Carry On, Jeeves8 Complete Stories

Eight stories of a valet far more capable than his master.
P.G. Wodehouse's Wooster-Jeeves stories portray the perils of being polite, if not altogether helpless, to the quietly efficient valets who are more capable than their masters. Thankfully, Frederick Davidson's reading of eight Jeeves stories — including "Jeeves Takes Charge," which recounts the day that Jeeves first arrived, and "The Aunt and the Sluggard" — go out of their way to live up to this class-conscious spirit.

Davidson's depiction of the hapless Bertie Wooster sometimes comes across as a campy transposition of Mr. Humphries from Are You Being Served?, but this minor dramaturgical inadequacy is atoned for by the exuberance and surprising range he injects into the supporting characters. Davidson finds unexpected dimension within the upper-crust society columnist Lady Malvern, the lazy and preposterous Long Island poet Rocky Todd and, of course, the prim and proper servant Jeeves, who knows more than he's letting on.

Davidson's attention to detail extends to the manner in which Wooster pronounces "joie de vivre" while in Paris and the nasal slurring of Aunt Dahlia, who is remarkably more premonitory than compassionate in this take. And although Davidson is better at amping up Wodehouse's dialogue than he is at executing Wodehouse's crisp description, this is a welcome offering for Wodehouse fans and newbies alike.