My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (fiction)

After reading the massive third volume of Manchester's biography of Churchill, I needed something light and was in the mood for British wit and satire. Fortunately the perfect book was already on the shelf.

My Man Jeeves is a collection of six short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Half are about upper-class British twit Bertie Wooster and his brilliant butler Jeeves, the other three not. All are funny, but Wodehouse was at his best with Wooster and Jeeves. The writing is marvelous, the situations absurd yet believable, and the dry wit is still an example to which many aspire but few even approach. At only 124 pages this is a collection you can toss off in a couple of evenings or lunch hours (I did). Well worth the time, and given that it's available free from Project Gutenberg you can't go wrong. Bertie can be quite wearing in large doses, but these short bits are a fine way to get introduced without having to commit to an entire novel. Recommended.