Customer Reviews
A good read - By: Henry Arnheim, 02 Mar 2010 
Satire can be cruel & we do feel sorry for the character so lampoonedin this desperately funny little novel. Pooter is brilliantly well-drawn & fascinating for his placein history. The rise of the middle classes at the end of the Victorian era was dramatic & almost unimaginable to us todayin the way that it shifted the social picture. This novel works both as a comic insight into the aspirations & dreams of a new social class, but also as a voyeuristic snapshot of the world of late-Victoriana.
Historical snapshot (but not funny) - By: MangoChesney, 23 Feb 2010 
Like this review, this book is a short & super quick read.
The book is interestingin terms of being able to glimpse back into our recent ancestral history allowing an insight into London working life & showcasing nicely the traditional man-at-work/women-at-home structure that prevailed at the turn of the previous century, but, it's not funny, at best I would say mildly amusing, sorry everyone else.
As good as Pepys....and ten times as funny - By: Mandrake, 08 Sep 2009 
It is really heart-warming to read all the positive reviews this book has received, full of warmth & genuine affection for Messrs Grossmiths' hilarious but gentle expose of fin de siècle middle-class London life. I came across it rather by accidentin a charity shop & admit to being a little sceptical after reading a little about its authors George & Weedon Grossmith. They were both apparently leading lightsin Victorian Musical Hall which I have always associated, perhaps unfairly, with comedy of a particularly raucous & unsophisticated kind. The humour created here however, is both extremely subtle & acutely well-observed. The sort of observational humourin fact that is more often associated with very modern comedians. Our hero, Charles Pooter is one of the best, most convincing & fully-rounded humorous creations I have ever come across. His absurd middle-class pretensions & aspirations are enoughin themselves to make a cat laugh but combine these with his excruciating puns, his anxious bafflement at the behaviour of his son & his innate sense of fun which regularly fights its way past his austere guard, & you have a comic character to rival the very best.
On some levels the book feels old-fashioned, it is after all over a hundred years old & some of the language & the pre-occupations of its characters are inevitably different to ours but at the same time it reveals universal human behaviours & emotions that resonate as strongly today as at any time. Perhaps the best of these are the 'generation gap' issues which arise constantly between conservative, sensible Charles & his impetuous theatrical son Lupin. Neither understand the other at all & at times seem to speak different languages. Ultimately though their affection for each other breaks down the antagonism & Charles is left with a considerable amount of respect for his energetic son.
If I have a criticism it is that the book ends too suddenly. Perhaps a 'diary' is entitled to endin this way but I thought it was a shame that no real conclusion was achieved. It is quite rare that I finish a book wishing that it had gone on & on & this was certainly one such a occasion.
Five stars, Mr Padge? "That's right" - By: dangermash, 03 Sep 2009 A short book but lots of laughs at a bargain price. Five stars.
Someone else has suggested that the protagonist, Pooter, is a 19th Century David Brent, given his aspirations to rising into a higher social class & his snobbiness towards those of his own class. I can see their point. I think that this is also true of Margotin The Good Life & DelBoyin Fools And Horses, but I think there's a more obvious modern equivalent.
I believe that Pooter is the 19th century Basil Fawlty. Think of episodes like A Touch Of Class & Gourmet Night. In both of these, Basil fawns over thosein the higher classes while almost spitting on the plutons - back to the class theme.
Pooter's chum Gowing, a humorous sort that snobs would find vulgar & that likes drinking everybody else's booze, reminded me of Rog from The Anniversary Party. Basil's irritation with Rogin that episode mirrors Pooter's irritation with Gowing.
Pooter's disdain of Lupin's friends reminds me of Basil's attitude to Neanderthalsin The Psychologist & A Touch Of Class & his attitude to "the youth of today"in The Engagement Party.
Pooter thinks that a moose head mounted on his wall will look good - cf The Germans.
Anyway, enough of Basil, the book is as full of humour as an Airplane! film. Just as with those films, I reckon a second or third reading will reveal many touches that the readed missed first time round.
You'll need to have read the book to understand the witty title to this review. Probably the funniest thing I have ever written. How the wife & I roared with laughter thinking about it last night, until the bed shook!
Wonderful Humour - By: J. Murray, 06 Jul 2009 Hilarious. There have been many imitations, but Mr Pooter's is still the best diary of a rueful put-upon man trying to keep his dignity intactin the face of a shrewish wife, a smart-alec son & any number of trying friends & uppity tradesmen.
I have read this book many times & it has always been one of my favourites since I first read it nearly forty years ago.
