The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith

[Janet]

I can't believe there isn't already a thread about this, but I've searched and can't find one!

 

 

The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith

 

The ‘blurb’

The Diary of a Nobody began as a serial in Punch and the book which followed in 1892 has never been out of print. The Grossmith brothers not only created an immortal comic character but produced a clever satire of their society.

 

Mr Pooter is an office clerk and upright family man in a dull 1880s suburb. His diary is a wonderful portrait of the class system and the inherent snobbishness of the suburban middle classes. It sends up contemporary crazes for Aestheticism, spiritualism and bicycling, as well as the fashion for publishing diaries by anybody and everybody

 

I have had this book on my ‘to read’ pile for a long time and had heard many good things about it. It was likened to Jerome’s excellent Three Men in a Boat, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and this did not disappoint!

 

Pooter works as a clerk and although he’s been with the same company for many years, he’s been overlooked for promotion. He keeps a diary of his middle-class, fairly humdrum life and those in it, including this long-suffering wife Carrie, his son, Willie latterly known by his middle name of Lupin (did the writer of Keeping Up Appearances take any inspiration here for the character of Sheridan Bucket?! ) and his friends Gowing and Cummins.

 

He makes lots of puns which he thinks are very funny but are really rather cringeworthy. He has social aspirations which are not often fully-realised and he is increasingly bothered by tradesmen who don’t seem to take his social place seriously! It really is most amusing.

 

The diary is not laugh-out-loud funny, but the observations are beautifully made and the partnership of George, with his excellent writing, and Weedon with his wonderfully astute illustrations make this a thoroughly entertaining read!

[Books do furnish a room]

Read this a couple of years ago; I loved the general pace of the book and the understated way of writing about very little. The humour is subtle and I think transfers to the present day very well.

[chesilbeach]

I loved this book when I read it last year. These were my thoughts at the time:

 

What a charming, funny read The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith was. A comic diary of Mr Charles Pooter, a late 19th century middle class clerk, this book is a witty chronicle of the ordinary suburban life and a great little read (only took me about two hours). I loved it, and would particularly recommend it to anyone who likes The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield or the Mapp and Lucia series by E. F. Benson or Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson.

[willoyd]

Can't say I liked it at all - my notes say the humour was too forced - but then thought the same about Diary of a Provincial Lady. Loved Miss Pettigrew though! I am, however, horribly difficult to please when it comes to humour in books. There's very little I've ever found funny (I get my laughs from the radio mainly), as most authors seem to me to try too hard, although JL Carr and Douglas Adams are rare exceptions, even if not laugh outloud (that seems to be reserved for Asterix, which probably says more about me than about books!!).

Edited November 20, 2010 by willoyd

[Kylie]

Has anyone seen a movie version of this? I saw it at a shop last night and was excited but also a bit wary. I looked it up on IMDB when I got home, but there are a couple of different versions and I'd already forgotten who was in the one I saw at the shop. I didn't buy it because it was a little expensive.

[Milo MInderbinder]

This was recommended to me by a friend. A very short book but an easy and amusing read. Set in late Victorian Holloway, Charlie Pooter is what we in our house call “a climber”. Or what technically you may describe as lower-middle class (if you are into all that class business, which I am not). Pooter is a man who places a great deal of stock in somebody’s occupation and social standing even though he himself is only a clerk. A bit of an an inverted snob if you will.

 

Weedon’s book is a great satire on British stuffiness and class. As the title suggests there really isn’t much action in the book regarding Charlie’s day to day dealings but it’s littered with great little put downs about his wife, friends, and his wayward son. Pooter could be a character out of one of the brilliant songs that Ray Davies of The Kinks wrote about English suburbia. This book is available free for Kindle users.

 

Janets review is far more comprehensive and better than mine so I won't rattle on, but I just wanted to recommend the book to anybody who likes to see the British poke fun at themselves.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Milo MInderbinder

[Ruth]

I bought the book a couple of months ago, because it looks like something I would enjoy. I haven't read it yet, but hope to read it sometime soon.

[julie]

I think this one was one of the free kindle books I got last week when I was leafing through the free books . Sounds like it ought to be a good one. I thought the title was unusual,so wanted to see what a "nobody" has to write about ,

 

I guess I was hoping it'd be a little like Augustus Carp, which I read many years ago ,and remembered it had a lot of humorous areas in it .

[bobblybear]

I bought this one as well for my Kindle, because it had so many positive reviews. Hopefully I will get to it sometime soon!

[Faramir]

Can anyone help?

 

I remember a cassette tape reading of DOAN which I very much enjoyed as a child, which was read by Arthur Lowe of Dad's Army. I heartily recommend it as the finest reading I've heard, Lowe had just the right voice, intonation, timing etc.

 

I'd love to have this recording again, but the BBC are not putting such old stuff online/CD, and the only available copies on Amazon/Ebay are old cassette box sets..& I've not had a cassette player for years.

 

 

Has anyone else heard this recording/got a digital version or know where I can buy such a thing?

 

I'm happy to pay the people who made it, but if it's been lost to history it may be something I'll have to torrent.. I don't agree with piracy as a rule, but operate on the 'shoplifting principle' (I.e. I will attempt to pay before leaving!)

[Lumo]

Can't help you find the original recording you refer to Faramir, but there is is a LibriVox version of DOAN available:

 

http://www.podiobooks.com/title/the-diary-of-a-nobody

 

Also, if you were to get an old walkman type cassette player from eBay then it is not too difficult to record a cassette to a computer and save as an mp3 file.