Original Publication Date: 1888 Genre: Victorian, fiction, humorous Topics: Suburbia, middle-class, London
Review by: Liz Inskip-Paulk (www.ravingreader.workpress.com
"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."
Although this was a reread, it was a reread from A Long Time Ago and so it ended up being more or less a New Read in the end. And this was fine, as I loved this book. I know it was written in the late Victorian era, but it was so funny that I burst out laughing at times which led to some strange looks when I was on the elliptical at the gym. I couldn’t help myself though, and TBH, it was that funny to me that I can neither confirm nor deny that snorting out loud did occur in public.
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| The Laurels - where the Pooter family reside. |
This is a
fictional diary of a lower middle-class man living on the outskirts of London,
married with a grown-up son and a wife who loves him despite his flaws. (He
doesn’t acknowledge these flaws though…) Charles Pooter is the diarist, and he
lives a modest existence as a city clerk in an office where he’s been working
for the past 20 years without much professional recognition, and he begins
journaling as he secretly thinks that someone somewhere will publish his diary
for its literary worth. He’s a nice guy, basically, but has some insufferable
snobbish airs which stem only from his own personal social insecurity and not
from malice.
Adult son William (and then later called Lupin) is rather a
gadabout creature who drinks, gambles and makes somewhat brash decisions, but
who receives the general adoration from his parents (which becomes somewhat
tempered after Lupin movies in to his childhood home due to losing his job).
Wife Carrie is portrayed as a sweet Victorian wife, but readers can see (through
Mr. Pooter’s diary descriptions) that perhaps she is not quite as quiet and
adoring of her husband as he writes. It’s all very farcical, but done in such a
way that it’s fresh and still very very funny in parts.
Mr. Pooter’s diary chronicles about 15 months of his life
and details his thinking about his life in London as a clerk and the sometimes
hilarious social misfortunes that occur to him, typical things that happen to
anyone but which, when they happen to Mr. Pooter, can completely shape his day
and how he sees it. It’s a little bit like reading Basil Fawlty’s diary (if you
remember that TV series). He does his best, but things consistently go wrong
for him. Despite this, his family still loves him all the same.
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| George (right) and Weedon Grossmith |
Download The Diary of a Nobody by Weedon Grossmith and George Grossmith at Project Gutenberg|Librivox|
