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Portuguese Irregular Verbs

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Portuguese Irregular Verbs

By: Alexander McCall Smith
Narrated by: Hugh Laurie
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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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All stars
Most relevant  
Expertly narrated by Hugh Laurie
Funny and amusingly comical novel in the series by Alexander McCall Smith

Portuguese Irregular Verbs

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I’m afraid this book felt forced, as if the author was developing the character for an entire book without knowing how to use him. Hugh Laurie drags it to the ears with his pure talent alone!

A bland story, brilliantly read

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Hugh Laurie’s narration is superb. You expect it to be good, then you listen and hear him navigate the different languages and realise his skill. Coupled with the comic irony and percent of McCall Smith, this audiobook is one of the best. It tracks the adventures of an academic who finds himself in different countries and one should not be put off by the title. Shame it is so short - when it ended I immediately bought the next in the series.

Just delightful

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Hugh Laurie is the perfect narrator of this highly amusing, foppish story. His accents are really good and his delivery of the lines are perfectly timed.
I adore Alexander McCall Smith's writing. He obviously knows the wonderful people that this story is based on.
I loved it.

such fun

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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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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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Mr. Laurie's ability in adopting a varety of voices, characters and their respective accents, is immersive and superb. Rather looking forward to the next book. Perhaps Mr Laurie can produce more audiobooks to generate more characters than the grouchy, yet brilliant, Dr House. Thoroughly enjoyed this short audiobook.

Hugh Laurie is a hilarious story-teller

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A brilliant piece of erudite comedy. The first in what was a trilogy and became in the end a four part series of novels about Von Igelfeld. The performance was first-class, as you'd expect from the famous name - and clearly Hugh Laurie must have really enjoyed reading this out as well.

Exceptionally funny and thoughtful comedy

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McCall Smith's characters spring to life. I dragged myself reluctantly back to the 21st Century.

Quirky and laugh out loud

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