Customer Reviews

Diary of a Nobody (Wordsworth Classics)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you respond at all to this gentle, loving, intricately detailed, and acute (but never hostile)evocation of late-Victorian London, the chances are good that it will become one of your favorite books. The humor is rather special, and I've found that some Americans simply can't "get into" Grossmith. As for me, I reread the book every year and the very thought of it can make me smile.

I downloaded this book because it was free, not really expecting much from it. However, I'm glad I chose to read it because from the very beginning, it had me laughing. The main character just can't win: no matter what good fortune he has (which is very little) something hilarious always happens to ruin it for him. I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good read.

This book must be the most nearly perfect piece of comic writing in English, its humour gentle and subtle, its depiction of character, class, time and location flawless. It fixes forever the late-Victorian world of the respectable Lower Middle Class, populated by clerks, petty merchants and tradesmen, observing it with both objectivity and affection. It is splendidly read on tape by Frederick Davidson, whose assumed accent is perfectly gauged to reflect the upwardly-mobile aspirations of the Mr.Charles Pooter, the self-confessed nobody of the title, and which slips down the social scale by several notches in moments of stress and frustration. Though superficially simple, the construction of the narrative is complex in the extreme, with comic situations often being built up over a long period, and with clues carefully planted in earlier sections, only to come to fruition later. It is particularly impressive how the main characters - Pooter himself, his long-suffering and often silly but supportive wife Carrie and his exasperating son Lupin - emerge as rounded characters from apparently simple diary entries and achieve a realism and familiarity as great as any in more serious literature. The situations in which they find themselves - or rather get themselves - are not only ludicrously amusing, but also close to the normality of life as many live it, and one can often, uncomfortably, recognise one's self or one's friends in their reactions to them. What makes the Diary an enduring masterpiece is however the gentle and affectionate treatment of human weakness - and greatness. Pooter may be pompous, foolish and sometimes sycophantic, but he is also loyal, decent and honourable and his life, and his family's, for all its pettiness, also has its dignity. I first read the Diary over forty years ago and it has never ceased to delight me since - it remains a treasured bedside book to be opened at random - and this splendid tape of it is an ideal companion for long or short automobile journeys. (An interesting footnote is that George Grossmith, as a singer and actor, created many of the best known Gilbert and Sullivan roles on stage).

The 'Nobody' of the title is one Charles Pooter, an ordinary middle-class Londoner in the late 19th century who reasons that if Pepys and Johnson can write diaries to entertain people, why should his diary be any less exciting? And so we are amused by such characters as Pooter's unpredictable son Lupin, his good friends Cumming and Gowing, and not least Pooter himself, whose most fascinating and hilarious trait is his tendency to write people off as lacking in humour when they fail to laugh at his occasional pun, whilst exhibiting a distinct lack of humour himself when it comes to some of the more trivial aspects of life.

Pooter's descriptions of the mundane, as well as the occasionally unusual, happenings of daily life are told in extraordinary detail, which brings a real vividness to some of the amusing predicaments our friend finds himself in. And he really is our friend by the end of the book. There is a certain air of pathos about this man that proves quite endearing. His Victorian prudery and sensibility provokes much laughter (reading this on the train to London, I had to put it down a couple of times to avoid drawing attention to myself), yet also provokes a certain affection for a character who is as tragic as he is admirable. That is, despite some of his more pathetic idionsyncracies, the warmth and genuineness of his character shine through.

This book is a riot from start to finish. Read one page and you'll see why this is such a beloved classic of dry humor.

This book is full of common everyday people, what is important to them, and how the generation gap forms. Very brief and as the name implies a diary. You see yourself as well as people you know in this funny little book.
I found myself laughing out loud several times at the jokes, as well as running physical comedy described in this book. The thing I found most poignant is the reason Mr. Pooter is writing this diary. It is meant that when he is gone, dies, his wife and son will have something of himself that will make them laugh and remember him well. Even though he threatens to stop writing the diary, he also finds that he cannot, that the diary has become a part of him and that at times it is were he can be most brutally honest, while hiding his feelings especially from his son, and at times his wife.
Enjoy this book, PLEASE. It is a little known classic, and if you do not mind my recommendation finish is and then read "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons. These should tickle your funny bone and give you a brief respite from your eveyday troubles.

I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. I "bought" it for my kindle because of the nonexistent price, but it's remained one of my favorite books ever since.
I found myself really sympathizing with the "author", and wanting things to turn out well for him. And it's, also, very funny. The voice used makes you feel like you're actually reading someone's diary. I would, happily, recommend it to any of my friends.

I first 'found' this book as a teenager, would read it in the library whilst waiting for my family to finish choosing books! It's that kind of book, to pick up, read a few entries, enjoy a smile and chuckle at the Pooters, and in reflection yourself, and then put down until you feel the urge again. It will not make your sides ache, but it will lift your heart with good, honest fun.

I laughed till the bed shook

I was reminded of this book after reading that George Grossmith spent many years with the Gilbert and Sullivan company and is portrayed in a very interesing fashion in the film "Topsy Turvy." It was available in a very inexpensive editon from amazon.co.uk and I read it quite quickly and found it delightful. It is truly enjoyable and informative to read the slice-of-life story of Mr. Pooter, an archetypal middle class creature whose idiosyncracies would be recognizable [and, unfortunately, beaten to death] in a current TV sitcom. His problems at home and at work, and his relations with family and friends, are delightfully communicated and it is fascinating to see both what is tied to his own time and what is recognizable to us, today. The story is lightly drawn but there is a subtle undercurrent of profound social commentary.