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A review by theladydoor
At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances by Alexander McCall Smith
2.0
I really enjoyed the first two Precious Ramotswe mysteries by Smith, and of course I am a huge Hugh Laurie fan, so I jumped at the chance to listen to this short series about an eccentric linguistic scholar, Dr. Moritz von Igelfeld.
This is not so much a novel as a series of short stories from the life of said scholar, and some of them were a bit funny, but most were not good enough to hold my interest. I found Igelfeld to be irritating and sanctimonious. Writing this review a year later, it is impossible for me to really remember anything that happens, except that Igelfeld spends a great deal of time professing his own importance and scholarly magnificence, and working to put down his academic rivals. And somewhere along the way he gets wrapped up in revolutions and other grand adventures that he somehow manages to bungle his way out of.
There was a lack of cohesion between the stories, and in the end, I wasn't impressed.
This is not so much a novel as a series of short stories from the life of said scholar, and some of them were a bit funny, but most were not good enough to hold my interest. I found Igelfeld to be irritating and sanctimonious. Writing this review a year later, it is impossible for me to really remember anything that happens, except that Igelfeld spends a great deal of time professing his own importance and scholarly magnificence, and working to put down his academic rivals. And somewhere along the way he gets wrapped up in revolutions and other grand adventures that he somehow manages to bungle his way out of.
There was a lack of cohesion between the stories, and in the end, I wasn't impressed.