Refreshingly different and very funny - Rated 
...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 substantial tome, 'Portuguese Irregular Verbs'. McCall Smith has created a laugh-out-loud funny parody of academia, which is sure to be appreciated by anyone who has encountered some of the most eccentric academics to be found in most universities. Intelligent and a lot of fun - recommended!
THE MORE IRREGULAR THE BETTER! - Rated
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 full of very tall stories!
Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute.
The strange world of supercilious scholars - Rated
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 Verbs". It's obvious (to him at least) that he comes from a splendid German lineage because of the "von" part of his name. His friends look up to him and, to varying degrees, he looks down on them. When he discovers that one of these gentlemen has employed a "von" on his apartment name-plate that von Igelfeld feels sure he's not entitled to - as well as a title including "Doctor Doctor", ie claiming more qualifications than he's earned, there's a sense of self-righteous outrage - and some spiteful and hurtful comments are fired at the poor, insecure man. He soon relents though, when he finds evidence that his friend secretly holds him and his precious book in high esteem. He doesn't sound like a very nice man: self-important, mean-spirited, competitive - not very likeable at all. Perhaps it was Hugh Laurie's reading that made him seem sad and vulnerable as well as ridiculous and arrogant, so that I listened to the audiobook for four hours, mostly smiling, sometimes laughing, occasionally cringing but, at the end, feeling considerable sympathy for the haughty von Igelfeld and his chums. I'll certainly be happy to listen to the next two in the series: "The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs" and "At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances". I think Hugh Laurie's reading of this audiobook added hugely to my enjoyment. He does pomposity, disdain and indignation so much better than I could possibly image them from just reading the book myself.
Satires of German Academics - Rated 
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.
Portuguese Irrigated Herbs - Rated
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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