Grossmith, George / Grossmith, Weedon.

The Diary of a Nobody. Drawings by John Lawrence.

London, The Folio Society, 1969. 12 cm x 22 cm. 165 pages with illustrations. Original hardcover with slipcase. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Clean inside with solid binding.

″Some things written to amuse do, however, last. The Diary of a Nobody has lasted. It was the work of two brothers, George and Weedon Grossmith. George, best-known in his time as a star of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, did most of the writing, Weedon the illustrations. The Diary was first published in instalments in Punch in 1888, and didn’t appear in book form for another three years.

It started as a spoof, mocking the proliferation of diaries and memoirs. Punch had already published spoof diaries of a pessimist, a dyspeptic, a duffer and an MP. Everybody who was Anybody was publishing diaries, so why shouldn’t a Nobody?

The Nobody is Mr Pooter, a clerk in the City. He lives with his wife Carrie in a six-roomed house, “not counting basement”, in Holloway. They have a maidservant, Sarah, and their son Willie works in a bank in Oldham. Early in the diary he is dismissed and returns home, unperturbed, and announcing that he will henceforth be known by his middle name Lupin. Lupin is a live wire and chancer, everything the staid and correct Pooter isn’t, and a cause of anxiety to his father. Mr Pooter has a strong sense of his own dignity, which is all too often disturbed, because he is sadly accident-prone and gets himself into ridiculous situations. Yet he remains wonderfully complacent”. (The Telegraph).

• Keywords: fiction · Novel
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 43985AB

EUR 78,--