List of Jeeves characters
The following is a list of recurring and notable fictional characters featured in the Jeeves novels and short stories by P. G. Wodehouse.
Anatole
Anatole is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being the supremely skilled French chef of [|Aunt Dahlia] at her country house Brinkley Court. He is mentioned in many of the stories and is often praised as "God's gift to the gastric juices". A small, rotund man, Anatole has a large moustache; [|Bertie Wooster] notes that the ends of Anatole's moustache turn up when he is happy and droop when he is upset. Originally from Provence, Anatole speaks English with a mixed fluency, having learned much of his English from [|Bingo Little] and an American chauffeur from Brooklyn.Anatole previously worked for the Littles but entered Aunt Dahlia's employment in "Clustering Round Young Bingo". The only cook known to be able to make food that agrees with Tom Travers's digestion, he was relied on to such an extent that Tom Travers postponed a Mediterranean trip because Anatole was ill with influenza in "The Spot of Art". Anatole is described as being temperamental, to the point of nearly resigning in Right Ho, Jeeves when several people at the dinner table push his food away in bids to catch their loved ones' attention.
Many characters esteem Anatole's cooking and try to hire him away from the Travers household, including Jane Snettisham, Sir Watkyn Bassett, and Mrs. Trotter. In Much Obliged, Jeeves, Bertie comments that Anatole suffers from "bouts of what he calls mal au foie" and is "inclined to the long monologue" on the subject.
Rosie M. Banks
is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories, being an author who writes romance novels. She also appears in Drones Club stories outside the Jeeves canon. She is married to Bingo Little.Madeline Bassett
Madeline Bassett is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories. She is the daughter of Sir Watkyn Bassett and is a rather mushy, sentimental girl. Bertie Wooster is briefly engaged to her.Watkyn Bassett
Sir Watkyn Bassett, CBE, is a fictional character who appears in two Jeeves novels. He is the father of Madeline Bassett, and the uncle and guardian of [|Stephanie "Stiffy" Byng]. He wears a pince-nez, and is described as a small man who makes up for his height by wearing clothes that are striking in appearance, including a prismatic checked suit in The Code of the Woosters. In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, he wears a striking dressing-grown. As Bertie states regarding Bassett, "He was a small man ... you got the impression, seeing him, that when they were making magistrates there wasn't enough material left over when they came to him ... and for some reason not easy to explain it nearly always happens that the smaller the ex-magistrate, the louder the dressing-grown. His was a bright purple number with yellow frogs, and I am not deceiving my public when I say that it smote me like a blow, rendering me speechless."When he first meets Bertie Wooster, Sir Watkyn is the magistrate at Bosher Street Police Court. Shortly afterward, he inherits a great deal of money from a distant relative and retires to live in Totleigh Towers, where he is a Justice of the Peace. Stiffy complains that he "holds a sort of Star Chamber court in the library" when she causes trouble and fines her unfair amounts, which Bertie sympathises with. As a magistrate, Bassett fined Bertie £5 for stealing a policeman's helmet on Boat Race Night, and Bertie thinks that the fortune Sir Watkyn inherited actually derived from pocketing fines while a magistrate. Sir Watkyn is a noted collector of antique silver, and his collection rivals that of Bertie's uncle, Tom Travers. Each tries to obtain the silver cow-creamer in The Code of the Woosters. In that novel, it is mentioned that Sir Watkyn is engaged to a widow named Mrs. Wintergreen. She is the aunt of Sir Watkyn's friend, [|Roderick Spode], who is often at Totleigh Towers. However, she is not mentioned again. In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, he obtains a black amber statuette.
In the Jeeves and Wooster television series adapted from Wodehouse's stories, Sir Watkyn is Florence Craye's uncle, rather than Stiffy Byng's in the original Jeeves's canon.
Biffy Biffen
Charles Edward "Biffy" Biffen is a fictional character who appears in the Jeeves short story, "The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy". An absent-minded friend of Bertie Wooster, Biffy is engaged to a woman named Mabel, who is Jeeves's niece.Rupert Bingley
Rupert Bingley, also known as Brinkley, is a recurring fictional character who appears in two Jeeves novels. He is a smallish man who is thin in his first appearance but has become plump by his second appearance. In his first appearance in Thank You, Jeeves, he is a valet called Brinkley. He has extreme left-wing views and threatens Bertie Wooster. In Much Obliged, Jeeves, Jeeves informs Bertie that his name is Bingley and not Brinkley. By the time of this novel, Bingley has inherited a large sum of money and retired from being a valet. His views become extremely right-wing after he becomes a man of property. He resorts to theft and blackmail to increase his wealth. Bingley is a member of the Junior Ganymede Club and retains his membership after retiring.As a valet, he was employed at different times by [|Ginger Winship], L. P. Runkle, and Bertie Wooster.
Mr Blumenfeld
Blumenfeld is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories. His name first appears as "Blumenfield" in "Jeeves and the Chump Cyril" but is later "Blumenfeld" in "Episode of the Dog McIntosh". He is an American theatrical manager with a young son. Neither of their first names are stated, though Bertie Wooster jokingly calls Blumenfeld's unfriendly son "Sidney the Sunbeam".Blumenfeld was inspired by Abraham Lincoln Erlanger, a dictatorial American theatrical producer who produced the 1916 musical Miss Springtime, which Wodehouse contributed to as lyricist. Erlanger employed a twelve-year-old boy to second-guess his creative judgments, on the grounds that this was the mental age of the average Broadway audience; this is similar to Blumenfeld,
who relies on the opinions of his twelve-year-old son for the same reason.
Butterfield
Butterfield is the butler of Totleigh Towers, Sir Watkyn Bassett's country house located in Totleigh-in-the-Wold. Butterfield's first name is not stated in the novels. In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, Bertie Wooster guesses that Butterfield is a hundred and four years old, and Jeeves agrees that he is "well stricken in years". In The Code of the Woosters, while airing Stiffy Byng's dog Bartholomew, Butterfield sees Bertie drop Constable Oates's helmet out of a window and retrieves it. At the end of Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, Bertie agrees to let Jeeves give Butterfield his blue Alpine hat with a pink feather, which Butterfield thinks will help him court a widowed lady in the village.Stiffy Byng
Stephanie "Stiffy" Byng is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories. The niece and ward of Sir Watkyn Bassett, she initially lives with him in Totleigh Towers. She is short and has “large blue eyes.” She wears a wind-swept hairstyle, and has an Aberdeen terrier named Bartholomew. Stiffy often gets bright ideas that end up making trouble for others, and she is not above using blackmail to induce Bertie Wooster to do errands for her.In The Code of the Woosters, she is engaged to the Rev. Harold "Stinker" Pinker. She appears with Harold Pinker in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves and they have married by Much Obliged, Jeeves.
Stilton Cheesewright
G. D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright is a recurring fictional character in two Jeeves novels, being an intermittent but jealous fiancé of [|Florence Craye] and thus a menacing "rival" of Florence's ex-"fiancé" Bertie Wooster. His nickname is probably derived from Stilton cheese. A member of the Drones Club, Stilton is a hulking chap with a large head compared to a pumpkin and a face that looks like "a slab of pink dough". Stilton went to private school, Eton and Oxford with Bertie. He was Captain of the Boats at Eton and rowed four years for Oxford.In Joy in the Morning, Stilton was the local policeman at Aunt Agatha's rural village Steeple Bumpleigh and was engaged to Florence Craye who was in residence there. In this novel, Stilton and Florence temporarily end their engagement because she does not want him to be a policeman. They reconcile after Stilton resigns from the police force when the local Justice of the Peace refuses to let him make an arrest. In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, the engagement between Stilton and Florence is threatened because Stilton refuses to grow a moustache and Florence goes to a night club with Bertie. Stilton leaves Florence for good and becomes romantically interested in the novelist [|Daphne Dolores Morehead].
Stilton is mentioned in Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin: "Strong language was no novelty to – he had once been present when somebody had slammed a car door on the finger of D'Arcy Cheesewright of the Drones".
In the television series Jeeves and Wooster, Daphne Dolores Morehead does not appear but is impersonated by Jeeves in drag. Stilton falls in love with this "Daphne Dolores Morehead", and is never made aware that this was actually Jeeves and not the real Morehead in the episode. Stilton goes to New York City at the end of the episode, having heard that Daphne Dolores Morehead lives there.
Lord Chuffnell
Marmaduke, Lord Chuffnell, nicknamed Chuffy, is a fictional character in the Jeeves novel, Thank You, Jeeves. He went to private school, Eton and Oxford with Bertie Wooster. Chuffy is a Drones Club member. He becomes engaged to Pauline Stoker, and they have married by Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.Chuffy's aunt, Myrtle, Dowager Lady Chuffnell, appears in Thank You, Jeeves. She has a young son, Seabury, and is romantically involved with [|Sir Roderick Glossop]. Her engagement to Glossop is threatened but saved in "Jeeves and the Greasy Bird".
In the television series Jeeves and Wooster, Myrtle is Chuffy's sister, Mrs Pongleton, and her son Seabury is therefore Chuffy's nephew.