The hero of seven short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, Reginald "Reggie" Pepper is an early version of Bertie Wooster. Like Bertie, Reggie does his best to help his friends. Like Bertie, he's hampered by the fact he isn't very intelligent. Unlike Bertie, he doesn't have Jeeves to get him and his friends out of the trouble he "helps" them into. But everything turns out all right in the end, and much hilarity ensues along the way.
For some reason the American publications of the stories made a few changes. Reggie became an American living in New York, and his inheritance came from a safety razor company instead of a coal company.
All of Reggie's stories are in the public domain. Two were later rewritten to star Bertie and Jeeves. One, oddly enough, was rewritten to star Mr. Mulliner, another of Wodehouse's lesser-known characters.
List of stories:
- Absent Treatment (1911)
- Helping Freddie (1911): Called Lines and Business when published in America. Rewritten to become the Jeeves story "Fixing It for Freddie".
- Disentangling Old Percy (1912): Called Disentangling Old Duggie when published in America
- Rallying Round Old George (1912): Called Brother Alfred when published in America. Rewritten to become the Mr. Mulliner story "George and Alfred".
- Doing Clarence a Bit of Good (1913): Called Rallying Round Clarence when published in America. Rewritten to become the Jeeves story "Jeeves Makes an Omelette".
- Concealed Art (1915)
- The Test Case (1915)
Rallying Round Old George was adapted (by Wodehouse, in collaboration with Herbert Westbrook) into a 1913 play, Brother Alfred. The play was adapted into a 1932 film of the same name. Two silent films based on the stories were released in 1919. These adaptations gave Reggie a manservant named Jeeves; presumably not the Jeeves, because this Jeeves is a reformed burglar! Lawrence Grossmith played Reggie in both the play and the silent films. Five of the stories were adapted to radio in 2015, read by Martin Jarvis.
Contains examples of:
- Adaptational Name Change: In the original English version of Disentangling Old Percy, the title character is named Percy Craye. In the American version he's renamed Douglas "Duggie" Craye, which meant the story itself had to be renamed too.
- Adaptational Nationality: The American publications make Reggie and his friends Americans.
- Character Overlap: Florence Craye, one of Bertie Wooster's many ex-fiancées, appears in Disentangling Old Percy.
- Didn't Think This Through: In Concealed Art, Archie needs to explain where his money is coming from. (He hasn't sold any paintings and he's too ashamed to tell his wife he draws newspaper comics.) Reggie has an idea: claim a millionaire has bought one of his paintings! Neither he or Archie realise that the millionaire might find out about it and might not be too happy...
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Florence Craye has two brothers and is apparently in her late thirties. By the time of the Jeeves stories, she's the same age as Bertie and only has one brother.
- True Art Is Incomprehensible: Archie's paintings in Concealed Art. Reggie describes one of them, called "The Coming of Summer":It’s all dots and splashes, with a great eye staring out of the middle of the mess. It looks as if summer, just as it was on the way, had stubbed its toe on a bomb. He tells me it’s his masterpiece, and that he will never do anything like it again. I should like to have that in writing.
