September Books 8) The Diary of a Nobody, by George and Weedon Grossmith
I had a long uncomfortable journey yesterday feeling ill and trying to get through two rather heavy books which did little to cheer me up. As soon as I got home I went to bed, picking this off the shelf, and very much enjoyed it. Charles Pooter is a grotesquely comic creation, sometimes engaging our sympathy, sometimes the horror of recognition. He is a snob, a beast to his maid, certainly less clever than his wife or friends; he is boring and self-centred. But he is fascinating, and a brilliant window into the life of late Victorian London.
Incidentallly, George Grossmith was knocking this out for Punch while starring as the tragic jester Jack Point in the opening season of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Yeomen of the Guard", having just finished a very successful run as the original Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner in "The Mikado".
Incidentallly, George Grossmith was knocking this out for Punch while starring as the tragic jester Jack Point in the opening season of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Yeomen of the Guard", having just finished a very successful run as the original Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner in "The Mikado".