4 h 48 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your greatest struggle is keeping your dignity while everyone around you finds you funny?
Charles Pooter, a London clerk, believes his life deserves a diary as much as any famous person's. At The Laurels, his rented house in Holloway, he records the daily business of being respectable. His wife Carrie gently humours him, while tradesmen, neighbours and visiting friends keep giving his pride something to recover from.
In The Diary of a Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith turn small embarrassments into gentle comedy. Pooter's fashionable son Lupin wants a livelier life, and his employer Mr Perkupp's approval matters deeply. Behind the invitations and tiny insults lie money worries, a modest job and one man's longing to count for something.
What you’ll discover
- A diary worth keeping Meet a careful clerk who gives ordinary days the importance he feels they deserve.
- Respectability under pressure Watch tradesmen and neighbours test Pooter's determination to keep his home and dignity intact.
- A lively family contrast Enjoy practical Carrie's calm and fashionable Lupin's teasing beside Pooter's deeply serious view of himself.
- The cost of belonging Feel the worries beneath social hopes when money is tight and approval matters so much.
- Laughter with real warmth Find ordinary decency beneath the pretensions of a man who is painfully, recognisably human.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy gentle comedy about ordinary people, awkward social moments, family squabbles, Victorian London, and narrators who never quite see themselves as others do.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Pooter settles into The Laurels and starts writing
- Pooter's jokes and his friends' patience
- Small embarrassments grow into a Pooter style of disaster
- A grand invitation to the Mansion House
- Lupin comes home and his world changes
- Parties, quarrels and the people who crowd into the house
- Money, speculation and Pooter's ideas of respectability
- How the diary is told and what it is really about
Who’s who
- Charles PooterA careful City clerk who keeps the diary, loves his home and wants to be thought respectable and witty.
- CarriePooter's wife, warm and practical, who laughs at his jokes when she is not busy and follows Mrs James's fashions.
- Lupin PooterThe Pooters' son, who drops the name Willie, talks in slang and chases money, theatre and Daisy Mutlar.
- GowingPooter's old friend, who drops in unannounced, teases him and often goes too far with his jokes.
- CummingsA neighbour and friend who plays dominoes and bicycles, and who feels slighted when nobody visits him.
- Mr PerkuppPooter's principal at the office, a dignified employer whose kindness Pooter holds in high regard.
- Daisy MutlarThe young woman Lupin loves and plans to marry, whose family and manners trouble the Pooters.
- Mrs JamesCarrie's friend from Sutton, whose fashions and ideas Pooter distrusts.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 4 h 48 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 5 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Il diario di una nullità in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Il diario di una nullità
by George Grossmith; Weedon Grossmith · 1888
A proud City clerk records every mishap of his new Holloway home, from a trip-hazard scraper to a bath painted red.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Why would a City clerk think the world wants his diary? Charles Pooter does, and he is sure of it.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Pooter settles into The Laurels and starts writing
Charles Pooter is a clerk who has just moved with his wife Carrie into a six-room house in Brickfield Terrace, Holloway. He decides to keep a diary because he sees no reason why a man who is not a somebody should not be read. His motto is Home, Sweet Home, and he likes to spend his evenings on small jobs about the house.
The first entries set the tone. The tradesmen call and the bells do not work. A boot scraper by the side door trips nearly every visitor, including friends Gowing and Cummings, and even the curate, who tears his trousers on it. Pooter keeps meaning to have it removed.
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What is The Diary of a Nobody about?
It is the diary of Charles Pooter, a London clerk, who records his house, friends, family and social ambitions. Small accidents and jokes fill the entries, and his son Lupin brings change to the household.
Who wrote The Diary of a Nobody?
The brothers George and Weedon Grossmith wrote it. George was a comic performer and Weedon was an actor and artist. It first appeared in a magazine and was later gathered into a book.
Who is Lupin in The Diary of a Nobody?
Lupin is Pooter's son, christened William, who has taken his second name. He uses slang, loves theatre and money, and keeps surprising his parents, especially with his engagement to Daisy Mutlar.
The author
George Grossmith
1847–1912 · English comedian and writer
George Grossmith was born in London in 1847 and died in Folkestone in 1912. He was an English comedian, actor, singer, composer, and writer. He wrote The Diary of a Nobody with his brother Weedon; it appeared as a book in 1892. He also performed in Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
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