The Diary of a Nobody Author:George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith The genuine hall-mark of humour is comparatively rare in English literature, but there is no mistaking its stamp in The Diary of a Nobody. It is a straight-faced imaginary journal of suburban life in Holloway, when that region of London was a highly respectable neighbourhood. The rueful "hero" who records his daily endeavours and misfortunes i... more »s an aptly-named person called Mr Pooter, a City clerk whose over-developed sense of dignity does not in the least prevent him from relapses into the ridiculous. He is destined to be everyone's butt, an to involve himself in unseemly disputes with tradesmen, domestics and practical jokers. The ruffled complacency of this Victorian Malvolio incite him to set down these untoward incidents in a prim old-fashioned style which heightens their absurdity and makes him more than ever a figure of fun to those who, unlike himself, see the joke.
The concocters of this elaborately amusing diary, which first appeared in Punch in the nineties, were the celebrated brothers George and Weedon Grossmith, as wittily inventive a pair of writers as that golden age of comedy produced. It was Weedon, incidentally, who drew the cartoons with wich the Diary is so vividly embellished.« less