Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The Diary of a Nobody  -  1892 (in book form)
George and Weedon Smith
140 pages
genre  -  Humor, Epistolary
my rating  -  3 out of 5 stars

Charles Pooter and his wife Carrie have been in their new home for a week when Mr. Pooter decides to keep a diary.  "I have often seen reminiscences of people I never even heard of, and I fail to see...why my diary should not be interesting."  He writes in his journal from April 3 through July 11 of the next year.

The following is a collection of humorous recitations of their everyday lives:  the troublesome boot scraper that everyone trips over; what happens when you take a extremely hot bath in a newly painted tub; the joys of raising a teenage son; dealings with the laundress, the butcher, the butterman, the next-door-neighbors and encounters with the upper class. 

In all those wonderful, subtle, and silly examples of British humor, there are some clear points of normal humanity.  In other words, Charles Pooter is just like you and me.

My favorite line in the book:  "...half the pleasures of life [are] derived from the little struggles and small privations that one had to endure at the beginning of one's married life.  Such struggles [are] generally occasioned by want of means, and often helped to make loving couples stand together all the firmer."

About the authors  - 

George Grossmith (9 December 1847 – 1 March 1912) was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer.  In 1873, George married Emmeline Rosa Noyce, the daughter of a physician. The couple had four children. Grossmith died at his home at the age of 64.

 Weedon Grossmith (9 June 1854 – 14 June 1919) was an English writer, painter, actor and playwright.  Weedon illustrated The Diary of a Nobody. In 1895, he married the actress May Lever Palfrey. They had one child, a daughter, Nancy. He died in London at the age of 65.

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