The Diary of a Nobody (Oxford World's Classics)

I honestly never knoew that such an old book could be so hilarious! It's written in such a brilliant way that you can "see" it all happening - it very vivid. I think they should do a film of this! One of the best books I have read for a long time!

Fantastic! (0/0 people found this helpful)

This is one of the funniest books I've ever read. I wish another one would have been written! I always read it when I feel a bit downhearted. A great insight into the life of people in those times - and how little has changed with regard to a son's attitude to his Dad!!! It was totally my sense of humour.

A delightful story (1/2 people found this helpful)

This diary is both a comic masterpiece and an accurate account of lower-middle-class life, attitudes and aspirations in the late 1880s in London. It is a topical work because it reflects the period at which it was written and it actively makes play with small distinctions of taste and fashion in relation to clothes, social forms, furnishings and décor, shops, slang, transport or popular song.
The limiting factor in "The Diary" is the character of the diarist because Mr Pooter is a Nobody even to his own eyes and this very fact is the reason for the existence of his journal. It is interesting that despite these two aspects - a comedy centred on a nonentity - the book has become a classic and is still widely enjoyed by contemporary readers.
Mr Pooter is a figure of fun, nervous, respectable, sometimes pompous and often the subject of trivial mortifications. The story assumes that Pooter's small gaffes in social know-how or taste can be found everywhere on the social scale so that in a sense we are all more or less Pooters because we make our own mistakes.
Pooter is perhaps a "nobody" in social terms but he has a full human status. Being fallible he is laughable but so, the authors imply, are the rest of us. If we can identify with this "nobody" the question inevitably comes up whether there can indeed be such a person as a "somebody"!
Weedon Grossmith's illustrations are not only funny to look at, they confirm George Grossmith's hints and help us imagine. For example the illustrations of Pooter and Lupin perfectly show the connection and disconnection between father and son.
The Wordsworth Classics edition features a valuable introduction by Michael Irwin with interesting interpretative views of the novel.
This book is beautifully read by Martin Clifton for Librivox.org and is ideal for readers who like to listen to the story as they read along.

David Brent...100 years ago (2/2 people found this helpful)

Light and funny, this book actually made me laugh out loud several times. It's how I'd imagine David Brent to be 100 years ago--not so embarrassing, but endearingly slow-witted and desperate to climb the social ladder.

I can understand why some people might find it a little dated, but it's certainly worth a gamble at less than two quid!

Hilarious! (0/0 people found this helpful)

I came across this perchance; it seemed interesting so I picked it up. I read it all in one go because I couldn't put it down, the humour was brilliant. The thing I love about Mr. Pooter is that we all know someone like him. He's not a bad sort but has social aspirations, likes to think highly of his own situation and is jealous of anyone that he feels shouldn't be on the same social footing as he is. Yet despite all this he's lovable. His entries were really comical; he's constantly felled by disaster followed by disaster. His servants cheat him, his grocer, laundrette etc. all "take the mick" out of him and mess up his orders; they none of them take him seriously and ensure he knows it. Some of his early entries had me laughing, he had planted some seeds and every day in the early entries he comments on the fact that nothing has come up yet. He reminds of an impatient child always grasping for attention and it's his childlike behaviour which I think is so appealing about the novel.

It's also a really easy read, if you've decided to take a sabbatical from wordy/lengthy/thinking novels; this is definitely the novel for you. It's also great as a way to kill time.

The Diary of a Nobody (Oxford World's Classics)

George and Weedon Grossmith

Reader Reviews:

Hilarious! (0/0 people found this helpful)

Fantastic! (0/0 people found this helpful)

A delightful story (1/2 people found this helpful)

David Brent...100 years ago (2/2 people found this helpful)

Hilarious! (0/0 people found this helpful)

Similar Products

Categories