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The Diary of a Nobody

by: George and Weedon Grossmith

Publication date: 2006-04-22

Usage: Public Domain

Topics: librivox, audiobook, literature

Language: English

Librivox recording of The Diary of a Nobody by George & Weedon Grossmith. Read by Martin Clifton

The Diary of a Nobody is the fictitious record of fifteen months in the life of Charles Pooter, his family, friends and small circle of acquaintances. It first appeared, serialised in Punch magazine and might be regarded as the first "blog"; being a record of the simplicities and humiliations in the life of this mundane, but upright, city clerk, who had an incontestable faith that a record of his daily life was worth preserving for posterity.

Set in about 1891 in Holloway, which was then a typical suburb of the impecuniously respectable kind, the authors contrive a record of the manners, customs and experiences of the late Victorian era. The bare record of facts, simply recorded, manages to be humorous rather than dull, no doubt because of the usual occupations of the authors.

George Grossmith (1847-1912) was an actor and comedian.
Weedon Grossmith (1852-1919) was an entertainer and illustrated the original work.
(Summary by Martin Clifton)

For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording. For more free audiobooks, or to become a volunteer reader, please visit librivox.org. Download M4B (120MB)

Addeddate: 2006-04-22 05:41:05

Boxid: OL100020211

Call number: 336

External-identifier: urn:storj:bucket:jvrrslrv7u4ubxymktudgzt3hnpq:diary_of_nobody_librivox

External_metadata_update: 2019-03-30T09:44:43Z

Identifier: diary_of_nobody_librivox

Ocr: ABBYY FineReader 9.0

Ocr_converted: abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.11

Ocr_module_version: 0.0.14

Ppi: 600

Run time: 4:21.52

Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text

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Reviews

Reviewer: microcosme - - January 15, 2023
Subject: Hilarious book

The book's protagonist, middle-class Charles Pooter, is constantly being humiliated and records the events in his diary. It sounds like a "downer," as someone wrote, but happens to be hilarious. I actually suggested to Martin Clifton many years ago to narrate this book for librivox and thankfully he did it. You must check out his other librivox book that I suggested to him: "Mrs Caudle's Curtain Lectures." That book is even more hilarious than this one.

Reviewer: Bill Browne - - October 8, 2022
Subject: Five Stars.

Here is my five stars to go with all the others.

Reviewer: TwinkieToes - - December 13, 2016
Subject: Subtle humour

This isn't a knee-slapping, roll on the floor kind of humour. It's subtle. Peep into the life of an average, unremarkable, middle-aged man, and live a little bit of his life with him.

Content enjoyable; reader enjoyable.

Reviewer: lanternland - - May 29, 2016
Subject: Just great!

5/3/2016 Listening to it it yet again. I love this one - and the reader, Martin Clifton, is so great!

Wikipedia on The Diary of a Nobody:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Nobody

I just like to listen to this one over and over. "We roared!" - ha ha ha!

Like the chaps below I've listened to it twice so far and will do so again. One of my foremost favorites, and the reader is just perfect.

Reviewer: GonzoRanch - - March 6, 2013
Subject: Nah...

I didn't like it much, largely a downer. I suppose it's ok if you've got nothing else much to listen to. Just go straight to "Dere Mabel", or... "Dere [something]". That'll make you laugh.

Reviewer: werewolf9 - - August 28, 2011
Subject: One of my favorite Libravox readings

I've already listened to this three times. I love it.

Reviewer: Kunchok - - March 13, 2009
Subject: Tone just right

I've read the book several times and saw last year's BBC adaptation.

Martin Clifton's "flat" style is perfect here. He lets the character of Pooter come out through the words without attempting to exaggerate for comic effect. Some listeners might prefer a more bouncy delivery but I think that would be out of character for Pooter's character ;-)

Very enjoyable.

Reviewer: Philippe Horak - - November 3, 2007
Subject: A lovely recording

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to George and Weedon Grossmith’s “The Diary of a Nobody” beautifully read by Martin Clifton. Actually I like reading the novel while listening to the recording and naturally my edition features Weedon Grossmith's interesting and funny illustrations.
Altogether a lovely recording recommended to all lovers of literature.

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