The Diary of a Nobody

Having just moved into a fine, six-roomed residence, the Laurels, the Pooters are ready to begin a new life. Charles, the paterfamilias, a lowly clerk in the City firm Perkupp’s, begins to keep a diary, one that, over the next fifteen months, will provide a record of the small trials and tribulations – as well as the preoccupations, aspirations and social anxieties – of a late-Victorian family.

Serialized in Punch between 1888 and 1889, and later expanded and illustrated for publication in volume form in 1892, The Diary of a Nobody, the Grossmith brothers’ highest achievement, is a comic masterpiece and arguably one of the greatest artistic collaborations of all time.

ABOUT THE SERIES: Alma Classics Evergreens is a series of popular classics. All the titles in the series are provided with an extensive critical apparatus and extra reading material, including a section of photographs and notes. The texts are based on the most authoritative edition (or collated from the most authoritative editions or manuscripts) and edited using a fresh, intelligent editorial approach. With an emphasis on the production, editorial and typographical values of a book, Alma Classics aspires to revitalize the whole experience of reading the classics.

About the Author

George Grossmith (1847 – 1912) was a comedian, writer and composer. As an actor, he created many of the most memorable characters in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1888–89, he wrote the humorous columns that became the novel The Diary of a Nobody in collaboration with his brother Weedon.

Weedon Grossmith (1854–1919) was an artist and stage performer, before turning his hand to fiction with The Diary of a Nobody, which he also illustrated to much acclaim.