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4.0étoiles sur 5
Good but Left-leaning, Janv. 27 2004
Sir John Mortimer is an excellent author of legal mystery/comedy, and this book is well worth the investment, but make no mistake about it, side-by-side with his ambition to entertain is Mortimer's ambition to shame conservative (including Christian) thought and practice. For example in this title's fifth story, a young, attractive immigrant girl who finances her pursuit of an acting career by working as nude dancer in London nightclub, is murdered. The accused is a fanatical Christian known to have publically chastised the girl owing to the nature of her nighttime employment. In Mortimer's worldview anyone with Christian beliefs is always suspect. Enjoy the book, but don't ever lose sight of the fact that Mortimer, like all liberals worldwide, has an agenda, and revels in the power he has (through fiction) to advance it.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
Great ensemble cast, very funny!, Janv. 24 2004
Alas, Leo McKern died in 2002. I have to say that the PBS rendition was one dramatization of fiction that I thought was superior to the original. But, thank god, John Mortimer lives!
Much of RUMPOLE AND THE PRIMROSE PATH has to do with Rumpole's return to chambers after a heart attack. The old codger is still as cantankerous as ever. We see him resisting SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED'S efforts to force him to lead a more healthful existence. At one point she has him riding a stationary bicycle at a health club. Imagine Leo McKern on a stationary bike!
I've always been impressed with the ensemble cast in the Rumpole stories and they're all back. SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED is the epitome of the scold. Soapy Sam Ballard, leader of chambers and a Q.C. (Queen's counsel, Queer Customer to Rumpole) illustrates England's strange hierarchal legal system. They have law clerks, solicitors, barristers, queen's counsels, all on an ascending scale. Rumpole is clearly superior to Ballard as a lawyer and one of the stories shows Rumpole upstaging his so-called leader. Then there's the pathetic character, Claude Erskine-Brown, married to Phillida. He leads a delusionary existence where he's some sort of Don Quixote-like Casanova and of course Rumpole is his unwilling confidant. Liz Probert has taken Phillida Erskine-Brown's place as Rumpole's junior. There is also a new character, Liz Gribble, director of marketing and administration at chambers. She's an annoyance but as the stories progress she becomes rather of an Rumpole ally.
Part of RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY'S allure is the humor involved. Rumpole's relationship to the Timsons crime family, his lust for Chateau Thames Embankment, and his never-ending feud with SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED are sidesplittingly funny.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
Long Live Rumpole!!, Déc 15 2003
In "Rumpole and the Primrose Path" we find our favorite claret-swilling elderly junior barrister in fine form. As anarchic as ever, in the short story that lends its name to the collection, Rumpole stages a break from the nursing home where he is recuperating from a mild heart attack. This story sets the tone for the collection, proving that not even a brush with his own mortality (and when everyone in his old chambers has begun plotting his memorial service) can dampen the Rumpole eccentricities.To show that he keeps up with the times, Mortimer has Rumpole deal with a case involving wayward e-mails; we cheer as Rumpole evades the body tyranny of fitness clubs. Add to this the odd bit of passion that erupts like a boil (affairs that could be as messy and painful to those involved) among the barristers and judges of the Old Bailey.
The mysteries are slight. The main joy is reading Rumpole's exploits as he again makes the rounds of the Old Bailey while living under the benevolent despotism of She. Even the ever-unromantic Rumpole finishes the collection by bending enough to admit that if he outlives She Who Must Be Obeyed he would feel a certain loneliness. She Who Must grudgingly admits that she, too, inexplicably wants to keep Rumpole around for a while longer. I can second that sentiment. Should any of his fans outlive Rumpole there would be a decided literary void. By all means, let's keep Rumpole around for quite some time to come.
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