Annotations

 

It so often pans out that way when you begin a story. You whizz off the mark all pep and ginger, like a mettlesome charger going into its routine, and the next thing you know, the customers are up on their hind legs, yelling for footnotes.

—Bertie Wooster’s narration in Chapter One of The Mating Season (1949)

“And now,” said Bill, “supply a few footnotes.”

—Wilhelmina Shannon in Chapter Five of The Old Reliable (1951)

 

The members of the Yahoo! Blandings group have, for many years, undertaken the mammoth task of annotating Wodehouse’s books. The late Terry Mordue presented his portion of the work on his own website, now archived here at Madame Eulalie. But there are, and hopefully will continue to be, others in the field as well — Mark Hodson, John Dawson, Ian Michaud, Lynn Vesley-Gross, Neil Midkiff, Diego Seguí, and others as listed below have made contributions to this effort.

See also specific resources elsewhere on this site, which gradually will be cross-linked with the pages below as they are updated, including:

We present a list of the annotations here, for easy access. In addition, some of the serializations on this site have been annotated; links to the opening episodes of those are preceded by the symbol ✏ in the list below. Annotations to the short stories on this site are continually being added as well; the symbol ✎ in the menus for each periodical indicates an item with significant end notes. Contact us if you are interested in contributing to the annotation effort.

 

The Pothunters – Annotated by AK and others

✏ Love Among the Chickens (1908–09 serial) – Annotated by Neil Midkiff

Love Among the Chickens (1921 revision) – Annotated by Terry Mordue

✏ The Intrusions of Jimmy (1910 serial, later published as A Gentleman of Leisure) – Annotated by Neil Midkiff

Psmith in the City – Annotated by Mark Hodson

Something Fresh – Annotated by Terry Mordue

Piccadilly Jim – Annotated by Neil Midkiff

A Damsel in Distress – Annotated by Terry Mordue & Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

The Clicking of Cuthbert – Annotated by Terry Mordue

The Girl on the Boat – Annotated by Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

✏ The Adventures of Sally (1921 serial) – Annotated by Neil Midkiff

The Inimitable Jeeves – Annotated by Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff

Leave It to Psmith – Annotated by Terry Mordue & Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

Bill the Conqueror – Annotated by Neil Midkiff, Diego Seguí, and others

Ukridge – Annotated by Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

Carry On, Jeeves! – Annotated by Mark Hodson

Sam the Sudden – Annotated by Terry Mordue; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

Meet Mr. Mulliner – Annotated by Neil Midkiff and others

Money for Nothing – Annotated by Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

Summer Lightning – Annotated by Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

Mr. Mulliner Speaking – Annotated by Neil Midkiff and others

Very Good, Jeeves – Annotated by Neil Midkiff

Hot Water – Annotated by Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff

If I Were You – Annotated by Neil Midkiff

Heavy Weather – Annotated by Deepthi Sigireddi and Neil Midkiff, with contributions from Diego Seguí and others as credited

Right Ho, Jeeves – Annotated by Dan; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

Thank You, Jeeves – Annotated by Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

Blandings Castle and Elsewhere – Annotated by Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

The Luck of the Bodkins – Annotated by Mark Hodson

Young Men in Spats – Annotated by Mark Hodson

Laughing Gas – Annotated by John Dawson

Lord Emsworth and Others – Annotated by Mark Hodson

The Crime Wave at Blandings – Annotated by Mark Hodson

Summer Moonshine – Annotated by Terry Mordue; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

The Code of the Woosters – Annotated by Terry Mordue, with updates

Uncle Fred in the Springtime – Annotated by Mark Hodson; updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

Money in the Bank – Annotated by Terry Mordue, with updates

Full Moon – Annotated by Neil Midkiff, Diego Seguí, and others

Uncle Dynamite – Annotated by Neil Midkiff and others

Spring Fever – Annotated by Neil Midkiff and others

The Mating Season – Annotated by John Dawson

Nothing Serious – Annotated by Ian West & Mark Hodson

The Old Reliable – Annotated by Neil Midkiff and others

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit / Bertie Wooster Sees It Through – Annotated by Neil Midkiff and others

Something Fishy / The Butler Did It – Annotated by Neil Midkiff and others

Cocktail Time – Annotated by Mark Hodson, updated and expanded by Neil Midkiff and others

Ice in the Bedroom – Annotated by Ian Michaud and Lynn Vesley-Gross

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves – Annotated by Neil Midkiff and others

Galahad at Blandings / The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood – Annotated by Neil Midkiff and others

A Pelican at Blandings – Annotated by JB Shaw and others

The Girl in Blue – Annotated by Ian Michaud and Lynn Vesley-Gross

Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen / The Cat-Nappers – Annotated by Neil Midkiff and others as credited

 

The links below are to works in progress in this effort; a few have only introductory material, links to tables of pagination of editions, or details on the magazine appearances to individual stories of a collection. Others have a few chapters annotated so far, or need final checking and polishing. As always, your comments will be helpful, and your participation is solicited in filling out these annotations.
These books are listed in alphabetical rather than chronological order.
 

Big Money – Annotations just begun by Neil Midkiff

Company for Henry / The Purloined Paperweight – Partially annotated by Ole van Luyn and Neil Midkiff

Eggs, Beans and Crumpets – Details of stories; not yet annotated

The Heart of a Goof – Links to individual stories, not yet annotated

The Little Warrior / Jill the Reckless – Table of pagination of various editions

Pigs Have Wings – Annotations just begun by Neil Midkiff

A Prefect’s Uncle – Annotations just begun

Ring for Jeeves / The Return of Jeeves – Introductory notes, not yet annotated

Uneasy Money – Introductory material, links to variant editions, and annotations for a few chapters so far

 

For links to Wodehouse annotations on other sites, see the Links menu.