Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories - Hardcover

Mortimer, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670919365 ISBN 13: 9780670919369

Publisher: Viking, 2011

Synopsis

Forever Rumpole - a hilarious new selection of the very best Rumpole stories by John Mortimer

Horace Rumpole lives alongside Mr Pickwick and Bertie Wooster as one of the immortal comic characters in English fiction. With his curmudgeonly wit, his literary allusions, his disdain for personal ambition and his lack of pomposity, he has, in the words of the Daily Telegraph, 'ascended to the pantheon of literary immortals'.

Forever Rumpole contains seven stories originally chosen by the author himself as his favourites, together with a further seven from the later period and the opening chapters of a Rumpole novel that Sir John was working on when he died in 2009. The book also includes a fascinating introduction by Ann Mallalieu, fellow lawyer and for many years Sir John's colleague in practice.

'Rumpole, like Jeeves and Sherlock Holmes, is immortal' P. D James, Mail on Sunday

'I thank heaven for small mercies. The first of these is Rumpole' Clive James, Observer
Sir John Mortimer was a barrister, playwright and novelist. His fictional trilogy about the inexorable rise of an ambitious Tory MP in the Thatcher years (Paradise Postponed, Titmuss Regained and The Sound of Trumpets) has recently been republished in Penguin Classics, together with Clinging to the Wreckage and his play A Voyage round My Father. His most famous creation was the barrister Horace Rumpole, who featured in four novels and around eighty short stories. His books in Penguin include: The Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole; The Collected Stories of Rumpole; The First Rumpole Omnibus; Rumpole and the Angel of Death; Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders; Rumpole and the Primrose Path; Rumpole and the Reign of Terror; Rumpole and the Younger Generation; Rumpole at Christmas; Rumpole Rests His Case; The Second Rumpole Omnibus; Forever Rumpole; In Other Words; Quite Honestly and Summer's Lease.

About this title

Review:

"Delightful...[Rumpole's] distinctive voice - crusty, orotund, pointed - is key to what makes these tales such a pleasure to read...This excellent sampling will encourage most readers to go on and read more of the many still available."--The Washington Times "John Mortimer's stories combine a Wodehousian wit with a generous humanism of which the world could use another dollop...it is always a pure pleasure to sit down the the Old Bailey hack."--Christian Science Monitor "Fourteen of the best of Rumpole's cases have been gathered for this compilation . . . the disheveled lawyer fielded cases ranging from petty larceny to Islamic terrorism, all with his characteristic tilting at windmills and his biting tongue-in-cheek wit."--Bookpage (December Top Pick in Mystery) "Once detective-fiction heroes enter your mental landscape, they can seem as real as your own friends and family. For a lot of people, Horace Rumpole is just such a vivid and familiar figure . . . Rumpole fans can savor a bailiff's dozen of Rumpole's seriocomic adventures in "Forever Rumpole.""--The Wall Street Journal "Horace Rumpole, the claret-quaffing barrister who never quite makes the grade but always makes a point, stars in a new collection of his most outrageous exploits . . . Rumpole's courtroom antics and politically incorrect gaffes have made him a perennial favorite among mystery fans for decades . . . those uninitiated to the irascible barrister's charm and wit will have much to relish. The collection is an excellent primer to all things Rumpole."--Library Journal "A volume sure to be treasured by both old fans and new."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Horace Rumpole. A character Dickens would have been proud to have created . . . Mortimer's character came as a revelation to those of us who despaired of ever encountering a lawyer we could love. Who knew courtroom drama could be this much fun? The stories are intelligent, witty, and finely crafted . . . So long as there is sympathy for the sinful and muddled mankind, a delight in humor, an interest in justice, and any love of freedom, Horace Rumpole will indeed be forever."--American Spectator "Delightful . . . [Rumpole's] distinctive voice - crusty, orotund, pointed - is key to what makes these tales such a pleasure to read. . . . This excellent sampling will encourage most readers to go on and read more of the many still available."--The Washington Times

From the Back Cover:

'I thank heaven for small mercies. The first of these is Rumpole' Clive James, Observer

'Rumpole is worthy to join the great gallery of English oddballs ranging from Pickwick to Sherlock Holmes, Jeeves and Bertie Wooster' Sunday Times

'Rumpole, like Jeeves and Sherlock Holmes, is immortal' P. D James, Mail on Sunday

'Mortimer has created one of the legendary fictional detectives ... a barrister [who's] as much a detective as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot' Boston Globe

'Mortimer's divine hero is one of the few fictional immortals of our time' The Times

'In the fluidy and panache of his prose, his combination of high intelligence and low foolery, John Mortimer is worthy of comparison to P. G. Wodehouse' New York Times Book Review

'A fine comic creation. A figure who represents something important: the defence of liberty against the arrogance of power' Scotsman

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0670919365
• ISBN 13: 9780670919369
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528