George Grossmith (Author of The Diary of a Nobody) edit data George Grossmith was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades. As a writer and composer, he created 18 comic operas, nearly 100 musical sketches, some 600 songs and piano pieces, three books and both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines. Grossmith is best remembered for two aspects of his career. First, he created a series of nine memorable characters in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan from 1877 to 1889, including Sir Joseph Porter, in H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), the Major-General in The Pirates of Penzance (1880) and Ko-Ko in The Mikado (1885–87). Second, he wrote, in collaboration with his brother Weedon, the 1892 comic novel Diary of a Nobody. Gros George Grossmith was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades.

As a writer and composer, he created 18 comic operas, nearly 100 musical sketches, some 600 songs and piano pieces, three books and both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines. Grossmith is best remembered for two aspects of his career. First, he created a series of nine memorable characters in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan from 1877 to 1889, including Sir Joseph Porter, in H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), the Major-General in The Pirates of Penzance (1880) and Ko-Ko in The Mikado (1885–87). Second, he wrote, in collaboration with his brother Weedon, the 1892 comic novel Diary of a Nobody. Grossmith was also famous in his day for performing his own comic piano sketches and songs, both before and after his Gilbert and Sullivan days, becoming the most popular British solo performer of the 1890s. Some of his comic songs endure today, including "See Me Dance the Polka". He continued to perform into the first decade of the 20th century.

His son, George Grossmith, Jr., became a famous actor, playwright and producer of Edwardian musical comedies. ...more The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® Suburban - Fiction Meet the Author George Grossmith (9 December 1847 - 1 March 1912) was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades. As a writer and composer, he created 18 comic operas, nearly 100 musical sketches, some 600 songs and piano pieces, three books and both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines. Walter Weedon Grossmith (9 June 1854 - 14 June 1919), better known as Weedon Grossmith, was an English writer, painter, actor and playwright best known as co-author of The Diary of a Nobody (1892) with his famous brother, music hall comedian and Gilbert and Sullivan star, George Grossmith. Weedon Grossmith also illustrated The Diary of a Nobody to much acclaim.

Customer Reviews "Tweedland" The Gentlemen's club: The Diary of a Nobody, by the brothers George and Weedon Grossmith Sunday, 9 November 2014 The Diary of a Nobody, by the brothers George and Weedon Grossmith "Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see—because I do not happen to be a 'Somebody'—why my diary should not be interesting." The preface to book editions of The Diary of a Nobody, wherein "Charles Pooter" announces his intentions The Diary of a Nobody is an English comic novel written by the brothers George and Weedon Grossmith, with illustrations by the latter. It originated as an intermittent serial in Punch magazine in 1888–89 and first appeared in book form, with extended text and added illustrations, in 1892. The Diary records the daily events in the lives of a London clerk, Charles Pooter, his wife Carrie, his son Lupin, and numerous friends and acquaintances over a period of 15 months. Before their collaboration on the Diary, the brothers each pursued successful careers on the stage.

George originated nine of the principal comedian roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas over 12 years from 1877 to 1889. He also established a national reputation as a piano sketch entertainer and wrote a large number of songs and comic pieces. Before embarking on his stage career, Weedon had worked as an artist and illustrator. The Diary was the brothers' only mature collaboration. Most of its humour derives from Charles Pooter's unconscious and unwarranted sense of his own importance, and the frequency with which this delusion is punctured by gaffes and minor social humiliations. In an era of rising expectations within the lower-middle classes, the daily routines and modest ambitions described in the Diary were instantly recognised by its contemporary readers, and provided later generations with a glimpse of the past that it became fashionable to imitate. Although its initial public reception was muted, the Diary came to be recognised by critics as a classic work of humour, and it has never been out of print. It helped to establish a genre of humorous popular fiction based on lower or lower-middle class aspirations, and was the forerunner of numerous fictitious diary novels in the later 20th century.

The Diary has been the subject of several stage and screen adaptations, including Ken Russell's "silent film" treatment of 1964, a four-part TV film scripted by Andrew Davies in 2007, and a widely praised stage version in 2011, in which an all-male cast of three played all the parts. George and Weedon Grossmith BOOKEND / By JIM HOLT / I Yield to Nobody As much as I liked ''Topsy-Turvy,'' Mike Leigh's movie about Gilbert and Sullivan, I did find one thing about it unsettling. Who was that diminutive, pallid, pince-nez-wearing and rather epicene actor in the D'Oyly Carte opera company, the one who was shown in his dressing room tearfully jabbing his needle-scarred forearm with a hypo full of heroin? After I noticed the other characters in the film address this fellow first as ''Mr.

Grossmith'' and then as ''George,'' the penny dropped: Why, that must be George Grossmith -- the man who, after chucking his career with Gilbert and Sullivan, went on to write a book that I cherish above all others, a book that I have repeatedly rejoiced in reading, a book that has been my prop and stay in troubled times: ''The Diary of a Nobody.'' I am hardly alone in rating ''The Diary of a Nobody'' a singular work of genius. From the time it was published in 1892 (with illustrations by George Grossmith's brother, Weedon), it began to collect enthusiastic admirers. Hilaire Belloc deemed it ''one of the half-dozen immortal achievements of our time . . . a glory for us all.'' It was a favorite of T. S. Eliot and John Betjeman. Evelyn Waugh declared it to be ''the funniest book in the world'' and had his character Lady Marchmain read passages from it aloud to her family in ''Brideshead Revisited.'' ''The Diary of a Nobody'' began as a series in the English humor magazine Punch in the late 1880's.

The entries were supposedly written by one Charles Pooter, a bearded, frock-coated, middle-aged clerk who worked in an old-fashioned City of London firm and lived in a tidy little house in the suburb of Holloway. ''Why should I not publish my diary?'' he asks at the outset. ''I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see -- because I do not happen to be a 'Somebody' -- why my diary should not be interesting.'' Pooter meticulously records his little experiments in home improvement, his encounters with impertinent tradespeople, his anxieties over the antics of his rapscallion son, Lupin, his tender (if occasionally strained) moments with his dear little wife, Carrie, his social evenings at home with his bosom friends Mr. Cummings and Mr. Gowing -- all the small triumphs and minor humiliations and homely pleasures of everyday life as lived in a lower-middle-class household in the late Victorian era. Pooter is rather dim. He is also priggish, gullible and anxious about keeping up appearances. Little mishaps mar his days (''May 30. . . .

As I heard the 'bus coming, I left with a hurried kiss -- a little too hurried, perhaps, for my upper lip came in contact with Carrie's teeth and slightly cut it. It was quite painful for an hour afterwards.'') Though he is unable to laugh at his own absurdity, he piques himself on his humor and is given to laborious puns: ''May 25. Carrie brought down some of my shirts and advised me to take them to Trillip's round the corner. She said: 'The fronts and cuffs are much frayed.' I said without a moment's hesitation: 'I'm frayed they are.' Lor! how we roared. I thought we should never stop laughing. As I happened to be sitting next the driver going to town on the 'bus, I told him my joke about the 'frayed' shirts. I thought he would have rolled off his seat. They laughed at the office a good bit too over it. ''May 26. Left the shirts to be repaired at Trillip's.

I said to him: 'I'm 'fraid they are frayed.' He said, without a smile: 'They're bound to do that, sir.' Some people seem to be quite destitute of a sense of humor.'' The quiet reproofs by which Pooter intends to preserve his self-importance never quite come off. (When a cheeky office boy tells him to keep his hair on, Pooter gravely informs him that ''I had had the honor of being in the firm 20 years, to which he insolently replied that I 'looked it.' '') Such is his sense of petit-bourgeois propriety that he is unable to acknowledge the cause of his occasional hangovers, blaming not the dubious Champagne he thriftily favors (''Jackson Frères'' from the grocer around the corner) but the ''unsettled weather'' or having been ''poisoned by some lobster.'' Of the three humorous character types found in literature -- the comic rogue, the comic butt and the solemn fool -- Pooter comes closest to the third type, which, I would argue, is generally the most amusing. Nothing is funnier than solemnity.

But if Pooter inspires mirth in the reader, he also elicits an equal measure of affection. He may be hedged about by absurdity, but he is a thoroughly decent man, touching in his anxiety to do the right thing. He is honest, loyal and kind. His diary is suffused with sweet suburban wisdom. When his son announces what seems to be a premature engagement to a doubtfully suitable woman, Pooter records the following: ''Carrie and I talked the matter over during the evening, and agreed that it did not always follow that an early engagement meant an unhappy marriage. Dear Carrie reminded me that we married early, and, with the exception of a few trivial misunderstandings, we had never had a really serious word. I could not help thinking (as I told her) that half the pleasures of life were derived from the little struggles and small privations that one had to endure at the beginning of one's married life. . . .

''Carrie said I had expressed myself wonderfully well, and that I was quite a philosopher.'' It is little wonder that this oddly dignified embodiment of Everyman has stamped the English language with his own adjective: ''Pooterish.'' (This, by the way, is one of some 20 coinages that the Oxford English Dictionary attributes to ''The Diary of a Nobody,'' along with ''I've got the chuck!'' for being fired from one's job; ''a good address''; and ''bread-pills'' for those little missiles sometimes launched across the dinner table.) What is a wonderment is how George Grossmith (1847-1912), Pooter's creator, could himself have been the highly un-Pooterish chap depicted in ''Topsy-Turvy'' -- a drug-addicted thespian, no less. My curiosity having been aroused by the film, I did a little digging into Grossmith's life (courtesy of the New York Public Library's splendid performing arts collection).

I discovered that he was indeed short, pale and rather severe-looking in his pince-nez; that according to one contemporary, he had a ''dry, odd manner''; and that according to another, he did resort to drugs to steady his stage nerves, his arms being spotted with unsightly needle marks as a result. Beyond that, however, there was nothing the least bit lugubrious about him. To the contrary, he seems to have been a model of Victorian robustness, energy and cheer. When he wasn't creating the great roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan repertory -- the Lord Chancellor in ''Iolanthe,'' Sir Joseph Porter in ''H.M.S. Pinafore,'' Ko-Ko in ''The Mikado'' -- he was tearing about the British Isles with his piano in a one-man ''Humorous and Musical Recital.'' When he performed in New York in 1892, the critic for The New York Herald wrote: ''Two minutes after the dapper little fellow, typically English in manner and voice, but extremely modest and pleasing in his address, had appeared onstage, a broad smile crept over the faces of the audience.

It stayed there all evening.'' Known familiarly as Gee Gee, he was a clubbable fellow, entertaining at his home on Dorset Square such contemporaries as Whistler, Wilde and Marie Corelli. He loved lawn tennis, skating and fishing. He was happily married, the father of four children, one of whom, Gee Gee Jr., was to become a leading London stage figure in his own right. Grossmith seems to have regarded ''The Diary of a Nobody'' as something tossed off in an idle moment, never giving it publicly so much as a mention. But whereas his greatness as a performer was bound to fade with time, the ''Diary,'' as the foreword to the 1945 Penguin edition put it, ''lives on in print to be read anew by generation after generation, exactly as it was written.'' Or does it? Today, I am afraid, ''The Diary of a Nobody'' falls into that sad category, Forgotten Masterpieces. A few people still read it in England , where it has been dramatized on television and radio and has inspired many imitators (of which ''Bridget Jones's Diary,'' by Helen Fielding, might be counted as one of the more successful).

But in the United States it is all but unknown. Although a couple of paperback editions remain in print, I have not seen a copy in a Manhattan bookstore in the last decade. Few of my literary friends, even the Anglophiles among them, profess to have heard of it. Whenever I attempt to use the word ''Pooterish'' in an article, some damned ignorant editor always takes it out. Academic lit-crit types have shown scant interest in the ''Diary,'' despite its wealth of what I suppose must be called ''cultural signifiers'' -- popular song titles, references to late Victorian fads like spiritualism, clues to the ideology of home and marriage at the dawn of suburbia. Indeed, ''The Diary of a Nobody'' is the first real critique of suburban life, at least as it was lived in the miles and miles of little red-brick houses that began to swallow up the countryside around London in the 19th century. But unlike the later literature of suburbia -- with its tiresome emphasis on soul-numbing banality and, especially these days, gruesome dysfunction -- Pooter's jottings manage to convey the essential wholesomeness of suburban folkways.

Despite his limited vision, he is a noble character, precariously striving to uphold propriety in the face of a rude world. (''I left the room with silent dignity, but caught my foot in the mat.'') So, when it comes to choosing an existential hero, you can take Nietzsche's Zarathustra, or Proust's Marcel, or even Roth's Zuckerman, thank you very much. I'll plump for Pooter. "It is not so funny that an occasional interruption would be resented, and such thread of story as runs through it can be grasped and followed without much strain on the attention ... it is rather difficult to get really interested in the sayings and doings of either the Pooter family or their friends." Review of The Diary of a Nobody, The Literary World, 29 July 1892 The Diary made its initial appearance as an intermittent serial in the satirical weekly magazine Punch.

The first of the 26 instalments was announced in the issue of 26 May 1888 with a brief editorial note: "As everybody who is anybody is publishing Reminiscences, Diaries, Notes, Autobiographies, and Recollections, we are sincerely grateful to 'A Nobody' for permitting us to add to the historic collection". The diary entry dates are several weeks behind the dates on which they appear in Punch. The Punch serialisation ended in May 1889 with the diary entry for 21 March, which records the Pooters and their friends celebrating the minor triumph of Lupin's appointment as a clerk at Perkupps. That was the intended end of the diary; however, when the writers were preparing the manuscript for publication as a book, they added a further four months' entries to the text, and included 26 illustrations by Weedon Grossmith. In June 1892 J.W. Arrowsmith Ltd published the Diary in book form, although its critical and popular success was not evident until the third edition appeared in October 1910.

After the First World War the book's popularity continued to grow; regular reprintings and new editions ensured that thereafter the book was never out of print. Audiobook versions have been available since 1982. The writer Robert McCrum, in a personal list of "The 100 greatest novels of all time" published in The Observer newspaper, listed the Diary at number 35. The Punch serialisation attracted little critical comment; The Athenaeum '​s literary critic thought the series "may have escaped unnoticed amid better jokes". When the Diary was published as a book, Punch heralded it in its issue of 23 July 1892 as "very funny", adding: "not without a touch of pathos". However, apart from a warmly approving report in The Saturday Review, the book's initial critical reception was lukewarm. The Review '​s critic thought the book "admirable, and in some of its touches [it] goes close to genius", with a natural and irresistible appeal: "The Diary has amused us from cover to cover".

This contrasted with the negative judgement of The Athenaeum, which opined that "the book has no merit to compensate for its hopeless vulgarity, not even that of being amusing". It questioned the tastefulness of jokes aimed almost exclusively at the poverty of underpaid city clerks, and concluded: "Besides, it is all so dull". The Speaker '​s critic thought the book "a study in vulgarity", while The New York Times, reviewing the first American edition, found the work largely incomprehensible: "There is that kind of quiet, commonplace, everyday joking in it which we are to suppose is highly satisfactory to our cousins across the water ... Our way of manufacturing fun is different".Although details of sales figures are not given, Arrowsmiths later acknowledged that the early editions of the book did not have a wide public impact. A CLASSIC--BETTER PERFORMED THAN READ--THE FIRST OF LONDON By Harold Wolf TOP 50 REVIEWER on July 23, 2009 Format: DVD #customerReviews Mr. Charles Pooter, the diary author in "THE DIARY OF A NOBODY", is a nobody, but he simply fails to notice.

He is content with life, almost. He presents his diary in a verbal (in this DVD)format, speaking directly to the camera. He most enthusiastically orates about his common middle-class social and family events (the very ones he's written in the diary.) He feels assured the world will eventually enjoy his written diary--when published. Is he the Suburban Snob of 1892? Certainly it's perfected pompousness. I can not imagine "THE DIARY OF A NOBODY" being as funny without hearing and seeing Pooter (Hugh Bonneville) presenting the diary in dialogue. It's strictly British humor, but at it's Victorian finest. Bonneville's ability to project emotion and expressions is near perfection. Hugh Bonneville can say as much with a lifted eyebrow, an eye roll, a gesture, or a voice change, as what is provided in the script. In Pooter's written (spoken in this DVD version) accounts, he makes the occasional joke--usually unappreciated by others. A time or two Pooter laughs so hard at his own merriment that he resembles Red Skelton's famous moments of belly-laughing at his own humor.

Pooter loves his 'Home Sweet Home' which is near the rail tracks. He had just moved into the new rental as the diary began, April of 1891. The diary ends in May of 1892. The home is called The Laurels (even though it has no laurels growing, but Pooter and his wife, Carrie, might plant some). It is London , suburbia, Victorian, and the train traffic makes the house quake frequently. But Pooter adjusts. The many views of the 6 or 7 rooms, as well as Pooter's employment location, provides a complete, delightful look at London Victorian living in a middle-class dwelling. Furnished with period pieces and accents, right down to the tea cups and boot scrapper (which is a constant complaint). And the Christmas holiday tops off the Victorian aesthetics. WOW! So what does Pooter write about? Lupin, the not-so-perfect son and his engagement with a not-so-perfect, older, fatter, uglier, Miss Daisy Mutlar. Spouse spats. His boss, Mr. Perkupp, and Pooter's downns and upps with Perkupp. Social engagements gone afoul or well.

Costs, especially with drinks. Stocks, encouraged by his son. Bad lobsters. Friends, Cummings and Gowing, and their comings and goings. And that darn boot scrapper. The DVD features explained that the term "Pooterism" (taking oneself too seriously) evolved from this work first published in a magazine (1888), then book in 1882 (still in print today), this film via BBC (2007), and now this DVD. The book was written by brothers, George & Weedon Grossmith, biography also in the bonus stuff. Plus more, but no subtitles--BOOGER! 4 episodes totaling just shy of two hours. In the end my wife and I had enjoyed actor, Hugh Bonneville, as Charles Pooter so much, we finally ceased smiling and laughing. Why? It was over. Sad to see it end. If you like the subtlety of British comedy, then you'll LOVE this CLASSIC British humor book brought to film/DVD. An astonishing one man show.

Listen to Pooter's words, watch him, "For he's the jolly good fellow." Publicada por Jeeves em 01:16 ABAA | The Diary of a Nobody by Grossmith, George; illustrated by Weedon Grossmith | Search for rare books [1892] · Bristol UK by Grossmith, George; illustrated by Weedon Grossmith Bristol UK: J.W. Arrowsmith; Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co, [1892]. Hardcover. Very Good. Hardcover. First Edition. Author's presentation copy inscribed "To Mrs. King Hall by George Grossmith." The recipient, Isabella Maud Preston Hall, was the wife of composer Charles King Hall, and the couple had many connections with the theater and the Grossmiths. Presentation copies of the classic of British humor are quite rare. The novel was published as part of Arrowmith's Three & Sixpenny Series. George Grossmith (1847 -1912) was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades.

As a writer and composer, he created 18 comic operas, nearly 100 musical sketches, some 600 songs and piano pieces, three books and both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines. Grossmith is now best remembered for two aspects of his career. First, he created a series of memorable characters in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan from 1877 to 1889, including Sir Joseph Porter, in H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), the Major-General in The Pirates of Penzance (1880) and Ko-Ko in The Mikado (1885-87). Second, he wrote, in collaboration with his brother Weedon, the 1892 comic novel The Diary of a Nobody. Grossmith had collaborated with his brother Weedon Grossmith to expand a series of amusing columns they had written in 1888-89 for Punch to publish The Diary of a Nobody as a novel. The book is a sharp analysis of social insecurity, and Charles Pooter, the middle-aged, middle class "nobody," was immediately recognized as one of the great comic characters of English literature.

Bound in original orange cloth with black and blue designs, title and authors to spine and front cover. Some bumping and soiling but still nice. Light offsetting to front and rear free endpaper. Tender hinges but textblock is tight. Frontispiece portraits of George and Weedon, and Weedon's b&w illustrations throughout. Very good condition. 300 pages plus two pages of advertisements. Wolff 2818. LIT/071816. (Inventory #: 29654) ONLINE BOOK "The Diary of a Nobody by George & Weedon Grossmith" store page spanish full pocket reader : tourdeeffingham ONLINE BOOK "The Diary of a Nobody by George & Weedon Grossmith" store page spanish full pocket reader This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment. 0 1 2 [–] [deleted] 0 points1 point2 points 11 months ago . Description book The Diary of a Nobody by George & Weedon Grossmith: Weedon Grossmith's 1892 book presents the details of English suburban life through the anxious and accident-prone character of Charles Porter.

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The Diary of a Nobody (Wordsworth Classics): Amazon.co.uk: George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith, Michael Irwin, Dr Keith Carabine: 9781853262012: Books By Stracs VINE VOICE on 8 Dec. 2011 Format: Paperback Verified Purchase I had heard lots of good things about the Diary of a Nobody, but was not really sure I would enjoy this type of work so put off reading it. However, finally I got round to it and found a pleasant, amusing read which, whilst it didn't become one of my all time favourites, I am nevertheless glad I read. This edition contains not only the diary itself, but lots of the original illustrations created by Weedon Grossmith, which are delightful and really help to bring the characters and story to life, as well as giving you an idea of how literature was often presented in the 19th century. Charles Pooter is a clerical worker who has worked at the same job in the same company for years. He has been overlooked for promotion throughout that time. He decides to keep a diary of his middle-class, run of the mill life.

In that diary we meet his long-suffering wife Carrie, his son Willie who renames himself Lupin as he feels his real name is too common, some of his less than respectful colleagues and a number of his friends - most notably Gowing and Cummins. He makes lots puns/jokes which he thinks are hysterical but are actually awful, and his complete obliviousness to this is actually very amusing. He has social aspirations which he can never quite realise. He is bothered by tradesmen who don't seem to take his social status seriously, and ensuing conflicts are very funny. The diary is really an early example of the type of observational humour which many of our stand-up comics use today. The diary remains remarkably modern/funny even now, more than 100 years after it was first released. Many of the problems Pooter encounters are so familiar even now. Read more › By Guardian of the Scales on 24 Feb. 2009 Format: Paperback The Diary of a Nobody tells in diary form the story of a certain Mr Pooter, clerk by profession and a man of no importance or interest.

He is somewhat pompous, dull, and stuffy, with pretensions towards gentility but lacking in social skills and self-awareness. He is quite a ridiculous figure, and one who is taken advantage of by many who he is pleased to call his friends, and mocked by his juniors at work. Additionally, all tradesmen are his nemeses. As he sets this down in his diary, however, Mr. Pooter is often oblivious to his own foolishness and to the impression he creates in others, and in the reader. Mr. Pooter's son Lupin is the main source of incident in his father's life. He is a youth of high spirits and little respect for his elders, including his father. Lupin undertakes a love affair with a young lady called Daisy Mutlar; he is desperately in love with this young lady , who seems to Mr. Pooter to be of no remarkable attraction or accomplishments. Concurrent with this torrid affair, Lupin finds and loses several jobs, joins an amateur dramatics club and speculates on the stock exchange with his father's money. Though over 100 years old, this book is still funny for the modern reader.

It was written with the contemporary audience in mind but the humour has not dated. As another reviewer noted, Mr Pooter is something of a 19th century David Brent. The style is notably uncluttered and unaffected. It is a short book(145 pages approx. in this edition) and extremely readable. From a relatively uneventful start, it gathers momentum with the arrival of Lupin. Pooter's character broadens somewhat to become a decent everyman, though none the less ridiculous for that. This book ends long before the reader has had enough of the bumbling central character, and is a very pleasant, undemanding read. 2 Comments 140 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again By GavinBlk on 11 Mar. 2004 Format: Paperback This is a wonderful book - I chuckled, smirked and slapped my head with delighted exasperation (whilst sitting on crowded commuter train - I am something in The City you know) at Pooter and his bewildered stumbling through the cosmic joke of his existence.

In some ways it is an 'old' book, the obsession with class and position drip through every page, with Pooters inept attempts to maintain or enhance his social position. But in many ways it is about the modern world - the alienated nobody, slogging away in an office, thinking he is better than this - when of course he isn't. So glorious, that I am considering forming a religion based on the exquisite wisdom found inside this slim volume. Comment 31 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again By Uncle Barbar TOP 50 REVIEWER on 17 Feb. 2004 Format: Paperback This book is a little subtle - if you can't read in between the lines then you won't find it funny. If you can then the subtle humour can't help but amuse you. Pooter is lovable, ridiculous, pompous and trivial - a fully rounded character who is quite oblivious to how most of the world perceives him. A classic. Comment 13 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again By A Customer on 26 Aug. 2003 Format: Paperback Diary of a Nobody tells the story (in diary form) of Edwardian clerk Mr Charles Pooter. Mr Pooter is a roaring stereotype of the turn of the century, white-collar, lower-middle class to which he belongs, from his snobbish pomposity and sense of social importance, to his suburban home in Holloway (home: The Laurels). Pooter is a man out of his time, his ideals and attitudes are those of the mid 19th century when his position as clerk would have obtained for him the social respect that Pooter still clearly thinks he deserves. However, the Great Agricultural Depression meant that clerks positions were no longer as secure as they had been 30 years previously, while the spread of education and literacy meant that the rank of office clerk were considerably less exclusive or esteemed. Pooter completely fails to recognise this and much of the books humour stems from his inability to change with the times and his continuing bemusement as to why people he considers beneath him (his grocer, his cleaner, his son's friends) fail to show him the respect Pooter feels he deserves.

While much of the humour could be lost on those unfamilar with the finer points of contemporary Edwardian society, this does not mean that enjoyment of the book is exclusive. Pooter is a genuinely warm, well meaning character, completely recognisible to a 21st century audience. While the peiod may differ, many of the problems which cause Pooter such worry are exactly the same as today. He his constantly vexed by the behaviour of his son (the ridiculously named Lupin), friends (Cummings and Gowings) and his job. All in all, Diary of a Nobody is an inoffensive yet heart warming tale. While it may seem dated, reading it definitely remains an amusing and worthwile way to spend an afternoon. Comment 13 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote.

Please try again The Diary of a Nobody: Amazon.it: George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith: Libri in altre lingue 4 di 4 persone hanno trovato utile la seguente recensione 5.0 su 5 stelle Falling down funny, perfectly pitched satire 28 dicembre 2011 Di C. Ebeling - Pubblicato su Amazon.com Formato: Copertina flessibile Acquisto verificato Mr. Charles Pooter, a middle-class, middle-aged suburban Londoner in the late Victorian Era, decides to keep a diary. After all, it seems like everyone is publishing their diaries, so why shouldn't he? His only regret is that he had not begun the diary sooner. When part of the way through this hilarious story related through his daily entries it seems that someone ripped out several pages to use for fire kindling, he says to his loyal wife and impudent son that he had hoped the diary would be a fond remembrance of him after he died and possibly that having it published could bring them some remuneration. His loved ones cannot suppress their laughter.

The biggest joke is that in fact, this diary of a dedicated clerk in an old-fashioned accounting firm, who has done little else in his life and is quite comfortable with the status quo, is eternally priceless on for its comedy and what it reveals about the Victorian middle-class life and preoccupations that it satirizes. If Mr. Pooter and his friends represent a culture that has grown complacent and overly interested in its own hobby horses and etiquette, his adult son Lupin is the brash younger generation that seeks entertainment and gratification without apology, shaking off musty traditions. The Grossmith brothers--George largely wrote this and Weedon illustrated it as a magazine serial--had no idea that they were creating a historical document as much as a giddy entertainment. The comedy is absolutely winning. The Grossmiths don't sell Mr. Pooter down the river entirely--they allow him competence at work, some self awareness and wounded dignity--but every diary entry usually sets up his hopes and schemes only to be reported as dashed in the next. Long before Rodney Dangerfield complained that he didn't get respect, Mr.

Pooter had every right to cry that out as younger clerks, the neighbors, his son, his son's friends and the servants feel free to regularly contradict and insult him. There is plenty of physical comedy and fashion gone bad. And there is that voice of Mr. Pooter, at once plaintive, hopeful, clueless, sweet but not stupid, who always picks himself up after a fall. 5.0 su 5 stelle Undiluted Late-Victorian Brilliance 14 gennaio 2014 Di Alexander Gaya - Pubblicato su Amazon.com Formato: Copertina flessibile Acquisto verificato If you, like myself, are a neo-Victorian, you will "laugh till the bed shakes", as the hero of this 'diary' (and yes, 'hero' is the right word) himself does at his own punny jokes. Ten pages in and half as many persons have tripped over the mud scraper…an unmanageable young son with 'forward' slang…squabbles with servants, old friends and unpleasant new acquaintances…trouble at work…social embarrassments…everything a lover of Dickens could ask for and more.

Even if you don't live and breathe top hats (Posh three-shilling hats, rather), you will probably get a kick or two out of this, especially if you erupt in mirthquakes whilst paging through it in a public library or at the doctor's office. The edition by Wordsworth Classics, besides being a steal at the price, is splendid in every respect. The footnotes are somewhat overattentive for me, but will serve most readers very well; it is far better to have a footnote too many than a footnote too few. The introduction by Professor Michael Irwin (University of Kent at Canterbury) is *excellent* (and should be read, like most introductions, after completion of the main contents). I heartily endorse the sentiments expressed on the back cover: "If you don't recognize yourself as some point in 'The Diary' you are probably less than human. If you can read it without laughing aloud you have no sense of humour." 5.0 su 5 stelle You will - eventually - like this character!

23 giugno 2012 Di John the Reader - Pubblicato su Amazon.com Formato: Copertina flessibile Acquisto verificato In my youth there was a BBC Radio program called ITMA - It's That Man Again. I kept running across a certain Charles Pooter and references to his diaries in much of my reading. Eventually I realized, from the comments that indicated sheer pleasure, that this was a book I should own and read, even if it was just fiction. I very quickly read and enjoyed this little book that I shelved it, for a later reread, and forgot to review it. Why is that important - just another reader's review after all - because people who enjoy reading, and have a sense of wit, need to know of it ... do read it! "I fail to see" said Mr. Pooter to himself one day," - because I do not happen to be a 'Somebody'-why my diary should not be interesting and published." So publish he does, or rather two brothers, George and Weedon Grossmith created and publish a series of humorous articles for the magazine Punch that were eventually published in 1892 as the book Diary of a Nobody.

Mr. Pooter soon proves to us that he certainly is not a "Somebody" but the little details of his so little life are surprisingly engaging and eventually, as you close and shelve the book, you find that you can feel at least a "warm regard" for this character. Of course, few of us will be able to hold him in the highly pretentious regard he holds himself, or enjoy his "puns" and little jokes quite as much as he does! But most readers will find they have a chuckling sympathy for Mr. Pooter's struggle for a decent life. 1 di 1 persone hanno trovato utile la seguente recensione 5.0 su 5 stelle One of the great, small classics from England 3 febbraio 2014 Di bingo - Pubblicato su Amazon.com Formato: Copertina rigida Acquisto verificato In England it seems everyone born before 1950 has read or at least knows of this book. It is a gentle tale of a middle aged couple, the Pooters, with modest expectations of life, a modest way of living, clear ideas about the world as they see it.

And the little tale ends happily. Yet the beginnings of a changing world are hinted at in the life of their son Lupin. One of those books so well written that it doesn't seem to be "written" at all. 1 di 1 persone hanno trovato utile la seguente recensione

Question: The classic 1892 comedy novel written by George and Weedon Grossmith is 'Diary of a 'what'?
Answer: Nobody