v · fictional characters featured in the Jeeves stories of P. G. Wodehouse.
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Anatole
Anatole is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being the supremely skilled French chef of Aunt Dahlia at her country house Brinkley Court.
Appearances
He is also mentioned in many of the stories.
Watkyn Bassett
Sir Watkyn Bassett is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories. Bassett is the father of Madeline Bassett and the uncle and guardian of Stephanie "Stiffy" Byng.
Bassett was at one time a magistrate in the Bosher Street magistrate's court in London and fined Bertie Wooster £5 for stealing a policeman's helmet on Boat Race Night. When he encounters Wooster again in The Code of the Woosters he jumps to the conclusion that Wooster is a thief who is trying to make off with an antique cow-creamer.
After inheriting a fortune from an unnamed relative, Bassett retired from the bench and purchased a country home, Totleigh Towers. Bertie is of the opinion that the fortune derived from pocketing fines while a magistrate.
Bassett is a noted collector of antique silver, and his collection rivals that of Bertie's Uncle Tom Travers.
Bassett is a close friend of Roderick Spode, who is an almost constant presence at Totleigh Towers.
Bill Belfry, 9th Earl of Rowcester
Bill Belfry, 9th Earl of Rowcester - alias Lord Rowcester - is a fictional character introduced in the novel Ring for Jeeves, in which he is the impoverished owner of the near-derelict Rowcester Abbey in Southmoltonshire.
In post-WWII Britain, Jeeves temporarily becomes valet to Lord Rowcester whilst Bertie Wooster is away at a school to teach the wealthy classes how to survive in the wake of social revolution. Lord Rowcester, engaged to be married, wishes to find means of earning money to repair his home and thus sell it off to live a happy married life. At the suggestion of Jeeves, Bill sets up as a bookmaker at horse races under the title of Honest Patch Perkins, but falls foul of Captain Biggar, intent on getting his winnings after winning a large sum.
G. D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright
G. D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright is a fictional character in two Jeeves novels, being an intermittent but jealous fiancé of Florence Craye and thus a menacing "rival" of Florence's ex-"fiancé" Bertie Wooster, his schoolmate. A member of the Drones Club, Stilton is a hulking chap with a large head compared to a pumpkin and a "face that looked like a slab of pink dough", educated at Eton and Oxford, but considered a fine fellow only "as far northwards as the neck".
In Joy in the Morning (1946), Stilton was the local copper at Aunt Agatha's rural village Steeple Bumpleigh and engaged to Florence Craye who was in residence there. When Bertie Wooster turned up to help his uncle Lord Worplesdon, Stilton suspected Bertie of trying to steal Florence from him and stood in Bertie's way, even threatening physical violence. When Florence's father Lord Worplesdon (who was also the local Justice of the Peace) refused to let him make an arrest, the ensuing dispute led to Florence breaking their engagement. This would go down in Bertie's history as "the Steeple Bumpleigh Horror".
In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (1954), Stilton was an ex-copper at Aunt Dahlia's country house Brinkley Court but engaged again to Florence Craye who was in attendance there. When Bertie Wooster turned up to help his aunt, Stilton again suspected him of trying to steal Florence from him and stood in Bertie's way, with threats of physical violence such as breaking his spine in three places (and subsequently increasing the number by one whenever repeating the threat). When Stilton refused to grow a trendy mustache (like the one Bertie sported in this story), the ensuing dispute led to Florence breaking their engagement. They reconciled, but only for Stilton to leave her for another female writer, newly arrived novelist Daphne Dolores Morehead. He then thanked his "dearest friend" Bertie for helping him getting rid of "that Florence pest". (In the TV series, Stilton actually meets Jeeves in disguise as Daphne, adding to the absurdity of the situation.)
Marmaduke "Chuffy" Chuffnell
The fictional 5th Baron Chuffnell.
Lady Florence Craye
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Florence CrayeLady Florence Craye is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being the daughter of Percy Craye, Lord Worplesdon, and sometime fiancée of Bertie Wooster.
Percival "Percy" Craye, Earl of Worplesdon
Percival "Percy" Craye (later Earl of Worplesdon) is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being Bertie Wooster's Uncle Percy and Agatha Gregson's second husband.
George "Boko" Fittleworth
George "Boko" Fittleworth is a fictional character in a Jeeves novel, being an author with a unique dress sense, a member of the Drones Club, and a good friend of Bertie Wooster. He lives in a small cottage in the country village of Steeple Bumpleigh (where also reside Aunt Agatha, Lord Worplesdon, and Florence Craye).
In Joy in the Morning (1946), even the normally unflappable Jeeves was strongly affected at the sight of Boko's grey trousers with a patch on the knee. Bertie described Jeeves, on meeting Boko for the first time, as having "winced visibly and tottered off to the kitchen, no doubt to pull himself together with cooking sherry". Bertie noted that Boko looked like "a cross between a comedy juggler and a parrot that has been dragged through a hedge backwards" and "dresses like a tramp cyclist".
In the pilot episode of the Jeeves and Wooster television series, Bertie expresses surprise that Lady Glossop doesn't know who Boko is, claiming that he thought everybody knew Boko. He goes on to say that he wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend meeting Boko anyway, describing him as "an acquired taste...at least that's what his mother says."
Percy Gorringe
Percy Gorringe is a fictional character in a Jeeves novel, being a side-whiskered poet and writer, the stepson of newspaper owner Mr Trotter and the son of Mrs Trotter.
In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (1954), Percy was at Aunt Dahlia's country house Brinkley Court, in tow of the Trotters here to buy Dahlia's journal. He was intent on producing Florence Craye's well-received book Spindrift as a play, if only he could find the money – having unsuccessfully tried to touch Bertie Wooster for a thousand pounds. In love with Florence, he was brooding Hamlet-like because she was engaged to Stilton Cheesewright, and Bertie was convoked to cheer him up. To fight the oafish Stilton, Percy wrote his idea of a scathing poem, "Caliban at Sunset". He is also revealed as the author of pulpish mystery novels under the pen name "Rex West", which Bertie adores. At some point, he thinks he's also competing with Bertie for Florence. After both Stilton and Bertie dumped her, Florence realized she loved Percy.
In Much Obliged, Jeeves (1971), we learn that Percy's stage production was a flop and that Florence dumped him in favor of Ginger Winship.
Agatha Gregson
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Aunt AgathaAgatha Gregson (née Wooster, later Lady Worplesdon) is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being Bertie Wooster's fearsome Aunt Agatha.
Francis Heppenstall
The Reverend Francis Heppenstall is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories. He is the Anglican vicar at the village church at Twing.
Reginald "Kipper" Herring
Reginald "Kipper" Herring is a fictional character in a Jeeves novel, being a childhood friend of Bertie Wooster from Malvern House.
In Jeeves in the Offing (1960), Kipper is employed as a journalist at the Thursday Review, in which capacity he writes a scathing review of a book on preparatory schools by his former headmaster Aubrey Upjohn. He is engaged to the troublesome Bobbie Wickham whom he taught to ski.
Reginald Jeeves
Jeeves (Reginald Jeeves) is a recurring fictional character in the eponymous stories, being the valet of Bertie Wooster.
Mortimer Little, Lord Bittlesham
Old Mr. Little is the uncle of Bingo Little, who is dependent upon him for an allowance. In "Jeeves Exerts the Old Cerebellum" and "No Wedding Bells for Bingo" (both from The Inimitable Jeeves), Bingo's strategem, suggested by Jeeves, to get his allowance increased backfires by inducing Old Mr. Little to marry his cook, Miss Watson. Also appears in "Comrade Bingo" (now created Lord Bittlesham), "Bingo Has a Bad Goodwood", "Bingo and the Little Woman", and "All's Well", from the same book.
Richard P. "Bingo" Little
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Bingo Little Daphne Dolores Morehead
Daphne Dolores Morehead is a fictional character in a Jeeves novel, being a young an attractive blonde bestselling novelist, probably based on Daphne du Maurier. Blue-eyed, curvaceous, and perfumed with Chanel No. 5, she is also known as "la Morehead".
In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (1954), Daphne was invited by Aunt Dahlia, who wanted to use her fame to give instant credibility to her literary journal Milady's Boudoir and make it a much more attractive sell. Arrived for the last chapters, Daphne turned the large head of Stilton Cheesewright, definitively freeing Stilton from his on-again, off-again engagements to Florence Craye. She had noticed him in his Oxford boat-rowing days and was very pleased to find a decent man with a "majestuous" head not sporting one of those ugly, trendy mustaches that are the slippery slope to beards.
In the TV series, however, Daphne is simply Jeeves in disguise, with the comic element being Stilton's aggressive fascination with "her".
Gwladys Pendlebury
Gwladys Pendlebury is a fictional character in a Jeeves short story, being an artist that Bertie Wooster falls in love with.
In "The Spot of Art" (1929, collected in Very Good, Jeeves, 1930), Miss Pendlebury was, in the opinion of Bertie Wooster, a dashed good artist who painted his portrait. However, he may have been biased, being in love with her, so much so that he entrusted her with the heavy task of painting his Aunt Agatha's portrait. The finished work was dismissed angrily by Aunt Agatha, and Gwladys became rather huffy with Bertie. Jeeves endeavoured to comfort his young, lovesick master by assuring him that the name Gwladys was not a particularly attractive one, on a par with Kathryn and Ethyl, all of which came about as a result of the pennings of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Bertie made one last attempt to win the hand of Gwladys, only to discover that she had gotten engaged to Lucius Pim, an artist with Gilhooly and Pim the advertising agency, and she always wanted to work in advertising.
Rupert Steggles
Rupert Steggles is a fictional character in three linked Jeeves short stories, being an amateur bookmaker of dubious reputation.
In "The Great Sermon Handicap" (1922, collected in the semi-novel The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923), Steggles, who is lodging in Twing while cramming the classics for university under Reverend Francis Heppenstall, devises a scheme to entertain the guests at Twing Hall: to take bets on the sermon duration of local Anglican clergymen on a given Sunday.
In "The Purity of the Turf" (1922, collected in the semi-novel The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923), he runs a crooked turf accountancy racket during the Twing village school treat (a sports day) held on the grounds of Twing Hall of Lord and Lady Wickhammersley. He cons Bertie Wooster and his consortium (Freddie Widgeon, Cynthia Wickhammersley, and Bingo Little) out of a considerable sum of cash. However, a devious trick by an unnamed manservant (Jeeves, no doubt) allows the syndicate to win back several hundred pounds in the egg-and-spoon race.
In "The Metropolitan Touch" (1922, collected in the semi-novel The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923), Steggles makes book on whether Bingo or the Reverend Hubert Wingham will win the hand of Miss Mary Burgess. Since his position will pay off with a Wingham win, Steggles repeatedly sabotages Bingo's romantic efforts, finally causing a catastrophic flop of a students' musical entertainment put on by Bingo. Jeeves, however, has bought a share of a tavern-keeper's book, and profits handsomely.
Dahlia Travers
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Aunt DahliaDahlia Travers (née Wooster) is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being Bertie Wooster's bonhomous Aunt Dahlia and the wife of his Uncle Tom Travers.
Tom Travers
Thomas "Tom" Portarlington Travers is the husband of Aunt Dahlia and thus Bertie Wooster's uncle. Travers, known to Bertie as Uncle Tom, made a fortune doing business in the Far East. Although reluctant to part with money—his wife describes him as howling for weeks after paying his income taxes— he provides the funds for her rarely-profitable magazine Milady's Boudoir, which he refers to as "Madame's Nightshirt". Milady's Boudoir is eventually sold to Lemuel Trotter, a newspaper and magazine owner from Liverpool.
Travers also suffers from severe digestion problems, which are only allayed by the cooking of his French chef Anatole.
Tom Travers's biggest hobby is collecting old silver, in which his biggest rival is Sir Watkyn Bassett, the proprietor of Totleigh Towers in Totleigh-in-the-Wold and a retired magistrate, who had once fined Bertie five pounds for stealing a policeman's helmet on Oxford University boat race night.
The rivalry between Travers and Bassett forms a major part of the plot of The Code of the Woosters, in which they are both seeking to purchase a rare eighteenth century cow creamer (a cream jug in the shape of a cow). Aunt Dahlia sends Bertie to inspect the creamer and attempt to lower the price by claiming that it's not a genuine antique, but rather of modern Dutch origin. Bertie contrives to bungle the assignment; Sir Watkyn arrives just as Bertie, attempting to read the hallmark on the base of the creamer in the better light outside the shop, trips over the shopkeeper's cat, and immediately concludes that Bertie is trying to steal the creamer. Bertie is obliged to flee, pursued by a policeman, leaving Sir Watkyn free to buy the creamer.
Mr Trotter
Mr Trotter (Lemuel Gengulphus Trotter) is a fictional character in a Jeeves novel, being a dyspeptic newspaper owner from Liverpool, husband of the domineering Mrs Trotter, and stepfather of her son the poet Percy Gorringe.
In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (1954), Mr Trotter was invited at Aunt Dahlia's country house Brinkley Court to decide on acquiring her literary journal, Milady's Boudoir. Dahlia hoped that a regimen of her chef Anatole's fine French cuisine would get Trotter to acquire anything. However, Mr Trotter's spirits stayed low due to his chronic dyspepsia, an incompatibility with French cuisine, the dominance of his scheming wife, and the frightful prospect of being called by the abhorrent name "Sir Lemuel" for the rest of his life if his wife managed to get him knighted.
Mrs Trotter
Mrs Trotter is a fictional character in a Jeeves novel, being the domineering wife of Liverpool newspaper owner Mr Trotter and the mother by a former marriage of poet Percy Gorringe.
In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (1954), Mrs Trotter was with her husband at Aunt Dahlia's country house Brinkley Court, and planned to rob Dahlia of her chef extraordinaire Anatole in exchange of letting her husband acquire Dahlia's literary journal, Milady's Boudoir. In order to make all of their social rivals at Liverpool green with envy, she was also hoping to get her husband knighted, to his unavowed horror.
Roberta "Bobbie" Wickham
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Bobbie WickhamRoberta "Bobbie" Wickham is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being a redheaded girl enamoured of practical jokes, often at Bertie Wooster's expense.
Bertram "Bertie" Wooster
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Bertie WoosterBertram "Bertie" Wooster is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being the master of said Jeeves.
Claude and Eustace Wooster
Claude and Eustace Wooster are fictional characters in a Jeeves semi-novel, being the cousins of Bertie Wooster as the twin sons of Henry Wooster and Emily Wooster.
In The Inimitable Jeeves (1923, a semi-novel made of interlinked short stories), they were initially students at Oxford University, but their unruly behaviour caused them to be sent down. They were then pushed off to South Africa through Jeeves's conniving, to relieve Bertie from the strain of having to accommodate them in secret at his London flat.
Emily Wooster
Emily Wooster is a fictional character in one Jeeves semi-novel, being Bertie Wooster's Aunt Emily, and the mother of Claude and Eustace Wooster.
In The Inimitable Jeeves (1923, a semi-novel made of interlinked short stories), she was the wife, then the widow, of Henry Wooster, Bertie's looney uncle.
Henry Wooster
Henry Wooster is a fictional character in one Jeeves semi-novel, being Bertie Wooster's Uncle Henry, and the brother of Bertie's late father.
In The Inimitable Jeeves (1923, a semi-novel made of interlinked short stories), he was, unfortunately, a "looney" who kept pet rabbits in his bedroom, and of whom the family was deeply ashamed. He was kept locked up in his country house to avoid embarrassment for the family. Bertie's Aunt Agatha was convinced that it is from him that Bertie inherited his apparent traces of looniness, though she was apt to over-exaggerate her nephew's woolly-headedness for a serious mental condition. He died fairly early in the Wodehouse canon, leaving behind a wife, Emily Wooster, and his twin sons, Claude and Eustace Wooster.
See also
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