Customer Reviews

Porterhouse Blue

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I borrowed the unabridged audio version of Porterhouse Blue from the local library, and listened while riding my bike. I'm afraid I made a spectacle of myself as I rode along, cracking up , with tears of laughter streaming down my face! I'm sure it was the funniest book I've ever read. I'm here at amazon.com looking for more of Mr. Sharpe!

Why Sharpe is not as well known in this country as lesser talents is beyond me. A classic satire of British politics and society circa late 60s-early 70s set in an English College (based on Peterhouse?). The machinations of the dean and his subordinates to preserve the status quo in the face of the new liberal head are hilarious. Even better is the twist ending which reveals the true nature of class conflict in Britain. Also features a hilarious explosion involving a disturbed student, an elderly chambermaid, and a box of condoms. To find out more, read this most excellent book.

I listened to the unabridged audio version of this book, and laughed from the beginning to the end. I've also listened to Ancestral Vices, another very funny book. I think the way to tell if a book is really funny is to read it (or listen to it)again, and if you still laugh hysterically, while already knowing the outcome, it really is well done. Porterhouse Blue passed this test with flying colors, as it kept me awake and entertained driving through the night on a cross-country journey.

I love this book (warning: the sequel was a big disapointment) from an author who knows how to take a situation and add layers of sub-plot until everything goes crazy. For those who love british humour

A hilarious tale of the strange world that one finds at a place like Cambridge. While one is almost tempted to say, 'yes, but it's actually fiction,' the truth is not far from Sharpe's tale of disaster and woe at this fictional Cambridge college.

Sharpe is very sharp indeed with Porterhouse Blue. He captures the atmosphere of English academic conservatism at its very funny and ironic best. And the best that can be said about PB is that you won't want to put the book down until it's finished - definitely a one-sitting read! So many plots and counter plots that will keep you guessing and wanting to turn the page. Go buy it immediately, before you have a Porterhouse Blue...

A wonderful and cleverly written academic send-up. Although I'm sure it helps to know the British educational system to appreciate the humor, it really isn't necessary. Pomposity is easily recognizable in all its various garbs, as this novel shows by cracking the whip of its prose at all the various types that populate the Cambridge college "Porterhouse" -- from Skullion, "the porter of Porterhouse," to the foxy spiteful Dean, to the reformist Master of Porterhouse, "Sir Godber," and his strenuously philanthropic wife, "Lady Mary." The ludicrous is raised to high art here. The subplot of the research fellow, young Zipser, and his comely capcacious bedder "Mrs. Biggs," is particularly beguiling. Beginning and ending with feasts of quite different sorts, it is also a cunningly constructed masterpiece.

Hilarious, witty, wonderful book. The TV series (which appeared on PBS but does not seem, regrettably, to be available on video) did the book justice, but Sharpe's prose is outstanding. No aspect of tradition or effort to dislodge it escape's the author's scrutiny. Well worth reading again and again.

In the stuffy world of British academia, nothing changes -- that is, until Tom Sharpe decides to liven things up a bit with his tale of a crusading college Master who horrifies all his colleagues with his trendy left-leaning ideas.

Porterhouse College, Cambridge has been a bastion of privilege since time immemorial, turning out the kind of bluff nincompoops who have been running Britian for centuries and who do themselves so well at table that thee is a local version of an apoplectic fit, known as a Porterhouse Blue. The beneficiaries of this stultified atmosphere do not plan to give up their pampered lives easily, and oppose the Master with every devious scheme their dulled brains can come up with. Their machinations make for a typically enjoyable Sharpe romp, though without the savage anger which made his South African novels such page-turners

I read this book after reading the Wilt series and Indecent Exposure. I must say I was a bit disappointed. It's just that the book didn't have the same sort of manic pacing that Sharpe's other books have. The plot moved along, but I didn't really care about what was happening to the characters. While it does have some of Sharpe's trademark humor, I wouldn't recommend this book as a starting point for Tom Sharpe's work.