The Diary of a Nobody

This “jewel at the heart of English comic literature” chronicles the daily fortunes and misfortunes of a middle-age, middle-class clerk (William Trevor, The Mail on Sunday).
 
Since its original publication in 1892, The Diary of a Nobody has become a much-loved classic. It is a fictional man’s dissection of the everyday drama of his life as an office worker in a London firm. With dry wit, the authors step into the character of Charles Pooter as he navigates work life with not-so-respectful young coworkers and family life with his charming wife, Carrie, and impetuous son, Lupin. From home repairs gone wrong (painting the tub red), to the comings and goings of his friends Cummings and Gowings, Pooter painstakingly shares intimate details of his existence, with the (not completely absurd) hope of maybe someday having his memoir published. An ongoing tally of the good jokes he makes shares space with descriptions of grievous insults to his person, party mishaps, the annoying behavior of everyone around him, and Lupin’s on-again off-again employment and engagement status. The Diary of a Nobody gives everyone a reason to laugh—and recognize themselves in Pooter’s droll prose.
 
“The funniest book in the world.” —Evelyn Waugh, author of Brideshead Revisited
 
“There’s a universality about Pooter that touches everybody . . . [he] fits into the tradition of absurd humour that the British do well, which started with Jonathan Swift and runs through Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear to Monty Python.” —Jasper Fforde, Time Out
 
“Pooter himself is as gentle as you could wish, a wonderful character, genuinely lovable. The book is beautifully constructed.” —Andrew Davies, The Herald