"Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg" is a short story by
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...
, and features the young gentleman
Bertie Wooster
Bertram Wilberforce Wooster is a fictional character in the comedic Jeeves stories created by British author P. G. Wodehouse. An amiable English gentleman and one of the "idle rich", Bertie appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose intelligenc ...
and his valet
Jeeves
Jeeves (born Reginald Jeeves, nicknamed Reggie) is a fictional character in a series of comedic short stories and novels by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the highly competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Berti ...
. The story was published in the ''
Saturday Evening Post'' in the United States on 3 March 1917, and in ''
The Strand Magazine
''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...
'' in the United Kingdom in August 1917. The story was also included in the 1925 collection ''
Carry On, Jeeves
''Carry On, Jeeves'' is a collection of ten short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United Kingdom on 9 October 1925 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 7 October 1927 by George H. Doran, New York.McIl ...
''.
A friend of Bertie, "Bicky" Bickersteth, gets into financial trouble in the story. Jeeves proposes a scheme to help Bicky that involves Bicky's uncle and a convention of men from Birdsburg,
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
.
Plot
Bertie has grown a
moustache
A moustache (; en-US, mustache, ) is a strip of facial hair grown above the upper lip. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history.
Etymology
The word "moustache" is French, and is derived from the Italian ''mustaccio'' ...
, despite disapproval from Jeeves. Bertie's friend Francis "Bicky" Bickersteth comes to Bertie in search of advice. Bertie asks Jeeves to help. Doubtful, Bicky tells Bertie that the manner is private, but Bertie says that Jeeves probably already knows all about it anyway, and indeed he does: Bicky is in a dilemma since his uncle, the miserly Duke of Chiswick, who gives Bicky an allowance on the condition that Bicky improve himself financially, has decided to visit Bicky. Bicky, wishing to remain in New York, has been lying to his uncle about finding a business opportunity in the city.
Jeeves proposes that Bertie lend his flat to Bicky so that Bicky can pretend he owns a nice flat. Jeeves will pretend to be Bicky's valet. Bertie will remain as Bicky's guest, and Chiswick will have the second spare bedroom. After making a fuss over cab fare, Chiswick arrives, meeting Bertie and Jeeves. He is impressed by his nephew's flat. Bertie leaves to a club, meeting Bicky on the way out. Later, Bertie returns, and Jeeves tells him Bicky and his uncle have gone out. Some trouble has arisen: Chiswick, believing Bicky is now successful, is going to cancel his allowance.
Bicky comes up with a plan: starting a chicken-farm. Bertie wants to lend him the money to start one, but Bicky does not borrow money from friends. Jeeves suggests that Bicky could get the money from Americans who would pay to shake hands with His Grace. Jeeves manages to make a deal with a convention of 87 gentlemen from Birdsburg, Missouri; they will each shake Chiswick's hand and pay a total of one hundred and fifty dollars afterward. Bertie will secretly increase that sum to five hundred dollars. Bertie tells Bicky about the convention, and Bicky tells his uncle that some of his pals want to meet him. The gentlemen come, and things go smoothly until the Birdsburg men ask for a guarantee that Chiswick is really a duke, since they are paying money. Chiswick, who did not know about this payoff, rebukes them. The deal is off, and the Birdsburg men leave.
Bicky admits the truth about the Birdsburg men and his financial status. His uncle is furious, and threatens to cut off all money to Bicky. Jeeves, however, suggests that Bicky could sell the story of this encounter with the Birdsburg convention to a newspaper. Chiswick, who has a horror of publicity, is browbeaten into offering Bicky a secretarial job back in London. Bicky negotiates for a high salary of five hundred pounds a year. They leave. Impressed by Jeeves, Bertie tells him to fetch his shaving things and shave off his moustache. Jeeves, deeply moved, thanks him.
Publication history
![Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Jeeves_and_the_Hard-boiled_Egg.jpg)
"Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg" was illustrated by Henry Raleigh in its 1916 publication in the ''Saturday Evening Post'' and by
Alfred Leete
Alfred Ambrose Chew Leete (1882–1933) was a British graphic artist. Born at Thorpe Achurch, Northamptonshire, he studied at Kingsholme School and The School of Science and Art (now Weston College) in Weston-super-Mare, before moving to ...
in the ''Strand''. The story was reprinted in the ''Saturday Evening Post'' in 1980 with illustrations by Phil Smith.
The story was included in the 1919 collection ''
My Man Jeeves
''My Man Jeeves'' is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom in May 1919 by George Newnes. Of the eight stories in the collection, half feature the popular characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, wh ...
'' and in the 1925 collection ''Carry On, Jeeves''. There are some minor differences between the versions in ''My Man Jeeves'' and ''Carry On, Jeeves''. For example, the Duke of Chiswick says a certain taxi ride would have cost "eightpence" in London, and this amount is changed to "a shilling" in the ''Carry On, Jeeves'' version.
The American edition of the 1939 collection ''The Week-End Wodehouse'' also included the story.
Adaptations
An episode of ''
The World of Wooster
''The World of Wooster'' is a comedy television series, based on the Jeeves stories by author P. G. Wodehouse. The television series starred Ian Carmichael as English gentleman Bertie Wooster and Dennis Price as Bertie's valet Jeeves.
The s ...
'' adapted the story. The episode, titled "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg", was the fifth episode of the third series. It was originally broadcast in the UK on 3 November 1967.
This story was adapted into the ''
Jeeves and Wooster
''Jeeves and Wooster'' is a British comedy-drama television series adapted by Clive Exton from P. G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves" stories. It aired on the ITV network from 22 April 1990 to 20 June 1993, with the last series nominated for a Britis ...
'' episode "
The Full House
"The Full House" is the second episode of the third series of the 1990s British comedy television series ''Jeeves and Wooster''. It is also called "Bertie Ensures Bicky Can Continue To Live In Manhattan". It first aired in the UK on on ITV.
...
", the second episode of the third series, which first aired in the UK on 5 April 1992.
There are some differences in plot, including:
* In the episode, Bicky works in New York as a writer, and the Duke of Chiswick is not Bicky's uncle, but his father: Edger Gascoyne Bickersteth.
* In the episode, it is Jeeves, not Bicky, who comes up with the idea to excuse Bicky from learning ranching in Colorado by telling Chiswick that Bicky has instead found a business opportunity in New York.
* In the original story, Bertie says the flat costs 200 dollars or 40 pounds a month; in the episode, Bertie says it costs 500 dollars or 100 pounds a month.
* In the episode, the Birdsburg gentlemen come to believe Chiswick is a fraud—they had paid to shake hands with the ''first'' Duke, not the ''eighth''—and call in the police. When Chiswick learns he has been fooled, he chases after Bicky. Then the police, firing guns, give chase after Bicky, Chiswick, Bertie, and Jeeves.
* In the episode, Bertie does not plan to secretly give Bicky more money.
* Rather than become Chiswick's secretary, in the episode Bicky gets funding from Chiswick to start a chicken farm.
* Bertie does not have a moustache in this episode.
References
;Notes
;Sources
*
*
*
External links
Russian Wodehouse Society Information about ''Carry on, Jeeves'' and the stories which it contains
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg
1916 short stories
Short stories by P. G. Wodehouse
Works originally published in The Saturday Evening Post