their affects. Not as good a reader as Jonathan Cecil, but quite acceptable.

I liked the narrator

I beg to disagree. Jonathan Cecil was my favorite until I heard this It’s a moot issue because it’s the only Wodehouse that Landen narrates. I’ll just partly make my point anyway. Don’t hate me for it.
The complaint is mostly his speed and I was finding that a blessing. I generally listen at 1.2 to 1.6x and only went to 1.1 here. Wodehouse is difficult to narrate well because he often uses long sentences and I forget the beginning of the sentence by the time we reach the end. I was impressed by the many different ways Dinsdale was keeping me onboard. More of a story teller than a reader, varying pace and tone and emphasis and mood and cadence as appropriate.
I also admit that I didn’t notice that it wasn’t Cecil until I finished. I thought it was Cecil performing after more than usual coffee consumption.

Classic, Hilarious PG Wodehouse

I love all the Jeeves and Wooster stories. This narrator added an additional charm to the characters.

one if my favorites, done with verve

Apart from having a wonderfully euphonic name, the narrator Dinsdale Landen reads this *as if it were funny*. How refreshing! The jocular byplay between Bertie and Agatha is delightful; the boyish giggles when Bertie cracks a funny are very much in character for a sweet goof like Bertie.

I hope Mr Landen has read other Bertie books because I might be spoiled for any of the - otherwise wonderful - narrators who forget to enjoy the humor.

Change Playback Speed

I don’t understand the complaints about the narrator speaking too quickly. Yes he does BUT this is an app, and you have the ability to slow down the playback. So… what’s the problem? I’m playing it at 0.85 and it’s delightful. And yes he DOES do different voices and accents for different characters. They’re not as dramatically different as Jonathan Cecil (who reads like a radio dramatization with full cast) but the differences are normal for audiobook narration. It’s like listening to Bertie tell the story - which is the premise framework of the novel, so, it’s fine.