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Portuguese Irregular Verbs

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About this listen

 Winner of the British Book Awards, Author of the Year, 2004.
Winner of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award, 2004.

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.

©2003 Alexander McCall Smith; (P)2004 Time Warner AudioBooks Action & Adventure Literature & Fiction Satire Funny Witty
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The book is a collection of short stories regarding a German philology professor and his fortunes/misfortunes after writing his masterpiece "Portuguese irregular verbs". Some stories and funny and witty, some I felt missed the mark, but the narration by Hugh Laurie is a joy!

Hugh Laurie makes this collection worthwhile

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An eccentric comic novel which gently parodies the academic life. Hugh Laurie's reading is a joy, he manages 6 or 7 different German character's voices, a number of Italians, and Irish, among others, both male and female, and gives each character their distinctive voice, accent and mannerisms, preserving this during dialogue. He knows exactly the right tone of voice to adopt to bring out the humour in the book. I'm looking forward to listening to him read the other books in this trilogy.

Hugh Laurie is a joy to listen to

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What made the experience of listening to Portuguese Irregular Verbs the most enjoyable?

Apart from the charming book it was Hugh Laurie's excellent performance that made this audible book so enjoyable. He is absolutely wonderful at mimicking the accents and in giving the personae their character.I ordered all three and enjoyed them greatly. Wish there were more of them.

Any additional comments?

I am mostly german myself and thoroughly enjoyed the clever, but somehow tender parody of the german professors.

wonderful laugh

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I thought it was a delightful story, engagingly read by Hugh Laurie. The humour was gentle but pointed at the rarefied world of the academy. Very reminiscent of PG Wodehouse.

I loved it!

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My initial reaction to this book is “meh” and then “why did he bother”. Literally a lot of nothing happens for quite a long time. Nowhere near as entertaining or charming as the author’s no. 1Ladies Detective Agency books. The characters aren’t as engaging as those in his Sunday Philosophy club series either. The main character is Boeing and pompous and the text is a series of episodes that are not really link so this is not really a novel with an over arching story. It is a huge disappointment. That being said Hugh Laurie does an amazing job of the narration.

Beautiful narration, mediocre text

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