Definitive Numbers ~or~ Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves*

I’m reaching the point where I have almost run into my last Bertie and Jeeves book.  It is a bit of an odd feeling, because while it seems as though I should be very close to being done, in reality this project probably has another couple of years left in it.  The root of the matter is that I have no idea just how many Wodehouse books there are.  This might seem like an odd problem to have: since Wodehouse is such a well-known author whose works have been around for some time, a comprehensive list of his works cannot be difficult to find.

And yet, that is precisely the question that I am facing.  The Overlook Press edition of Wodehouse is not only publishing his fiction, but also some of his letters, memoirs, and non-fiction.  While I will buy them all (or have them given to me as presents from my friends and family who by now are more than attuned to my eccentricities) I’m probably only going to count the fiction towards my goal.  Probably.  As anyone who knows me very well can tell you, I don’t like doing things by half measures.  For example, one of my favorite recent television shows is the revival of Doctor Who.  One would think that a normal person who loves the show would try and get caught up with all of the preceding series of the show, given that there are so many of them.  The issue lies in the fact that I like to start things from the beginning when possible, and not all of the Doctor Who shows are still extant.  More accurately, there is a decent likelihood that they are extant, but the BBC in London has not the foggiest where they are.  Occasionally, caches turn up in far-flung corners of the former empire.  It maddens and intrigues me that it might just be possible that all of the episodes do, in fact, exist.  Until then, I waver on the decision to see them. 

This is another part of the Wodehouse problem.  One of the major complicating factors of having a complete list of his works is that it appears that not all of his works are known.  The other day, whilst searching the internet furiously for a comprehensive Wodehouse list, I came into contact with Neil Midkiff who pointed out the Wodehouse Society website to me.  Those industrious people have actually been turning up new stories, most of which were published early in Wodehouse’s career when he was probably more interested in making ends meet than posterity.  I can read them online, thanks to the fact that they are now out of copyright.  And, being who I am, I’ll probably do that. 

However, even when the day comes when I have read everything that Overlook has published by Wodehouse and I’ve gone through the Wodehouse Soc. Trove, I’ll still be wondering.  This morning I read an article in The New Yorker about the discovery of a trunk that was filled with Callot Soeurs dresses.  The sisters presided over a major fashion empire in the 19^th and early 20th centuries, although few of their dresses have survived.  I wonder if the same hold true of Wodehouse’s works, if someday someone will stumble across a trunk filled with even more stories.  The possibility on one had deeply intrigues me and, on the other, deeply concerns my completion-driven soul.

*Read February 2015