Minor characters in the Jeeves stories
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The following is an incomplete compendium of the fictional characters featured in the Jeeves stories of P. G. Wodehouse, in alphabetical order by surname.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 into five pieces. 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".
[edit] Lady Florence Craye
Lady 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 claims he wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend meeting Boko, describing him as "an acquired taste...at least that's what his mother says."
[edit] 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.
[edit] Agatha Gregson
Agatha Gregson (née Wooster, later Lady Worplesdon) is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being Bertie Wooster's fearsome Aunt Agatha.
[edit] 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 now worked as a newspaper journalist. At the end of the book, he married the troublesome Bobbie Wickham.
[edit] Reginald Jeeves
Jeeves (Reginald Jeeves) is a recurring fictional character in the homonymous stories, being the valet of Bertie Wooster.
[edit] 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".
[edit] 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.
[edit] Rupert Steggles
Rupert Steggles is a fictional character in two linked Jeeves short stories, being a bookmaker of dubious reputation.
In "The Great Sermon Handicap" (1922, collected in the semi-novel The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923), he devised a scheme to entertain the guests at Twing Hall: to take bets on the verbosity and consistency of each of the many nearby preachers.
In "The Purity of the Turf" (1922, collected in the semi-novel The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923), he ran a crooked turf accountancy racket during the Village Sports Day at Twing Hall whilst staying with Lord and Lady Wickhammersley. He conned Bertie Wooster and his consortium (Freddie Widgeon, Cynthia Wickhammersley, and Bingo Little) out of a considerable sum of cash. However, he lost it back to Jeeves. Meanwhile, Lady Wickhammersley, who is anti-gambling after her husband lost the east wing of the house in a game of shove ha'penny, discovers Steggles's game, and donates all the money he took to the church roof restoration fund.
[edit] Dahlia Travers
Dahlia 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.
[edit] Tom Travers
Tom Travers (Thomas Portarlington Travers) is a recuring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being Bertie Wooster's Uncle Tom and the husband of his bonhomous Aunt Dahlia.
[edit] 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 perspective of being called by his abhorred name as "Sir Lemuel" for the rest of his life if his wife managed to get him knighted.
[edit] 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 friends at Liverpool green with envy, she was also hoping to get her husband knighted, to his unavowed horror.
[edit] Roberta "Bobbie" Wickham
Roberta "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.
[edit] Bertram "Bertie" Wooster
Bertram "Bertie" Wooster is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being the master of said Jeeves.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
