Jeeves and the Kid Clementina

"Jeeves and the Kid Clementina"
Author P. G. Wodehouse
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Jeeves
Genre(s) Comedy
Publisher The Strand Magazine
Media type Print (Magazine)
Publication date January 1930
Preceded by "The Spot of Art"
Followed by "The Love That Purifies"

"Jeeves and the Kid Clementina" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in January 1930, and in Cosmopolitan in the United States that same month. The story was also included as the seventh story in the 1930 collection Very Good, Jeeves.[1]

In the story, Bobbie Wickham tells Bertie to sneak her cousin Clementina back into her boarding school, as Clementina is away from school without permission. Bobbie suggests using a method that involves a flower-pot and string.

Plot

Bertie goes to the annual Drones Club golf tournament at Bingley-on-Sea, where his Aunt Agatha's friend Miss Mapleton runs a girl's school, St. Monica's. Bertie wants to avoid Miss Mapleton. Jeeves disapproves of Bertie's new bright plus-fours and his plan to join Bobbie Wickham's party in Antibes in summer. On the pier, Bertie and Jeeves see Bobbie, who is visiting her cousin Clementina ("Clem"). Bobbie gets Bertie to give her and Clementina dinner and take them to the movies.

Afterwards, before Bertie is to bring Clementina back to school, Bobbie reveals that Clementina goes to St. Monica's, and she is not supposed to be out of school. Bobbie outlines how Bertie must sneak Clementina back into school: Bertie will take flower-pots from the school's conservatory, then climb a nearby tree, tie a string to a pot, balance the pot over a branch overhanging the conservatory ceiling, then move away and jerk the string from a distance. The pot will break the glass, someone will come out to investigate, and while the door is open, Clem will sneak in and go to bed.

I'm never my best at describing things. At school, when we used to do essays and English composition, my report generally read "Has little or no ability, but does his best," or words to that effect. True, in the course of years I have picked up a vocabulary of sorts from Jeeves, but even so I'm not nearly hot enough to draw a word-picture that would do justice to that extraordinarily hefty crash. Try to imagine the Albert Hall falling on the Crystal Palace, and you will have got the rough idea.

— The flower-pot crashes into the ceiling[2]

Bertie tells Jeeves that Clementina is away without leave. Jeeves tries to propose his own solution, but Bertie, wishing to prove himself, shushes Jeeves. Instead, Bertie presents Bobbie's plan as his own, and adds that Jeeves will guide the kid inside after the glass is smashed. As Bertie approaches the school, he regrets ignoring Jeeves, but he proceeds. A policeman catches Bertie up the tree. Jeeves appears and tells the officer that Bertie had come to call on Miss Mapleton, but was pursuing intruders he spotted in the garden. To verify this story, the policeman brings them to Miss Mapleton. To Bertie's astonishment, she confirms Jeeves's story. The flower-pot, which Bertie left balancing on the branch, falls and crashes loudly into the glass ceiling, but Miss Mapleton attributes this to the intruders Jeeves told her about.

Later, Bertie asks Jeeves to explain what happened. Jeeves answers that he entered the school and asked to see Miss Mapleton; while the maid had gone to Miss Mapleton, Jeeves guided Clementina into the house unseen. Then he met Miss Mapleton and told her that Bertie was in the garden pursuing intruders. Bertie cancels his plan to join Bobbie at Antibes, and tells Jeeves that he may give away the plus-fours.

Publication history

The story was illustrated by Charles Crombie in the Strand and by James Montgomery Flagg in Cosmopolitan.[3]

"Jeeves and the Kid Clementina" was featured in the 1958 collection Selected Stories by P. G. Wodehouse.[4]

The 1938 anthology The Book of Laughter, published by Allied Newspapers, included this story, along with another Wodehouse short story, "Honeysuckle Cottage".[5]

Adaptations

This story was adapted into the Jeeves and Wooster episode "Wooster with a Wife", the sixth episode of the second series, which first aired on 19 May 1991.[6] There are some changes in plot, including:

  • In the episode, Bertie does not participate in a golf tournament; instead, Bobbie participates in a tennis tournament.
  • Bertie initially tries to propose to Bobbie in the episode, though he changes his mind.
  • In the original story, Clementina was sent to bed for putting sherbet in the ink to make it fizz; in the episode, Bobbie merely says Clementina is supposed to be in bed.
  • In the episode, Bertie is not trying to assert his ability to handle matters himself by refusing advice from Jeeves; instead, Bertie simply does not have time to hear Jeeves's alternative scheme.
  • In the episode, Bertie is startled by a dog and drops the flower-pot over the conservatory roof before he speaks to the policeman. The dog led the policeman to Bertie. Bertie is brought to jail, and is released when Jeeves and Miss Mapleton come to see him.

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Cawthorne (2013), p. 81.
  2. ↑ Wodehouse (2008) [1930], chapter 7, p. 184.
  3. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 148, D17.44, and p. 185, E133.157.
  4. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 120, B11a.
  5. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 194, E20.
  6. ↑ "Jeeves and Wooster Series 2, Episode 6". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
Sources
  • Cawthorne, Nigel (2013). A Brief Guide to Jeeves and Wooster. London: Constable & Robinson. ISBN 978-1-78033-824-8.
  • McIlvaine, Eileen; Sherby, Louise S.; Heineman, James H. (1990). P. G. Wodehouse: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Checklist. New York: James H. Heineman Inc. ISBN 978-0-87008-125-5.
  • Wodehouse, P. G. (2008) [1930]. Very Good, Jeeves (Reprinted ed.). London: Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0099513728.
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