Gussie Fink-Nottle

Last updated

Gussie Fink-Nottle
Jeeves character
Richard Garnett as Gussie Fink-Nottle.jpg
Richard Garnett as Gussie giving his speech at Market Snodsbury Grammar School
First appearance Right Ho, Jeeves (1934)
Last appearance Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963)
Created by P. G. Wodehouse
Portrayed by Rex Garner
Richard Braine and others
In-universe information
Full nameAugustus Fink-Nottle
AliasAlfred Duff Cooper
NicknameGussie
GenderMale
NationalityBritish

Augustus "Gussie" Fink-Nottle is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a lifelong friend of Jeeves's master Bertie Wooster and a country member of the Drones Club. He wears horn-rimmed spectacles and studies newts.

Contents

Life and character

A small young man, Gussie Fink-Nottle (called "Spink-Bottle" by Bertie Wooster's Aunt Dahlia) [1] is one of Bertie's friends. He is described as fish-faced (which jokingly means that he has a small chin). [2] Usually described as wearing horn-rimmed spectacles, he also wears tortoiseshell-rimmed spectacles. [3] He went to private school with Bertie Wooster, where they were close enough friends that they shared Bertie's last bar of chocolate. [4] He had not been in London for over five years before meeting Madeline Bassett. [5] Generally a teetotaller, he drinks whisky once, and says that it tastes unpleasantly like medicine, burns the throat and leaves one thirsty. [6] His preferred drink is orange juice. Gussie is very shy in his first appearance, though he becomes more confident and assertive over time. [4]

Having first become interested in newts as a child, Gussie became more devoted to studying them through university and afterward, eventually studying newts in a pond at his home in Lincolnshire. [4] Later, he carries newts around in glass tanks. [5] Knowledgeable about newts, he once describes the courtship practices of newts to Bertie Wooster [7] and on another occasion provides a great deal of information on the subject to Madeline Bassett. [8]

It is likely that Gussie is a member of the Drones Club. While Gussie's membership is not stated directly, there are at least three pieces of evidence suggesting he is a member of the Drones: at least five known Drones Club members attend the dinner celebrating Gussie's engagement to Madeline that Bertie gives Gussie at the Drones, [9] Bertie states that Gussie loves cold steak and kidney pie so much that Bertie has known him to order it "even on curry day at the Drones", [10] and it is implied by Wodehouse in a 1937 letter he wrote to The Times that one can find Gussie at the Drones Club. [2] Gussie is described as a Drone in two books about Wodehouse's characters, Who's Who in Wodehouse by Daniel H. Garrison [11] and Wodehouse in Woostershire by Tony Ring and Geoffrey Jaggard. [12]

In Right Ho, Jeeves , Gussie drinks whisky to gather the courage to propose to Madeline Bassett (and also unknowingly drinks orange juice spiked with gin), and while under the influence of the drinks, ends up giving an uninhibited and noteworthy speech at Market Snodsbury Grammar School. [13] In that story, he becomes engaged to Madeline, despite a temporary engagement to Bertie's cousin Angela Travers. His engagement to Madeline is ended and renewed in The Code of the Woosters , in which he also comes into conflict with Roderick Spode.

He is still engaged to Madeline through The Mating Season , though he tried to send her a letter ending their engagement, and he temporarily falls for Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright's sister Corky. Also in The Mating Season, Catsmeat makes Gussie climb into the Trafalgar Square fountain while clothed, and Gussie uses a false name twice. When in court after being arrested for wading in the Trafalgar Square fountain, he uses the alias Alfred Duff Cooper (clearly taken from British politician Alfred Duff Cooper), [14] and he uses Bertie Wooster's name when pretending to be Bertie at Deverill Hall. [15] In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves , his engagement with Madeline is ended for good after she tries to make him be a vegetarian, and Gussie elopes with Emerald Stoker.

Appearances

Gussie appears in:

Gussie is mentioned in:

Market Snodsbury Grammar School speech

The scene in Right Ho, Jeeves in which Gussie, thoroughly inebriated due to Jeeves and later Bertie Wooster lacing his orange juice with gin, as well as his massive drink of whisky, gives a speech at the Market Snodsbury Grammar School is often cited as among the finest vignettes in English literature. [16]

Gussie goes to the boys' school to present prizes to the pupils (for spelling, drawing, etc.), with the boys' relatives and other members of the community in attendance. He is taking the place of Reverend William Plomer, who is out due to illness. [17] After making some snide remarks to the previous speaker (a man with a beard who mistakenly calls Gussie "Fitz-Wattle"), Gussie, standing with his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat, begins to deliver his speech:

"Boys," said Gussie, "I mean ladies and gentlemen and boys, I will not detain you long, but I propose on this occasion to feel compelled to say a few auspicious words. Ladies – boys and ladies and gentlemen – we have all listened with interest to the remarks of our friend here who forgot to shave this morning – I don't know his name, but then he didn't know mine – Fitz-Wattle, I mean, absolutely absurd – which squares things up a bit – and we are all sorry that the Reverend What-ever-he-was-called should be dying of adenoids, but after all, here today, gone tomorrow, and all flesh is as grass, and what not, but that wasn't what I wanted to say. What I wanted to say was this – and I say it confidently – without fear of contradiction – I say, in short, I am happy to be here on this auspicious occasion and I take much pleasure in kindly awarding the prizes, consisting of the handsome books you see laid out on that table. As Shakespeare says, there are sermons in books, stones in the running brooks, or, rather, the other way about, [18] and there you have it in a nutshell." [19]

Gussie's grammar school speech is referenced in Jeeves in the Offing . Bertie recounts that at the grammar school, Gussie "had got pickled to the gills and made an outstanding exhibition of himself, setting up a mark at which all future orators would shoot in vain". [20]

Adaptations

Television
Stage
Film
Radio

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeeves</span> Fictional character in P. G. Wodehouse stories

Jeeves is a fictional character in a series of comedic short stories and novels by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the highly competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Bertie Wooster. First appearing in print in 1915, Jeeves continued to feature in Wodehouse's work until his last completed novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, a span of 60 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aunt Agatha</span> Fictional character in P. G. Wodehouse stories

Agatha Gregson, née Wooster, later Lady Worplesdon, is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories of the British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being best known as Bertie Wooster's Aunt Agatha. Haughty and overbearing, Aunt Agatha wants Bertie to marry a wife she finds suitable, though she never manages to get Bertie married, thanks to Jeeves's interference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bertie Wooster</span> Fictional character in P. G. Wodehouse stories

Bertram Wilberforce Wooster is a fictional character in the comedic Jeeves stories created by British author P. G. Wodehouse. An amiable English gentleman and one of the "idle rich", Bertie appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose intelligence manages to save Bertie or one of his friends from numerous awkward situations. Bertie Wooster and Jeeves have been described as "one of the great comic double-acts of all time".

Dahlia Travers is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories of English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being best known as Bertie Wooster's bonhomous, red-faced Aunt Dahlia. She is much beloved by her nephew, in contrast with her sister, Bertie's Aunt Agatha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madeline Bassett</span> Fictional character in P. G. Wodehouse stories

Madeline Bassett is a fictional character in the Jeeves stories by English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being an excessively sentimental and fanciful young woman to whom Bertie Wooster intermittently, and reluctantly, finds himself engaged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roderick Spode</span> Fictional character in P. G. Wodehouse stories

Roderick Spode, 7th Earl of Sidcup, often known as Spode or Lord Sidcup, is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. In the first novel in which he appears, he is an "amateur dictator" and the leader of a fictional fascist group in London called the Saviours of Britain, also known as the Black Shorts. He leaves the group after he inherits his title.

<i>Right Ho, Jeeves</i> 1934 novel by P. G. Wodehouse

Right Ho, Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, the second full-length novel featuring the popular characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, after Thank You, Jeeves. It was first published in the United Kingdom on 5 October 1934 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 15 October 1934 by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, under the title Brinkley Manor. It had also been sold to the Saturday Evening Post, in which it appeared in serial form from 23 December 1933 to 27 January 1934, and in England in the Grand Magazine from April to September 1934. Wodehouse had already started planning this sequel while working on Thank You, Jeeves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bingo Little</span> Fictional character in P. G. Wodehouse stories

Richard P. "Bingo" Little is a recurring fictional character in the comedic Jeeves and Drones Club stories of English writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a friend of Jeeves's master Bertie Wooster and a member of the Drones Club.

Rosie M. Banks is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves and Drones Club stories of British author P. G. Wodehouse, being a romance novelist and the wife of Bingo Little.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roderick Glossop</span> Fictional character in P. G. Wodehouse stories

Sir Roderick Glossop is a recurring fictional character in the comic novels and short stories of P. G. Wodehouse. Sometimes referred to as a "nerve specialist" or a "loony doctor", he is a prominent practitioner of psychiatry in Wodehouse's works, appearing in several Jeeves stories and in one Blandings Castle story.

<i>Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves</i> 1963 novel by P. G. Wodehouse

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, published in the United States on 22 March 1963 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, and in the United Kingdom on 16 August 1963 by Herbert Jenkins, London. It is the ninth of eleven novels featuring Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuppy Glossop</span> Fictional character in P. G. Wodehouse stories

Hildebrand "Tuppy" Glossop is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories by humorist P. G. Wodehouse. Tuppy is a member of the Drones Club, a friend of Bertie Wooster, and the fiancé of Angela Travers, Bertie's cousin.

<i>The Code of the Woosters</i> 1938 novel by P. G. Wodehouse

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 previously serialised in The Saturday Evening Post (US) from 16 July to 3 September 1938, illustrated by Wallace Morgan, and in the London Daily Mail from 14 September to 6 October 1938.

<i>The Mating Season</i> (novel) 1949 novel by P. G. Wodehouse

The Mating Season is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 9 September 1949 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on November 29, 1949, by Didier & Co., New York.

The following is a list of recurring or notable fictional locations featured in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse, in alphabetical order by place name.

Claude Cattermole "Catsmeat" Potter-Pirbright is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves and Drones Club stories of English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a longtime school friend of Jeeves's master Bertie Wooster and a member of the Drones Club. A West End actor known as "Claude Cattermole" on stage, he is known to his friends by the nickname "Catsmeat".

"The Hunger Strike" is the fourth episode of the first series of the 1990s British comedy television series Jeeves and Wooster. It is also called "How Does Gussie Woo Madeline?". It first aired in the UK on 13 May 1990 on ITV. The episode aired in the US on 2 December 1990 on Masterpiece Theatre.

"Bertie Takes Gussie's Place At Deverill Hall" is the fourth episode of the third series of the 1990s British comedy television series Jeeves and Wooster. It is also called "Right Ho! Jeeves". It first aired in the UK on 26 April 1992 on ITV.

<i>What Ho! Jeeves</i> BBC radio drama series, 1973–1981

What Ho! Jeeves is a series of radio dramas based on some of the Jeeves short stories and novels written by P. G. Wodehouse, starring Michael Hordern as the titular Jeeves and Richard Briers as Bertie Wooster.

References

Notes
  1. Wodehouse (2008) [1934], Right Ho, Jeeves, chapter 19, p. 231.
  2. 1 2 Letters Editor, Andrew Riley (23 October 2017). "Yours, Mussolini, Agatha Christie and more: the best letters to The Times". The Times. Times Newspapers Limited.{{cite news}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  3. Wodehouse (2008) [1938], The Code of the Woosters, chapter 6, p. 131.
  4. 1 2 3 Ring & Jaggard (1999), pp. 86–90.
  5. 1 2 Cawthorne (2013), p. 216.
  6. Wodehouse (2008) [1934], Right Ho, Jeeves, chapter 16, p. 188.
  7. Wodehouse (2008) [1934], Right Ho, Jeeves, chapter 2, p. 30.
  8. Wodehouse (2008) [1934], Right Ho, Jeeves, chapter 11, p. 135.
  9. Wodehouse (2008) [1938], The Code of the Woosters, chapter 1, p. 7, and chapter 3, p. 73. Gussie says that the dinner was attended by Bertie Wooster, Freddie Widgeon, Bingo Little, Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright, and Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps, among others.
  10. Wodehouse (2008) [1963], Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, chapter 7, p. 57.
  11. Garrison (1991), p. 70.
  12. Ring & Jaggard (1999), p. 86.
  13. Garrison (1991), pp. 70–71.
  14. Wodehouse (2008) [1949], The Mating Season, chapter 4, p. 39.
  15. Wodehouse (2008) [1949], The Mating Season, chapter 8, p. 87.
  16. "10 best comic works in literature". Christian Science Monitor. 12 July 2012.
  17. Wodehouse (2008) [1934], Right Ho, Jeeves, chapter 17, p. 199.
  18. "And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything." – Shakespeare. "As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1".
  19. Wodehouse (2008) [1934], Right Ho, Jeeves, chapter 17, p. 202.
  20. Wodehouse (2008) [1960], Jeeves in the Offing, chapter 9, p. 98.
  21. "Jeeves and Wooster Series 1, Episode 4". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  22. "Jeeves and Wooster Series 3, Episode 4". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  23. Taves, Brian (2006). P. G. Wodehouse and Hollywood: Screenwriting, Satires and Adaptations. McFarland & Company. p. 199. ISBN   978-0786422883.
  24. "Three Star Bill Drama: Naunton Wayne with Deryck Guyler and Richard Wattis in ' Right Ho, Jeeves'". The Radio Times. BBC (1699): 13. June 1956.
  25. "What Ho, Jeeves!: 14: Getting Gussie Going". The Radio Times (2599): 41. 30 August 1973.
  26. "What Ho, Jeeves!: 2: The Great Web". BBC Genome Project. 2019.
  27. "What Ho! Jeeves". BBC Genome Project. 2019.
  28. "Saturday-Night Theatre: Right Ho, Jeeves". The Radio Times. BBC (3365): 41. 26 May 1988.
  29. "The Code of the Woosters". LATW. L.A. Theatre Works. 2017.
  30. "Classic Serial: The Code of The Woosters". The Radio Times (4281): 121. 20 April 2006.
  31. "Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves". BBC Radio 4. BBC. 2018.
Bibliography