The 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom (The Von Igelfeld Trilogy) Paperback – November 1, 2004

I don't normally give fives, especially for fiction, but this book captures the fastidiousness of Germans and German scholars quite well. But, most importantly, it captures the rarefied and sheltered world of academics, many of whom are all too haughty, self-righteous, and self-important, pretentious blowhards, ranging from lovably pompous to offputtingly pompous. Not only that, these are funny and entertaining little novellas. And thus, they do exactly what they're supposed to do. Classic literature? No. But fun? Yes. When you discover the worst thing that could happen is putting "Portuguese Irregular Verbs" into storage... priceless. When you find out the poor dachshund is... Unterholzer's... priceless. The third "episode" stumbles a bit, it's not quite as good as the first two, but it still captures things well, and has its moments. The indictment of departmental politics with the vignette at Cambridge is biting whilst remaining lighthearted.

Hilarious trilogy in the Professor von Iglefield series: it includes "Portugese Irregular Verbs", "The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs", and "In the Villa of Reduced Circumstances". The book's title is a perfect description of the three professors, who, together, are a couple sandwiches shy of a picnic!!Hence, the reduced number of pillars from T. H. Lawrence's famous novel!!

The second book in this series is so funny that I could not read it for laughing. I had to stop and start the book 3 times before I was able to get through it without bending over laughing so hard I literally could not breathe. Alexander McCall Smith never hurts and always entertains.

Enjoy this author's humor and insight

I couldn't put this down once I started. It was delightfully and lovingly humorous, not unlike Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegone gentle pokes at out-state Minnesota. (I ought to know; I grew up in that territory.) I think that you need some understanding of European academia to fully appreciate McCall's humour in these books, but I still recommend it to everyone. If you aren't familiar with the German university system now, perhaps these books will inspire you to learn more about it. And, then when fully enlightened you can re-read 2-1/2 Pillars of Wisdom.

A series of three amusing short novels set in German academia. It's the typical enjoyable style of McCall Smith: simple vignette story lines garnished with tasty wit and deliciously eccentric characters. Although I don't rate this series as highly as The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, this will still amuse and delight, especially if you have any experience with academics.

Although I had read the 3 little books, e.g. Portuguese Irreg.Verbs, Sausage Dogs& Villa..., I loved the combined re-read---as did my husband! It's a great "laugh-a-loud"!!!

What can I say? Alexander McCall Smith is the best!

I really enjoyed this tale of Von Igelfeld's extraordinary adventures. This McCall Smith character nearly always triumphs against the odds, and "odd" is the word! He is an infuriating but highly entertaining and unlikely hero. Great fun.

I've given this book 2 stars rather than 1 star as I thought there were a couple of amusing incidents to start with. I hoped it would develop but it was just the same humour.... which was so subtle, it left me not even trying to finish the book ( I read about three quarters of it). I was very bored!

Flat-footed humour in simple, undemanding prose.

Quick delivery and quality book

Hilarious antics of some german professors who are more concerned with who is touching their desks than anything else in the whole world.