An appreciation of
British humor might help to fully savor The Diary of a Nobody,
but a reader would have to entirely lack a sense of humor to not
chuckle many a time. Besides, the Grosssmith brothers' classic has more
than amusement to recommend it: It leaves readers feeling tenderly
toward diary writer Charles Pooter even while poking fun at him, a
rare and hard-to-pull-off accomplishment.
The Diary of a Nobody
was first serialized in the British magazine Punch in
1888–89 and released as a book in 1892. Pooter says that if
Pepys and Johnson can write diaries, why shouldn't he? "I fail to see
— because I do not happen to be a 'Somebody' — why
my diary should not be interesting," he explains at the outset.
There follow 15 months of entries detailing a Nobody's life: a clerk's
job in the city, a home in a lower-middle-class suburb, a staid but
stable marriage, a 20-year-old son he doesn't understand, friends who
come over for dominoes. Always, Pooter is concerned about appearances,
but so sincere is he that he grows likable. Despite his foibles,
anxieties, and self-importance, he is a decent man.
More than a century after its publication, The Diary of a Nobody
is no longer relevant about the details of everyday life, but it still
hits the mark in portraying the status consciousness that characterizes
suburbia.
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