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Portuguese Irregular Verbs: Number 1 in series (The von Igelfeld Entertainments) [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Alexander McCall Smith (Author), Hugh Laurie (Reader)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 5 Aug 2004 | Series: The von Igelfeld Entertainments (Book 1)

Alexander McCall Smith, best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, has turned his hand to humour. The delightful result is a creation of comic genius. For in the unnaturally tall form of Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, we are invited to meet a memorable character whose sublime insouciance is a blend of the cultivated pomposity of Frasier Crane and of Inspecteur Clouseau's hapless gaucherie.

Von Igelfeld inhabits the rarefied world of the Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg, a world he shares with his equally tall and equally ridiculous colleagues, Professors Florianus Prinzel and Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer. Their unlikely adventures are described in three deliciously funny instalments: Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances.

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Product details

  • Audio CD: 1 pages
  • Publisher: Hachette Digital; Unabridged edition (5 Aug 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1405500603
  • ISBN-13: 978-1405500609
  • Product Dimensions: 2.4 x 14.2 x 12.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 666,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Alexander McCall Smith
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Review

For The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency: 'A rare pleasure' Daily Telegraph 'Forget the library - the body is in the mud hut. An African Miss Marple created by a Scottish lawyer ... superb' Sunday Times 'One of the most entrancing literary treats of many a year' Wall Street Journal 'A strong, independent, and endearing model for contemporary women anywhere ... A crowded fictional genre will have to make room for Precious Ramotswe. In the best sense possible, she's a heavyweight' Boston Globe

Book Description

Is there anything funny about German professors? This CD features the endless mishaps of the inimitable Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld - the first title in a new trilogy from the bestselling author of 'The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
55 of 58 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars 5 Stars Are Not Enough 14 Nov 2003
By Christine Ashby
Format:Paperback
This exquisite little book is the first of what one hopes will be many accounts of the doings (adventures is perhaps too exciting a word) of Herr Doctor Professor von Igelfeld.

McCall Smith pokes very gentle but pointed fun at, inter alia, academics, librarians, landladies and a certain sort of unselfconscious pomposity that protects the perpetrator from even noticing the damage he is wreaking. Think George Grossmith, P G Wodehouse, Inspector Clouseau or even Mr Bean!

If you have read "Death in Venice" the final story, in which the Professor, visiting Venice, finds himself attempting to avoid the attentions of a Polish teenager, is just too delicious for words!

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Satires of German Academics 4 May 2006
By Donald Mitchell HALL OF FAME TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
If you've ever been to Germany and been introduced to someone whose title was Professor Doctor Doctor Doctor and you were required not to smile as you listened to the introduction, this is your book. Academics in general take themselves too seriously, and Alexander McCall Smith draws on his years of experience in academia to lampoon the worst excesses.

The humor is rather broad and obvious, but it does hit the mark. Those who aren't exposed to academics may wonder what all of the fuss is about.

These are a series of eight stories about Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld (think hedgehog field) and his colleagues.

With enormous self-confidence, the three professors decide to learn tennis by reading a book in the Principles of Tennis.

Von Igelfeld launches his fellow student and future colleague into a dangerous form of sport with humorous and unexpected consequences in Duels, and How to Fight Them.

Early Irish Pornography shows the potential absurdity of studying just any old language if you are a philologist

Italian Matters explores the bases of national prejudices

Portuguese Irregular Verbs explores the immense over-investment that all authors have in their work

Holy Man explores how the rational man meets the mystic and what he makes of the experience

Dental Pain looks into professorial romantic ideas

Death in Venice tickles one's fancy with references to Thomas Mann.

If you like the Botswana stories, these stories will probably not appeal as much. There's bile and vague pity beneath the humor here rather than love for the characters.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Portuguese Irrigated Herbs 7 Nov 2005
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
Well... I bought this having read the 1st Ladies series expecting a similar humour, but it's completely different.
Hugh Laurie reads this book exquisitely and I derived equally as much pleasure from his reading of the tale as the tale itself.
Our three professors, led by the author of Portuguese Irregular Verbs, get themselves into various embarassing scrapes. The characters reminded me distinctly of Fraser and Niles Crane, as von Igelfeld, Unterholzer and Prinzel interact on a similar level.
I've listened to this book several times now as I find it relaxing listening, dipping in at various points. The highlights for me are our heroes learning to play tennis from a book and the whole Venice sequence at the end which had me snorting loudly causing my husband to check I was ok...
The audio CD is excellent - give it a go
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars A GOOD READ - VERY FUNNY
A good trilogy which are very well read and also very funny. Just Alexander McCall Smith at his very best.
Published 16 months ago by Brian Nicol
4.0 out of 5 stars Portuguese Irregular Verbs
I never cease to be amazed by McCall Smith's imaginative characterisations or the sensitive humour with which he writes. Read more
Published on 13 April 2011 by Slow Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Happy Reader
Very amusing light reading. Also intrigues others who spot the title which, come to think of it, is the reason I bought it in the first place.
Published on 5 April 2011 by P. F. May
4.0 out of 5 stars Sublimely silly and exceptionally entertaining
The adventures of the self-important Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, author of the acclaimed, at least in his mind, "Portuguese Irregular Verbs", are a sheer delight to... Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2010 by I. Holder
5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshingly different and very funny
...what more can I say?

Meet Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria - just one of the eccentric professors at the Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg, and author of the... Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2008 by S. Barnes
5.0 out of 5 stars THE MORE IRREGULAR THE BETTER!
The wonderfully pompous Dr Igefeld and his equally pompous colleagues deserve a place on the shelf of any afficiando of fine comic writing and wry observation - a small classic... Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2007 by M. Drake
5.0 out of 5 stars The strange world of supercilious scholars
Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld is a well educated and important man from a good family. He's a doctor of philology and has written the scholarly tome "Portuguese Irregular... Read more
Published on 6 Jan 2007 by T. Bobley
3.0 out of 5 stars Strangely memorable incidents...
.
....although not that enjoyable. After greatly enjoying The "Ladies' Detective Agency" books, this came as a bit of a let-down. Very different. Read more
Published on 4 July 2005 by Big Ben
3.0 out of 5 stars Curiously memorable....
.
....although not that enjoyable a read, in my view. After greatly enjoying The "Ladies' Detective Agency" books, this came as a bit of a let-down for me. Very different. Read more
Published on 4 July 2005 by Big Ben
4.0 out of 5 stars Slim Pickings
I have read - and really enjoyed - the "No 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series, so I thought that I would branch out and see what McCall Smith's other novels were like. Read more
Published on 1 July 2004 by Simon May
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