The Mating Season

The Mating Season is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 9 September 1949 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on November 29, 1949, by Didier & Co., New York. Featuring the well-intentioned Bertie Wooster and his resourceful valet Jeeves, the novel takes place at Deverill Hall, where Esmond Haddock lives with his five overcritical aunts. The story concerns the relationships of several couples, most notably Gussie Fink-Nottle and Madeline Bassett, Esmond Haddock and Corky Potter-Pirbright, and Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright and Gertrude Winkworth. Plot Bertie's overbearing Aunt Agatha orders him to go to Deverill Hall, King's Deverill, Hants., to stay with some friends of hers and perform in the village concert. Jeeves, who knows about Deverill Hall because his uncle Charlie Silversmith is the butler there, says that Esmond Haddock, his aunt Dame Daphne Winkworth, four other aunts, and Dame Daphne's daughter Gertrude Winkworth live there. Bertie's friend Gussie Fink-Nottle will also go there. Gussie is upset because his fiancée Madeline Bassett was supposed to accompany him, but had to visit a friend, Hilda Gudgeon, instead.