Portuguese Irregular Verbs (2003) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters edit see section history

• Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld: World renowned (at least in his own mind) Philologist; Hero of these tales.
• Professor Dr Dr Florianus Prinzel: Friend and colleague of Igelfeld
• Professor Dr Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer: Friend and colleague of Igelfeld
• Dr Von Brautheim: Dentist
• Professor J. G. K. L. Singh: Add a description of this character.
• Mr Majipondi
• Frau Hugendubel
• Signora Cossi: Italian B&B owner

Quotes edit see section history

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• “The world of sultanas, he informed Von Igelfeld, was full of intrigue, and he revealed a few of the jucier details over the soup.”

• “Von Igelfed sipped on his drink, a cold glass of beer, noticing with satisfaction that the label on the bottle said "Brewed in Belgium". That must be safe; there was nothing threatening about Belgium. Ineffably dull, perhaps; but not threatening.”

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• The crudities of the modern world were simplifying or even destroying linguistic subtleties. Irregular verbs were becoming regular, the imperfect subjunctive was becoming the present subjunctive or, more frequently, disappearing altogether. Where previously there might have been four adjectives to describe a favoured hill, or the scent of new-mown hay, or the action of threading the warp of a loom, now there would only be one, or none. And as we lost the words, von Igelfeld thought, we lost the texture of the world that went with them.

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• One does not have to answer; but inevitably does. Yet, why should one have to answer: was there anything intrinsically wrong about ignoring somebody who said something to you if you hadn’t asked them to say something in the first place? Von Igelfeld wondered what view Immanuel Kant had expressed on this subject. Would Kant have thrown

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• then, and here was the crucial di ference, he would not have worried about it. Or would he?

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• He would do everything in his power to stop the process of linguistic debasement,

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Venice
• Germany
• Ireland
• Goa
• Europe
• Italy
• Heidelberg
• Zurich
• Rome
• Siena

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Alexander McCall Smith (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 823.914

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › British › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Comic