My Man Jeeves »

Comic timing would seem less of the essence in literature until you read the English wit of P. G. Wodehouse, who shows just how a well-placed comment or properly inflected phrase can create a response that is often all too rare during a reading session: A loud, hearty laugh.

Wodehouse's classic collection of the Jeeves tales includes "Leave It To Jeeves," "Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest," "Jeeves and the Hardboiled Egg," "Absent Treatment," "Helping Freddie," "Rallying Round Old George," "Doing Clarence A Bit of Good," and "The Aunt and the Sluggard."