Extricating Young Gussie

"Extricating Young Gussie"
Short story by P. G. Wodehouse
1916 Strand title illustration by Alfred Leete
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Comedy
Publication
Publisher	Saturday Evening Post (US) Strand (UK)
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	18 September 1915 (US) January 1916 (UK)
Chronology
Series	Jeeves
—   My Man Jeeves

"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".^[1]