"Extricating Young Gussie" is a short story by the British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United States in the 18 September 1915 issue of The Saturday Evening Post and in the United Kingdom in the January 1916 edition of The Strand Magazine.[1] It was included in the collection The Man with Two Left Feet (1917).[2]
The story features the first appearance of two of Wodehouse's most popular and enduring characters, the impeccable valet Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster, though there are some differences between this story and later stories in which they appear. Jeeves only plays a very small role in this story and Bertie's surname, which is not explicitly given, appears to be Mannering-Phipps, as that is the name of his cousin Gussie, whose father is Bertie's paternal uncle. Bertie's imperious Aunt Agatha, a recurring character, is also introduced in this story.
While Jeeves is only a minor character in this story, he plays a larger role in the next published story in which he appears, "The Artistic Career of Corky" (originally titled "Leave It to Jeeves"), which was first published in February 1916. The first meeting of Jeeves and Bertie was chronicled in the November 1916 short story "Jeeves Takes Charge".
Plot
In Bertie's flat in London, around half past eleven, Jeeves wakes Bertie up telling him that his Aunt Agatha has come to see him. She is distressed that Augustus "Gussie" Mannering-Phipps, her nephew and Bertie's cousin living in New York City, has fallen for a girl named Ray Denison who is a vaudeville performer. Concerned about the family's prestige, Aunt Agatha does not want Gussie to marry a vaudeville performer like his late father did, though Gussie's mother Julia learned to be aristocratic. Aunt Agatha demands that Bertie go to New York and keep Gussie from marrying Ray.
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