The Diary of a Nobody (Full Version)

The Diary of a Nobody is a comic masterpiece of late-Victorian life, presented as the earnest journal of Charles Pooter, a conscientious City clerk who takes immense pride in his new home, his routines, and his hard-won respectability. Through Pooter's meticulous entries—about tradesmen, dinner parties, office indignities, and domestic "improvements"—the everyday becomes hilariously momentous, and his attempts at dignity repeatedly collapse into farce.

Behind the laughter lies a sharp portrait of the anxieties of the aspiring middle class: status, manners, money, and the fragile performance of being "somebody." The Grossmiths' genius is their double vision—affectionate toward Pooter's decency and blindness, yet brilliantly satirical about the social world that makes him so nervous. Still vivid and quotable, this classic remains one of English literature's most enduring studies of embarrassment, ambition, and the comedy of ordinary life.

• Listeners who enjoy classic British social comedy, from gentle domestic farce to sharp satire of manners.
• Fans of Victorian and Edwardian life who want an intimate, funny portrait of suburban respectability and its pressures.
• Anyone who appreciates character-driven humor—cringe, charm, and self-deception—told through a perfectly unreliable diary voice.

George Grossmith (1847–1912) was an English actor, comedian, and writer, celebrated for creating major comic roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas and for his gift for precise social observation. His brother Weedon Grossmith (1854–1919) was an artist and illustrator whose drawings are inseparable from the book's humor and tone. Together they created The Diary of a Nobody (1892), first published serially in Punch, a defining comic portrait of Victorian suburban life that has remained a touchstone for English satire and character comedy.