"Jeeves Makes an Omelette" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in the Star Weekly in Canada in August 1958. The story was also included in the 1959 collection A Few Quick Ones.
This Jeeves story is a rewritten version of the Reggie Pepper story, "Doing Clarence a Bit of Good". The Reggie Pepper version was published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in May 1913, and in the US in Pictorial Review in April 1914 under the title "Rallying Round Clarence".
In the story "Jeeves Makes an Omelette", Bertie is tasked by his Aunt Dahlia with stealing and destroying a painting.
Plot
Bertie gets a call from his Aunt Dahlia. She is at Marsham Manor, where she is trying to convince the romance novelist Cornelia Fothergill into selling her new novel to Aunt Dahlia's weekly paper, Milady's Boudoir, as a serial. Aunt Dahlia asks Bertie to come help charm Cornelia into lower price, and also do another job. Bertie agrees, not wishing to be barred from the cooking of Aunt Dahlia's superb chef Anatole. With Jeeves, Bertie arrives and meets Cornelia, her husband Everard, and his father Edward. Aunt Dahlia explains to Bertie that Edward, an amateur artist, painted Venus and gave the painting for Everard as a wedding present, but Everard, a professional artist, cannot stand the painting.
Aunt Dahlia shows Bertie one of Everard's paintings, which she claims is better, though Bertie does not see much difference. Cornelia has agreed to lower her price if Edward's painting is removed. Aunt Dahlia wants Bertie to steal and destroy the painting, leaving the window open so that thieves will be blamed. Bertie consults Jeeves, who advises using treacle and brown paper to silently break the window instead. At night, Jeeves breaks the window, and Bertie cuts out the painting with a knife. Bertie brings it to his room.
Following Jeeves's advice, Bertie starts cutting the large painting up and burning it piece by piece. Aunt Dahlia comes to help. All three cut up and burn the painting; Bertie using the knife, Aunt Dahlia scissors, and Jeeves garden shears. When they are nearly finished, Jeeves notices one of the pieces bears the signature "Everard Fothergill".
Bertie thinks the signature says "Edward" but Aunt Dahlia agrees it is "Everard". Bertie goes to check if he got the wrong painting, and bumps into Edward, who regrets giving Everard his painting and is stealing it back. Now Edward's painting is gone, but they have destroyed Everard's painting, which will upset Cornelia. Jeeves suggests that Bertie should be found lying stunned, so that it appears he tried to fend off thieves. Aunt Dahlia proposes hitting Bertie on the head with something, and Jeeves suggests the gong stick. Bertie disapproves and moves to leave, but is knocked out when he turns away. Bertie wakes up in bed with a headache, and is annoyed. Aunt Dahlia tells him that Cornelia was grateful for Bertie's bravery and sold her the serial at a low price. Aunt Dahlia sympathizes with Bertie, but, quoting what Jeeves said after Bertie was knocked out, says that you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. Bertie tells Jeeves to cut out eggs and lay off omelettes from now on, and Jeeves agrees, adding that he will bear it in mind.
Differences between editions
In the 1913 version of the story featuring Reggie Pepper, Reggie's ex-fiancée Elizabeth Shoolbred, now married to a professional artist name Clarence Yeardsley, tells Reggie to steal and destroy the painting of Venus made by Clarence's father, an amateur painter named Matthew Yeardsley. Reggie is briefly knocked out by his friend and Elizabeth's brother, Bill Yeardsley, who mistakes Reggie for a burglar. With Bill's help, Reggie destroys a painting, but he accidentally chooses Clarence's painting. Ultimately, Matthew Yeardsley steals his own painting anyway, and Reggie and Bill flee to London to avoid Elizabeth and Clarence since they destroyed Clarence's painting.
In the American edition of the Reggie Pepper story, Reggie lives in New York rather than London.
Style
Wodehouse's stories make frequent references to the Sherlock Holmes stories, and Bertie often introduces a story with language imitating that of Dr. Watson. For example, in the beginning of this story, Bertie says that if anyone should ever start a society for keeping aunts in check and ask him to join, he would do so instantly, "And my mind would flit to the sinister episode of my Aunt Dahlia and the Fothergill Venus".
