The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse

"There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself 'Do trousers matter?"

"The mood will pass, sir."

"I don't see why it should.  If you can't think of a way out of this mess, it seems to me that it is the end." 

For the 2019 Back to the Classics category - choose a classic comic novel, I went with The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse published 1938.  P. G. Wodehouse is one of the great humorists of the 20th century.  He is best known for his Jeeves and Wooster series.  Bertram (Bertie) Wooster is the narrator of these books.  He is an upper class young English gentleman and Reginald Jeeves is his trusted valet.  Jeeves is the smarter and more mature of the two but as admirable as Jeeves is, Bertie is the standout.  He has a way of putting things that defies description.  Here for example is Bertie at the start of The Code of the Woosters drinking one of Jeeves' hangover remedies after a night of partying:

"He returned with the tissue-restorer.  I loosed it down the hatch, and after undergoing the passing discomfort, unavoidable when you drink one of Jeeves' patent morning revivers, of having the top of the skull fly up to the ceiling and the eyes shoot out of their sockets and rebound from the opposite wall like raquet balls, felt better.  It would have been overstating it to say that even now Bertram was back in mid-season form, but I had at least slid into the convalescent class and was equal to a spot of conversation".  

As to what proceeds in The Code of the Woosters, It's a plot involving a number of eccentric and wealthy characters with too much time on their hands.  But the gist of it is that Bertie's friend, Gussie Fink-Nottle, is engaged to Madeline Bassett but old Pop Bassett, Madeline's father, is not keen on Gussie as a son-in-law. Meanwhile, Stiffy Bying who is Pop Bassett's neice hopes to marry Rev Pinker but Pop Bassett isn't wild about him either.  One thing Pop Bassett does care about is his antique cow creamer. Stiffy Bying asks Bertie Wooster to steal the cow creamer so that later when Rev Pinker retrieves it and hands it back to Pop Basset, he'll be a hero in Pop Basset's eyes and Stinky and the Rev Pinker can be married.

As to why Bertie would go along with this we come to the notebook.  Gussie Fink-Nottle to feel less intimidated around his soon to be father-in law decides to write down all of Pop Bassett's shortcomings in a journal.  But then Gussie loses the notebook which Stiffy Bying finds.  She tells Bertie that if he doesn't steal the cow creamer she'll give the notebook to Pop Bassett and the wedding between Gussie Fink-Nottle and Madeline Bassett will be off and if Madeline Bassett can't marry Gussie she will start looking at Bertie as potential husband material and he definitely doesn't want that.

Granted, the plot of The Code of the Woosters is a bit ludicrous and Bertie and his eccentric friends are not where you go for character development.  Therefore, a steady diet of Wooster and Jeeves, reading one book right after another, would be a mistake.  But these novels are very funny and the reason once again is Bertie Wooster.  He is a marvelous comic creation and Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series is top of the line when it comes to British humor and that's saying alot because when done well, British humor is unrivaled.