The Great Dictator

From Sebastian Faulks’s reflections on Jeeves:

It is the exact balance of the sweetness of revenge for Jeeves and the vast relief that Bertie feels that makes the endings of the novels so satisfactory.

The point is that this happy world must not change. Bachelorhood for Bertie is the deal-breaker for Jeeves, but there are other elements of Jeeves’s enchanted world that he must fight to preserve. There are rules; they may seem trivial, but not to him: someone must ensure that it all remains the same, and the task falls to Jeeves. A gentleman’s trouser bottoms should “shimmer, not break” on the instep of his shoe, according to Jeeves. To wear a made-up bow tie is obviously the mark of a bounder; but did you know that only a Pierrot or Sinbad costume is considered acceptable at a fancy-dress party?

When I was a child I imagined there existed a book of all such rules; and I think that Jeeves perhaps believes so, too – though even putting such sacred things in print might, in Jeeves’s eyes, devalue them.