The novel combined 11 previously published stories, of which the first six and the last were split in two, to make a book of 18 chapters. It is now often printed in 11 chapters, mirroring the original stories. All the stories had previously appeared in The Strand Magazine in the UK, between December 1921 and November 1922, except for one, "Jeeves and the Chump Cyril", which had appeared in the Strand in August 1918. That story had appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in June 1918. All the other stories appeared in Cosmopolitan in the US between December 1921 and December 1922. This was the second collection of Jeeves stories, after My Man Jeeves ; the next collection would be Carry On, Jeeves, in 1925. All of the short stories are connected and most of them involve Bertie's friend Bingo Little, who is always falling in love.
Contents
The original story titles and publication dates were as follows :
"Jeeves in the Springtime" — Bertie's friend Bingo is in love with a waitress, Mabel, but fears his uncle won't approve of her. Jeeves suggests a plan using romance novels to sway Bingo's uncle.
* UK: Strand, December 1921
* US: Cosmopolitan, December 1921
"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count" — Aunt Agatha pushes an unwilling Bertie to marry a girl named Aline Hemingway, who, along with her brother Sidney, appears to be quiet and respectable.
"Scoring off Jeeves" — Bingo is in love with Honoria Glossop, whom Aunt Agatha wants Bertie to marry. Bertie tries to sort out this dilemma without Jeeves's help.
* UK: Strand, February 1922
* US: Cosmopolitan, March 1922
"Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch" — Reluctantly engaged to Honoria Glossop, Bertie must demonstrate to her father, Sir Roderick Glossop, that he is mentally sound. Meanwhile, Bertie's cousins Claude and Eustace appear.
* UK: Strand, March 1922
* US: Cosmopolitan, April 1922
"Jeeves and the Chump Cyril" — While staying in America, Bertie is instructed by Aunt Agatha to keep Cyril Bassington-Bassington, son of an aristocratic friend of hers, from becoming a performer.
* UK: Strand, August 1918
* US: Saturday Evening Post, 8 June 1918
"Comrade Bingo" — Bingo falls in love with Charlotte Corday Rowbotham, a member of a communist group called Heralds of the Red Dawn, and joins the group to win her affection.
"The Great Sermon Handicap" — At Twing Hall, Bertie, Bingo, and Bertie's cousins Claude and Eustace bet on a race involving the lengths of local parsons' sermons. Concurrently, Bingo is in love with Cynthia Wickhammersley.
* UK: Strand, June 1922
* US: Cosmopolitan, June 1922
"The Purity of the Turf" — Bertie, Jeeves, and Bingo place bets on contests at the annual village school treat at Twing Hall. The bookmaker, Steggles, intends to undermine their bets.
"The Metropolitan Touch" — Bingo falls in love with Mary Burgess, niece of the parson Heppenstall, and hopes to impress her by producing the Village School Christmas Entertainment at Twing.
* UK: Strand, September 1922
* US: Cosmopolitan, September 1922
"The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace" — Claude and Eustace are being sent to South Africa following expulsion from Oxford, but they both fall in love with Bertie's friend Marion Wardour and refuse to leave.
* UK: Strand, October 1922
* US: Cosmopolitan, November 1922
"Bingo and the Little Woman" — Bingo falls in love with a waitress again, and wants Bertie to get his uncle to approve the match. But there is something different about this waitress.
