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Diary of a Nobody.
by George & Weedon Grossmith
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- See description
- ISBN 10
- 0192833278
- ISBN 13
- 9780192833273
- Seller
-
Oregon City, Oregon, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York, NY Oxford University Press: Oxford World Classics, 1998. Paperback Reprint Edition. Fine in Wraps: binding square and secure; text clean. Virtually 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 143pp. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Kate Flint. Contains: Introduction, Textual Notes, Bibliography, Chronology, and Explanitory Notes. Reprint Edition. Trade Paperback. This book must be the most nearly perfect piece of comic writing in English, its humour gentle and subtle, its depiction of character, class, time and location flawless. It fixes forever the late-Victorian world of the respectable Lower Middle Class, populated by clerks, petty merchants and tradesmen, observing it with both objectivity and affection. It is splendidly read on tape by Frederick Davidson, whose assumed accent is perfectly gauged to reflect the upwardly-mobile aspirations of the Mr.Charles Pooter, the self-confessed nobody of the title, and which slips down the social scale by several notches in moments of stress and frustration. Though superficially simple, the construction of the narrative is complex in the extreme, with comic situations often being built up over a long period, and with clues carefully planted in earlier sections, only to come to fruition later. It is particularly impressive how the main characters - Pooter himself, his long-suffering and often silly but supportive wife Carrie and his exasperating son Lupin - emerge as rounded characters from apparently simple diary entries and achieve a realism and familiarity as great as any in more serious literature. The situations in which they find themselves - or rather get themselves - are not only ludicrously amusing, but also close to the normality of life as many live it, and one can often, uncomfortably, recognise one's self or one's friends in their reactions to them. What makes the Diary an enduring masterpiece is however the gentle and affectionate treatment of human weakness - and greatness. Pooter may be pompous, foolish and sometimes sycophantic, but he is also loyal, decent and honourable and his life, and his family's, for all its pettiness, also has its dignity. I first read the Diary over forty years ago and it has never ceased to delight me since - it remains a treasured bedside book to be opened at random - and this splendid tape of it is an ideal companion for long or short automobile journeys. (An interesting footnote is that George Grossmith, as a singer and actor, created many of the best known Gilbert and Sullivan roles on stage).
Synopsis
The Diary of a Nobody, an English comic novel written by George Grossmith and his brother Weedon Grossmith with illustrations by Weedon, first appeared in the magazine Punch in 1888 – 89, and was printed in book form in 1892. It is considered a classic work of humour. The diary is that of Mr. Charles Pooter, a city clerk of lower middle-class status but significant social aspirations, living in Upper Holloway.
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Details
- Seller
- Black Cat Hill Books (US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- 35239
- Title
- Diary of a Nobody.
- Author
- George & Weedon Grossmith
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- Reprint Edition.
- ISBN 10
- 0192833278
- ISBN 13
- 9780192833273
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press: Oxford World Classics,
- Place of Publication
- New York, NY
- Date Published
- 1998.
- Bookseller catalogs
- English Literature; Humorous Fiction; Vintage Popular Fiction;
Terms of Sale
Black Cat Hill Books
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About the Seller
Black Cat Hill Books
Biblio member since 2004
Oregon City, Oregon
About Black Cat Hill Books
Black Cat Hill Books is an Internet-only bookseller.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Reprint
- Any printing of a book which follows the original edition. By definition, a reprint is not a first edition.
- Trade Paperback
- Used to indicate any paperback book that is larger than a mass-market paperback and is often more similar in size to a hardcover...
- Remainder
- Book(s) which are sold at a very deep discount to alleviate publisher overstock. Often, though not always, they have a remainder...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...