The Diary of a Nobody

by George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith

Overview

This “jewel at the heart of English comic literature” chronicles the daily fortunes and misfortunes of a middle-age, middle-class clerk (William Trevor, The Mail on Sunday).
 
Since its original publication in 1892, The Diary of a Nobody has become a much-loved classic. It is a fictional man’s dissection of the everyday drama of his life as an office worker in a London firm. With dry wit, the authors step into the character of Charles Pooter as he navigates work life with not-so-respectful young coworkers and family life with his charming wife, Carrie, and impetuous son, Lupin. From home repairs gone wrong (painting the tub red), to the comings and goings of his friends Cummings and Gowings, Pooter painstakingly shares intimate details of his existence, with the (not completely absurd) hope of maybe someday having his memoir published. An ongoing tally of the good jokes he makes shares space with descriptions of grievous insults to his person, party mishaps, the annoying behavior of everyone around him, and Lupin’s on-again off-again employment and engagement status. The Diary of a Nobody gives everyone a reason to laugh—and recognize themselves in Pooter’s droll prose.
 
“The funniest book in the world.” —Evelyn Waugh, author of Brideshead Revisited
 
“There’s a universality about Pooter that touches everybody . . . [he] fits into the tradition of absurd humour that the British do well, which started with Jonathan Swift and runs through Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear to Monty Python.” —Jasper Fforde, Time Out
 
“Pooter himself is as gentle as you could wish, a wonderful character, genuinely lovable. The book is beautifully constructed.” —Andrew Davies, The Herald

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504084529
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	03/28/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	158
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

George Grossmith (1847–1912) was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. He wrote eighteen comic operas, nearly one hundred musical sketches, some six hundred songs and piano pieces, three books, and both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines. He was born in Islington, London, and grew up in St. Pancras and Hampstead, London. In 1873, Grossmith married Emmeline Rosa Noyce, and together the couple had four children. Grossmith passed away at his home in Folkestone at the age of sixty-four.

Weedon Grossmith (1854–1919) was an English writer, painter, actor, and playwright. He was born in London and grew up in St. Pancras and Hampstead, London. He was educated at Massingham House on Haverstock Hill in Hampstead, and then at the North London Collegiate School in Camden Town and Simpson’s School, a local private establishment. Interested in art, he trained as a painter at the West London School of Art, the Slade School of Fine Art, and the Royal Academy of Arts. He turned to acting in 1885, which he pursued until 1917. In 1895, he married the actress May Lever Palfrey. He died in London at the age of sixty-five.
 
George Grossmith (1847–1912) was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. He wrote eighteen comic operas, nearly one hundred musical sketches, some six hundred songs and piano pieces, three books, and both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines. He was born in Islington, London, and grew up in St. Pancras and Hampstead, London. In 1873, Grossmith married Emmeline Rosa Noyce, and together the couple had four children. Grossmith passed away at his home in Folkestone at the age of sixty-four.
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

George and Weedon Grossmith: A Brief Chronology

A Note on the Text

The Diary of a Nobody

Appendix A: Contemporary Reviews

1. From Baron de B.W. & Co., “Our Booking Office,” Punch, 103 (23 June 1892)
2. From The Saturday Review, 74 (23 June 1892)
3. From The Athenaeum (13 August 1892)
4. From The Literary World, 46 (29 July 1892)
5. From The Speaker, 6 (6 August 1892)
6. From The New York Times (19 December 1892)
7. Publisher’s Note to the “new edition” of 1910 (10 October 1910)
8. From The Bookman [London], 39 (December 1910)
9. From The Bookman [London], 57 (December 1919)
10. From Xanthias, Queen’s Quarterly, 27 (1920)

Appendix B: The Clerk’s Lot in Life

1. From Charles Edward Parsons, Clerks; Their Position and Advancement (1876)
2. From The Clerk:A Sketch in Outline of His Duties and Discipline (1878)
3. From Francis Davenant, Starting in Life: Hints for Parents on the Choice of a Profession or Trade for Their Sons (1881)
4. From The Story of a London Clerk: A Faithful Narrative Faithfully Told (1896)
5. From Charles Booth, ed., Life and Labour of the People in London (1896)
6. From Robert White, “Wanted:A Rowton House for Clerks,” Nineteenth Century, 42 (October 1897)
7. From Shan Bullock, Robert Thorne: The Story of a London Clerk (1907)

Appendix C: Domestic Economy at The Laurels

1. From G.S. Layard, “A Lower Middle-Class Budget,” Cornhill Magazine, 10 (Jan–June 1901)

Appendix D: Suburban Fictions in the Wake of the Diary

1. From R. Andom, Martha and I: Being Scenes from Our Suburban Life (1898)
2. From W. Pett Ridge, Outside the Radius: Stories of a London Suburb (1899)
3. From Barry Pain, Eliza (1900)
4. From Keble Howard, The Smiths of Surbiton: A Comedy without a Plot (1906)

Appendix E: Séances in the Suburbs

1. From Morell Theobald, Spirit Workers in the Home Circle (1887)
2. From Florence Marryat, There Is No Death (1891)
3. From Barry Pain, Eliza Getting On (1911)

Appendix F: Suburban Life and its Critics

1. From Geoffrey Mortimer, The Blight of Respectability (1897)
2. From H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898)
3. From T.W.H. Crosland, The Suburbans (1905)
4. From C.F.G. Masterman, In Peril of Change: Essays Written in Time of Tranquillity (1905)
5. From C.F.G. Masterman, The Condition of England (1909)

Works Cited and Recommended Reading

Editorial Reviews

Although The Diary of a Nobody has never been out of print for over the last hundred years, it has, until now, failed to attract an edition capable of really illuminating its lost social and literary contexts. Peter Morton’s Broadview edition remedies this lack with its excellent introduction, incisive textual annotation, and its comprehensive selection of extracts from background material. This extensive scholarly apparatus, rather than overwhelming the Diary’s comedy, succeeds in breathing new life into an established classic of its genre.” — Jonathan Wild, University Edinburgh

“Finally the Grossmith’s The Diary of a Nobody has an edition worth of its importance. Peter Morton’s introduction, like the secondary materials he has wisely chosen, pays attention to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of readers to see that the Diary for all its notoriety was not a singular phenomenon, but rather part of a flourishing of interest in the lives of clerks and other lower-middle-class figures. This is another fine Broadview edition that will find its home on the bookshelves of scholars, students, and readers of nineteenth-century literature.” — Scott Banville, University of Nevada Reno

From the Publisher

The great thing about Pooter is that he is still lovable in all his self-important absurdity. He always tries to make the best of everything, and although he is a figure of fun, his celebration of a life that leaves little mark upon the world is gently moving.”

Guardian (London)

The idea that this man is one of themselves, but that readers can see what he does not, whilst still feeling benevolently sympathetic towards him—that they are, in some way, superior to their neighbor—provides the most enduring ground for the Diary’s popularity.”

author of The Victorians and the Visual Imaginatio Kate Flint

One of the funniest books ever written.”

British author and screenwriter Andrew Davies

[A] masterpiece of comic irony…Frederick Davidson’s impeccable reading is truly inspired, in perfect unity with the Pooteresque view of the world.”

AudioFile