Many Loves of Dobie Gillis [Hardcover]

Max Shulman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Not exactly a household word, Max Shulman is nonetheless one of the great stealth writers in American pop culture. He cowrote The Tender Trap, which became a big-screen vehicle for Frank Sinatra, and his hilarious, Elvis-intensive satire Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! also made it to Hollywood, pairing the young Paul Newman with the equally young Joanne Woodward. Shulman's best-known creation, however, is probably Dobie Gillis--that smooth-talking schlemiel of a college student, always on the make for female companionship. And in this case, the synergistic success of the book--which generated both a limp movie musical and a much-beloved television series--does Shulman a real disservice. Why? The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is much funnier than either of its live-action spin-offs, for one thing. With Dobie himself narrating, the plots shake off at least a grain of their sitcom stiffness. More to the point, though, is Shulman's mastery of wise-guy prose: the goofy, comical elevation of Dobie's voice suggests a kind of broad-brush S. J. Perelman, and if Shulman is a tad less clever than that comedic monster, he's also superior at inducing the world-class belly laugh. Certainly The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis does the trick nicely, and the period illustrations are an irresistible bonus, suitable for framing.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Amereon Ltd (August 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891909826
• ISBN-13: 978-0891909828
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #977,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dobie is an ageless, universal character, May 23, 2004

By 

J Bucknoff, PMP (Fort Lee, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (Hardcover)

This book was written in the late 1940s. I first read it in the 1970s and found it as relevant to the 70s (and the college experience of the 1970s) as it was to the 40s.

Today, in the 21st century, Dobie, his adventures, his point-of-view on life, college and (of course) girls (we call them "women" now, but Dobie uses the word "girl" in the most affectionate connotation one can give it) are still as fresh and relevant as it ever was.

"Love is a Fallacy" is one of the best short stories ever written and, possibly, one of the best expressions of the frustration of trying to get to someone's heart through their mind or intellect.

In another story, Dobie ending up in a Chemistry class because there happened to be a pretty girl on line at registration signing up for the class is not something perculiar to the 1940s. Let's face it, this kind of thing kept going on right through the decades up until the time when standing on line was totally replaced by electronic registration.

Dobie's experience with plagiarism (resulting from the conflict between completing an assignment or going out to meet a girl -- guess which choice wins?) is still relevant today, in the age of unlimited access to research materials thanks to the internet and the WWW.

This book led to the 1953 Movie with Debbie Reynolds and Booby Van and the famous TV series (1959 - 1963) with Dwayne Hickman and Bob ("Gilligan") Denver.

To any college "kid" who thinks that someone who went to college in the 1940s or 1970s doesn't understand the life and problems of a college kid in 2004: read this book. It will speak to you as much as it did to your parents and grandparents.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dobie Stories are ALWAYS Good for a laugh!, March 7, 2001

By 

Kaliopi Pappas "Tatiana Larina" (Stockton, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (Hardcover)

I adore this compilation of "Dobie" stories, as well as its companion compilation, _I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf_. Narrated in the first person, _Many Loves_ chronicles various romances in Dobie's life. The thing is, each vignette features a different Dobie! A very changeable guy, he is! Shulman captures very well th hyperbole of the memoir, and the selectivity of recollection! You won't find funnier books anywhere... Murphy's Law is alive, well, and prominently-featured in these books! Dobie sitcom fans may be a bit confused at first, but there's no mistaking it...the 'true' Dobie's definitely there!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High-Caliber Short Story Humor, December 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (Hardcover)

I happened upon one of these Dobie Gillis pieces in an older anthology, and enjoyed it so much that I immediately purchased this volume. Despite the fact that many of these stories are over fifty years old, the campus boy-chases-girl situations are still fresh, and Shulman's swift-moving prose is punctuated with hilarious dry wit and bright comical twists. These are well-crafted short stories, some of the best examples of this genre I've yet come across.

TEACHERS -- It would seem to me that this material would be ideal core curriculum for 7th-10th grade English Lit. students -- Why it isn't being taught at this time is a great mystery.