The Code of the Woosters
First US edition
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| Author | P. G. Wodehouse |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jeeves |
| Genre | Humour |
| Publisher | Herbert Jenkins, Doubleday, Doran |
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Publication date
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7 October 1938 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 224 |
| OCLC | 59362846 |
| Preceded by | Right Ho, Jeeves |
| Followed by | Joy in the Morning |
The Code of the Woosters is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. It was serialised in The Saturday Evening Post (US) from 16 July to 3 September 1938 and in the London Daily Mail from 14 September to 6 October 1938.
The Code of the Woosters is the third full-length novel to feature two of Wodehouse's best-known creations, Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves.
The Code of the Woosters is the first installment in the Totleigh Towers saga. It introduces the characters of Sir Watkyn Bassett, the owner of Totleigh Towers, and Roderick Spode, later known as Lord Sidcup after his accession to an earldom. It is also a sequel to Right Ho, Jeeves, continuing the story of Gussie Fink-Nottle and Madeline Bassett, whose engagement is so important to Bertie (the narrator and protagonist), because he does not wish to be obliged to marry Madeline himself.
The story opens with Bertie recovering from a bachelor party he has thrown the night before for Gussie Fink-Nottle, his fish-faced, newt-fancying friend. While still convalescing, he is summoned before his beloved Aunt Dahlia and ordered by her to go to a particular antique shop and "sneer at a cow creamer". This is an effort to sap the confidence of the shop's owner and thus drive down the piece's price before it is purchased by Dahlia's collector husband Tom Travers. While in the shop, Bertie has his first run-in with Sir Watkyn (another collector of silver pieces) and Spode (whose aunt Sir Watkyn is planning to marry). Bertie escapes this ordeal relatively unscathed, but later learns that, via underhanded skulduggery involving lobsters and cold cucumbers, Sir Watkyn has obtained possession of the creamer ahead of Uncle Tom and spirited it away to Totleigh Towers. Bertie was already headed there in a frantic attempt to patch over the sudden rupture in the engagement of Gussie and Madeline Bassett, Sir Watkyn's droopy and oversentimental daughter. This engagement is very important to Bertie because Madeline believes Bertie is in love with her, and has resolved to "make him happy" by marrying him if her engagement to Gussie should ever fail. Bertie is terrified by the prospect of spending his life with the goofy Madeline, but his personal code of chivalrous behavior will not allow him to reject her since she believes so strongly in his love.
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