Editing Bertie Wooster (section)

===Fiancées===

Bertie never marries, but frequently finds himself engaged. In an early story, he attempts to become engaged to [[Gwladys Pendlebury]], an artist who paints his portrait. In the early years, he is rather given to impulsive and short-lived infatuations, under the influence of which he proposes to Florence Craye (in "[[Jeeves Takes Charge]]", the fourth story in terms of publication and the first in the internal timeline of the books), to Pauline Stoker, and to Bobbie Wickham. In all of these cases, he rethinks the charms of the holy state and a "lovely profile" upon closer understanding of the personalities of the women in question.  Having already received a proposal from him, each woman assumes that she has an open invitation to marry Bertie whenever she has a spat with her current fiancé. Madeline Bassett and Honoria Glossop suffer from a similar delusion, though in each of their cases Bertie was attempting to plead the case of a friend (Gussie Fink-Nottle and Bingo Little respectively) but was misinterpreted as confessing his own love. In all of these cases, Bertie, who aims to be an honorable ''preux chevalier'' (valiant knight), feels he has to agree to the marriage, and relies on Jeeves to somehow end the engagement.<ref>Wodehouse (2008) [1971], ''Much Obliged, Jeeves'', chapter 1, p. 10. "If a girl thinks you're in love with her and says she will marry you, you can't very well voice a preference for being dead in a ditch. Not, I mean, if you want to regard yourself as a preux chevalier, as the expression is, which is always my aim."</ref> In the later stories and novels, Bertie regards engagement solely as a dire situation from which Jeeves must extricate him. In the last novel, Bertie acknowledges that his infatuations have all been short-lived.<ref>Wodehouse (2008) [1974], ''Aunts Aren't Gentlemen'', chapter 2, p. 17. Bertie, about Orlo being annoyed at a policeman arresting the woman Orlo loves: "I could understand how this might well have annoyed him. I have loved a fair number of women in my time, though it always seems to wear off after a while, and I should probably have drained the bitter cup a bit if I had seen any of them pinched by the police."</ref>

In ''[[Thank You, Jeeves]]'', Bertie states that he is glad he did not marry Pauline Stoker because she is "one of those girls who want you to come and swim a mile before breakfast and rout you out when you are trying to snatch a wink of sleep after lunch for a merry five sets of tennis", and adds that his ideal wife should be, in contrast to the dynamic Pauline, "something rather more on the lines of [[Janet Gaynor]]".<ref>Wodehouse (2008) [1934], ''Thank You, Jeeves'', chapter 4, pp. 41–42.</ref> However, later in the same novel, Jeeves tells Pauline that he doubts a union between her and Bertie would have been successful as Bertie is "essentially one of Nature's bachelors".<ref>Wodehouse (2008) [1934], ''Thank You, Jeeves'', chapter 18, p. 217.</ref>

Though Jeeves frequently rescues Bertie from unwanted engagements, only rarely do they openly discuss the matter, as they both feel it would be unseemly to "bandy a woman's name" in such a way.<ref>Wodehouse (2008) [1971], ''Much Obliged, Jeeves'', chapter 5, p. 35. "Jeeves, you see, is always getting me out of entanglements with the opposite sex, and he knows all about the various females who from time to time have come within an ace of hauling me to the altar rails, but of course we don't discuss them. To do so, we feel, would come under the head of bandying a woman's name, and the Woosters do not bandy women's names. Nor do the Jeeveses."</ref>

Of the women Bertie Wooster becomes engaged to, those who appear in the most Jeeves stories are [[Madeline Bassett]] (5 novels), [[Florence Craye|Lady Florence Craye]] (1 short story, 3 novels), [[Bobbie Wickham]] (3 short stories, 1 novel), and [[Honoria Glossop]] (4 short stories).