The Diary of a Nobody

Description

'The funniest book in the world' Evelyn Waugh Designed to appeal to book lovers everywhere, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much-loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. The Diary of a Nobody is a comic masterpiece which has been hugely influential since its first publication in 1892. This edition features Weedon Grossmith's original illustrations and an afterword by novelist Paul Bailey. Proud to be ensconced with his wife Carrie in the desirable London suburb of Holloway, bank clerk Charles Pooter decides to keep a diary. From the frequent visits by his dear friends Mr Cummings and Mr Gowing to the ups and downs of his feckless son Lupin, the self-regarding Mr Pooter considers, mistakenly, that all aspects of his life are worthy of note. The result is a hilarious spoof and a perfectly pitched satire on late Victorian society.

George Grossmith enjoyed a successful career spanning four decades as an accomplished singer, comic actor and songwriter. He was particularly renowned for his performances in a number of Gilbert and Sullivan operas. His younger brother Weedon trained as an artist and worked as a portrait painter before turning his hand to acting and playwriting. The brothers shared a gift for comedy and from 1888 to 1889 they collaborated on a series of brilliantly observed columns in Punch magazine featuring the diary of an impossibly pompous lower-middle-class bank clerk named Charles Pooter. The Diary of a Nobody went on to be published in book form in 1892 and it has been in print ever since.

The funniest book in the world -- Evelyn Waugh There's a universality about Pooter that touches everybody . . . [he] fits into the tradition of absurd humour that the British do well, which started with Jonathan Swift and runs through Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear to Monty Python -- Jasper Fforde * Time Out * Pooter himself is as gentle as you could wish, a wonderful character, genuinely lovable. The book is beautifully constructed -- Andrew Davies * Glasgow Herald * One of those rare books that nails a cultural archetype and has won the affection of successive generations * The Times * The funniest book about a certain type of Englishness . . . there is a whole line of these comic characters like Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army, or Basil Fawlty -- Hugh Bonneville * The Times *