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Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)

by John Mortimer

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Rumpole of the Bailey (1)

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7431429,998 (4.08)11
In these witty and comic stories, Horace Rumpole takes on a variety of clients and activities. He, of course, brings each case to a successful end, all the while quoting poetry and drinking claret.
  1. 00
    Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell (GeraniumCat)
    GeraniumCat: Anyone who enjoys Sarah Caudwell's legal mysteries should also like Horace Rumpole, and vice versa. They share much of the same humour, a delicious set of English eccentrics and a similar fascination with the intricacies of the legal system.
  2. 00
    Killing a Friend by Neil Douglas (philAbrams)
    philAbrams: Emily du Lac, doing her pupilage at St. Jude's chambers, which her father once headed, grew up around the Old Bailey, where her father, Sir John du Lac, regularly appeared. Now she's following in her father's footsteps and is a worthy successor to Rumpole as she takes on lost and hopeless cases. And like Rumpole she only DEFENDS, never prosecutes.… (more)
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» See also 11 mentions

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Showing 1-5 of 12 (next | show all)
Novelization of the first episodes of the TV series -- nothing new, different or expanded. ( )
  Castinet | Dec 10, 2022 |
not as good as i remember it ( )
  cthuwu | Jul 28, 2021 |
This collection of six stories was published in 1978 and features the indomitable barrister Horace Rumpole as he faces a series of different crimes (and the odd divorce). Rumpole is a man of his times. He quotes poetry (Wordsworth and Keats) and Shakespeare, is a heavy drinker, smoker of small cigars, slightly misogynistic, and a man who is irreverent of marriage (he constantly refers to his wife as "She who must be obeyed") and irreverent of the law. Which is rather odd for a barrister (or lawyer, for those in the United States). He flies in the face on convention, is a man set in his ways, and enjoys rocking the boat. Rumpole would rather look for the truth rather than just serving the law, doing what he knows to be right even in the face of opposition.

Rumpole's flaws are what make him endearing (when viewed through a lens of history and remembering when John Mortimer wrote the character). The six stories in this collection cover a range of years from the 1960s to the late 1970s and follow in chronological order. Each is independent of the other, though Rumpole - a man who admittedly likes the sound of his own voice - often refers to his past successes. He serves to hold up a satirical mirror to the legal system in England focusing on the attitudes of barristers, solicitors, and judges. His willingness to jump in to seek the truth often involves him getting caught (figuratively) with his wig askew, though Mortimer does apply some Deus Ex Machina on occasion to both get Rumpole into and out of sticky situations.

I listened to the audio version read by Frederick Davidson who did an excellent job of bringing voice the the character of Rumpole and the other members of Chambers.

Overall I liked this book. It provides a wonderful glimpse into the world of English law from a time before computers and was written before a heavy shift to CSI-like police thrillers. Rumpole lives and defends his clients (he never prosecutes) by his wits and the occasional lucky break. If you enjoy a good legal thriller then I recommend Rumpole. ( )
  GeoffHabiger | Jun 18, 2018 |
Just over thirty years ago (though sometimes now it feels more like one hundred) I began my career in the UK Civil Service and found myself working in Bloomsbury Tax Office. Despite the name, it was neither situated in Bloomsbury nor included that area in its ‘parish’ It did, instead, cover London’s Inns of Court, and the greater part of the self-employed taxpayers who fell within my domain were either barristers (no baristas back then) or partners in long-established solicitors’ firms working out of chambers that seemed to have changed little since Dickens described them in Great Expectations. Among my allocation of taxpayers was a certain John Mortimer QC, who retained a place in chambers though by then he had more or less completely given up his practice at the bar having established himself as one of the most successful writers of his generation, seeming capable of switching between novels, short stories, plays and television or film scripts more or less at will. It was back then that I first started reading the Rumpole stories that have proved a source of huge entertainment ever since.

This was the original collection of six short stories that introduced the querulous, self-opinionated yet also strangely endearing Rumpole to the world. Of course, it is difficult now to imagine Rumpole without seeing and hearing Leo McKern, who immortalised him in the long-running television series.

Mortimer was clearly a very accomplished barrister, having (unlike Rumpole) taken silk as a Queen’s Counsel, and also sitting occasionally as a Recorder (one of the various grades of judge within the English legal framework). Rumpole never prosecutes, always choosing to work for the defence. He also eschews legal jargon, and even the technicalities of the law itself, preferring to pepper his summation with quotations from Wordsworth, and relying on a pleasing blend of theatricality and pragmatism to win his cases.

The stories are certainly a joy to read, beautifully written and mixing carefully crafted humour and satire against the pomposity of the legal system (though Rumpole himself is, in his way, possibly the most pompous of them all. The cast of supporting characters is also finely drawn, ranging from Rumpole’s frosty, long-suffering wife, Hilda (generally referred to by him as ‘She Who Must be Obeyed’), the feeble commercial lawyer Claude Erskine-Browne and smug head of Chambers, Guthrie Featherstone QC MP. They all complement each other admirably, allowing Mortimer to poke fun at all aspects of the legal profession.

In this first volume the stories are a lot longer than most of their successors, perhaps reflecting the fact that Mortimer had not yet identified Rumpole’s potential for portrayal on television. They are, however, a glorious mix of humour and social comment, minutely observed and joyously recounted. ( )
  Eyejaybee | Jan 2, 2017 |
The original six "Rumpole" stories, originally published by Penguin in 1978, and published here in hardcover for the first time. I wish I'd read these first as my introduction to Rumpole. When I've finally accumulated the entire Rumpole oeuvre, I think I'll go back and read them in sequence. Anyway, this is a fine beginning to a series of stories and novels about Rumpole of the Bailey, an aging curmudgeonly British barrister at law who still entertains the quaint notion that the accused are innocent until declared guilty by a jury of their peers, and that every defendant deserves a vigorous defense.

Rumpole has become a favorite character of mine in literature, a cynic in all ways except for the concept of legal justice, an area in which he is as idealistic as a beginning law student, although he'd never admit to it. I love the frequent nuggets of the curmudgeon's humor. To his son Nick, who is returning to the States where he lives with his American fiance: "There's one thing you'll have to be careful of, you know, living in America."
"What's that?"
"The hygiene! It can be most awfully dangerous. The purity! The terrible determination not to adulterate anything! You will be very careful of it, won't you, Nick?" ( )
  burnit99 | Feb 5, 2016 |
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» Add other authors (1 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Mortimer, Johnprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Ceserani, RemoIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Cox, PaulIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hardy, RobertNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
McKern, LeoReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Michelucci, StefaniaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Tull, PatrickNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Please note that the Rumpole short stories (and novels) are adaptations / novelizations of Mortimer's screenplays for the TV series starring Leo McKern -- not the other way around.
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In these witty and comic stories, Horace Rumpole takes on a variety of clients and activities. He, of course, brings each case to a successful end, all the while quoting poetry and drinking claret.

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Contain:
  • Rumpole and the Younger Generation
  • Rumpole and the Alternative Society
  • Rumpole and the Honourable Member
  • Rumpole and the Married Lady
  • Rumpole and the Learned Friends
  • Rumpole and the Heavy Brigade
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