Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is a 1963 novel by P. G. Wodehouse.
It is a Jeeves and Wooster story. Bertie Wooster, as always, is getting mixed up in the romantic and other entanglements of his rich friends. A passing encounter with his old pal Gussie Fink-Nottle reveals that Gussie's romance with Madeline Bassett has hit a rough patch. This fills Bertie with terror, because he knows that if Gussie and Madeline break up, she will decide to marry Bertie. He elects to go to Totleigh Towers, home of Madeline and her father Sir Watkyn Bassett, in order to make sure nothing goes wrong between the young lovers.
Another young couple, Stephanie "Stiffy" Bing and Rev. Harold "Stinker" Pinker, are also guests at Totleigh. Stiffy and Stinker are getting along just fine, but they can't get married because Sir Watkyn won't give Harold the local vicarage, which would allow him to support her. Stiffy has no romantic past with Bertie so he isn't particularly concerned with her current relationship, but she has some mysterious errand that she wants Bertie to perform. Bertie, who knows that only bad things happen whenever Stiffy ropes him into her latest scheme, decides he will resolutely refuse.
Just to make things worse, Roderick Spode, an old enemy of Bertie's and an old friend of Sir Watkyn, is also staying at Totleigh. Factor in Totleigh's freshly-hired cook (an American lass named Emerald Stoker), a prized black amber statuette, and Bertie's new alpine hat, which Jeeves hates, and as always, complications ensue.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Emerald Stoker brains Spode with a china basin when he starts manhandling Gussie.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Harold is a well-meaning man of God, but after getting punched by Spode, he gives as good as he gets, and then some.
- Continuity Nod: Many. Bertie makes a reference to be being chased by a swan, which happened in short story "Jeeves and the Impending Doom". He comments disapprovingly about how Madeline got angry at Gussie for being drunk when he had to give a speech at Market Snodsbury Grammar School, which happened in Right Ho, Jeeves (Bertie does not mention that it was his fault as he spiked Gussie's orange juice).
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Spode doesn't last long when he engages in a scrap with Harold.
- Death Glare: Spode, who incorrectly thinks that Bertie 1) is a thief and 2) wants Madeline, fixes Bertie with one of these. He only has one eye to glare with, the other being shut after Spode was punched by Harold, but Bertie still says it's like an "oxyacetylene blowpipe".
- Dramatic Sit-Down: Bertie does one of these upon learning that Gussie and Emerald have eloped.
- Elopement: Gussie shocks everyone, but (as noted) especially Bertie, by running off with Emerald Stoker.
- Every Scar Has a Story: Major Plank displays a scar on his leg and says that he got it when he was stabbed, while judging a "bonny baby competition" in Africa.
- Foreshadowing:
- Emerald Stoker calling Gussie a "lamb" and him enjoying her steak-and-kidney pie so much foreshadows their elopement.
- It's established that Jeeves temped for Sir Watkyn recently and that Bassett would like to hire Jeeves on permanently. At the end this is how Jeeves gets Bassett to drop the charges and spare Bertie a month in jail: by agreeing to come work for him. Bertie is upset but Jeeves tells him that he'll find some excuse to quit Sir Watkyn's employment.
- It's established that Major Plank is a rugby enthusiast and the reader is reminded that "Stinker" Pinker was a good rugby player. In the end this is how Pinker gets his vicarage, as Major Plank gives him one in return for playing on the local rugby team.
- Girl Next Door: This is sort of how Bertie describes Emerald, in stark contradiction to her glamorous sister Pauline. (Who is only mentioned in this outing.)
- Glurge Addict: Madeleine's sentimentality is a bit much for Bertie."She's one of those soppy girls, riddled from head to foot with whimsy. She holds the view that the stars are God's daisy chain, that rabbits are gnomes in attendance on the Fairy Queen, and that every time a fairy blows its wee nose a baby is born, which, as we know, is not the case. She's a drooper."
- Graceful Loser: Spode displays no hard feelings towards Harold following their round of fisticuffs, instead praising the other man's form. He's a little less pleased about Emerald braining him with the basin.
- Happy Dance: In direct contrast to Bertie, this is essentially Sir Watkyn's reaction upon learning of Gussie and Emerald's elopement. Stiffy also does one when Harold finally gains his vicarage from Major Plank.
- I Need a Freaking Drink
- Tea is being served, but Pop Bassett says "I need something stronger than tea" when Madeline tells him that Bertie will be staying over.
- Bertie asks for a drink when Jeeves reveals the stolen black amber statuette, which he received from Stiffy.
- Land Poor: Bertie comments that Sir Watkyn bought the Totleigh Towers estate from "a Lord Somebody who needed some cash."
- Last Girl Wins: After spending three whole novels (Right Ho, Jeeves, The Code of the Woosters, and The Mating Season) getting engaged and un-engaged to Madeline Bassett, Gussie Fink-Nottle winds up eloping with Emerald Stoker.
- MacGuffin: One of several Jeeves and Wooster novels where someone wants Bernie to steal a trinket. This time, it's a black amber statuette. Stiffy Bing is outraged that Sir Watkyn paid only £5 for a statuette worth £1000, and tells Bertie to steal it and give it back to Major Plank, who sold it. It turns out it's not nearly worth that.
- Remember the New Guy?: There was no mention of Emerald whatsoever in Bertie's previous dealings with the Stoker clan, though her connection is mainly used as a quick and easy way for Bertie to know her before the story starts.
- Rugby Is Slaughter: Major Plank reveals that he tried to teach the natives in West Africa to play rugby, but there were "too many deaths".
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Of course Jeeves can't just say "TNT", he has to say "trinitrotoluol".
- Shout-Out: Bertie is reading a Perry Mason novel.
- Status Quo Is God: As always in these novels. Bertie escapes matrimony once again, and gives up his new hat.
- Straw Vegetarian: Madeline Bassett, whose Cloudcuckoolander ways are only emphasized by her insisting that Gussie stop eating meat. She's infuriatingly self-righteous about it, and in the end Gussie dumps her and runs off with Emerald Stoker, who can make a mean steak-and-kidney pie.
- Tap on the Head: Spode gets into a scrap with Harold and punched unconscious. He springs right back into action and is (again) assaulting Gussie when Emerald Stoker saves her boyfriend by braining Spode over the head with a thick china basin. This time he stays down longer, but is just fine after he finally gets up.
- Title Drop: Early on, Bertie resolves that he must go to Totleight Towers no matter how unpleasant it is, to make sure that Madeline and Gussie don't break up. He's nervous that he will cave and agree to whatever wacky scheme Stiffy Bing is cooking up, but Jeeves says that he must hold firm and resist. Bertie agrees, saying "Stiff upper lip, Jeeves, what?"
- Walking Disaster Area: Bertie. Lampshaded after he breaks Sir Watkyn's father's grandfather clock.Bassett: "[My father] never parted from the clock. It accompanied him in perfect safety from Rome to Vienna, from Vienna to Paris, from Paris to Washington, from Washington to Lisbon. One would have said it was indestructible. But it had still to pass the supreme test of encountering Mr. Wooster, and that was too much for it."
- Wife Husbandry: A borderline example when Madeline Bassett and Roderick Spode finally get together. He was never her guardian, only a good friend of her father's. Still, he's twice her age, and his "I've loved you since you were so high" declaration to Madeline reeks of this trope.
