46 pages • 1 hour read
George Grossmith, Weedon GrossmithDiary of a Nobody
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1892A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
Pooter has nightmares about the party, but Gowing calls and praises the gathering, prompting Pooter to remark that he can be very nice when he likes but “you never know how long it will last” (90). Cummings also calls with praise. When Lupin departs to spend the day with Daisy and her family, Pooter and Carrie discuss the success of their marriage. Pooter reflects that a humble beginning contributed to their success, and Carrie calls him a philosopher, pleasing him greatly. Lupin returns to announce that he has broken off his engagement and never wants to hear Daisy’s name again.
Chapter 11 Summary
Gowing and Cummings drop in, along with Lupin, who brings one of the Holloway Comedians, Mr. Burwin-Fosselton. Mr. Burwin-Fosselton monopolizes the conversation, invites himself to dinner, and imitates stage actor Henry Irving while accidentally kicking Carrie under the table and knocking over his wine. After dinner, he quotes from plays and knocks over the fire irons. As he leaves, he promises to come the next night and bring his Irving makeup; Gowing and Cummings invite themselves to this performance, and Gowing brings a disagreeable man named Padge. While Burwin-Fosselton’s imitation of Irving is good, Pooter concludes that “one can have even too much imitation of Irving” (98), especially after the guest seizes Gowing by the coat collar and accidentally scratches his neck deeply.
Mr. Burwin-Fosselton returns the next night, and his Irving imitations continue, leading to a sharp discussion with Pooter. Finally, Pooter tells the man that he and Carrie will be out the next night. He receives a critical note from the actor and replies, stating his lack of interest in stage matters.
Pooter is flattered when Mrs. Fernlosse, a “grand” lady, speaks to him after church. However, his hat flies off into the mud, and after he recovers it, he finds Mrs. Fernlosse has walked away. That night he receives another rude note from Mr. Burwin-Fosselton, stating that his acting vocation is far superior to Pooter’s work in the City.
Chapter 12 Summary
Carrie is morose over her son’s broken engagement, and Pooter tries to cheer her up by reading aloud from his diary, but they argue after she walks away to speak to the laundress about Lupin’s shirts. At breakfast one morning Pooter says he hopes that if anything happened to him, his diary would be a source of pleasure to Carrie and Lupin and might earn them money on its publication. Both wife and son burst out laughing, and when Pooter retorts that “it’s the diary that makes the man” (110), Lupin says the pages are only valuable for wrapping butter. As it is mid-December, Pooter vows to end the diary at the end of the year.
Pooter and Carrie are invited to spend Christmas with Carrie’s mother, a family tradition they enjoy, but Lupin declines and says all the family does is weep about members who have died. Pooter buys Christmas cards and accidentally upsets and damages some expensive cards that he doesn’t want but now must buy. He later catches his foot on a mat and trips. Lupin announces that he will spend Christmas at the Mutlars because his engagement to Daisy is on again.
Chapter 13 Summary
Christmas at Carrie’s mother’s house in the country is a pleasant meal with 10 family members. Pooter’s gallant speech about friendship and kissing makes the elderly pastor who married Pooter and Carrie, along with a young guest named Moss, kiss all the ladies.
Back at home, the Pooters entertain Gowing, Cummings, and Daisy and Frank Mutlar for dinner. At the table, Daisy and Lupin begin throwing balled-up pieces of bread at each other, and Frank, Cummings, and Gowing join in with enthusiasm. Pooter shouts at them to stop, and Frank turns off the gaslights. In the dark, someone punches Pooter in the back of his head. The attacker turns out to have been Gowing, who thought he accidentally hit a wall.
Lupin complains about the cheapness of Daisy Mutlar’s father. The man writes to Pooter to say that Lupin thinks he is the master of the Mutlar’s house and is forbidden to enter it again.
Chapter 14 Summary
As the new year begins, Pooter receives a promotion to senior clerk and a raise, prompting him to continue writing in his diary after all. He attributes his success to “strict attention to the interests of my superiors in office” (130). Lupin boasts about making money with an investment in chlorates, a chemical compound, which concerns Pooter, especially after Lupin hires a pony and cart. Gowing also speculates, following Lupin’s tips, and invites the Pooters to dinner after he makes a small sum.
Cummings drops by to say that he has been quite ill. Gowing rudely laughs and invites Cummings to join the group for dinner. However, when the Pooters arrive at Gowing’s the next night, he is not at home, and the landlord tells them Gowing received an invitation and will not be back for several days. Cummings, arriving with his wife, pronounces Gowing a scoundrel.
Chapters 10-14 Analysis
In this section, the Grossmiths highlight their exploration of the theme of Taking Oneself Too Seriously, which reaches a climax when Pooter’s family openly ridicules the contents of his diary. Additionally, Pooter’s hat flying off as he attempts to speak to the “grand” Mrs. Fernloose develops this theme further.
The Grossmiths often use the word “unfortunately” to signal that a fall of some sort is coming for Pooter because of his pomposity, including in the scene chronicling his interaction with Mrs. Fernloose.
There are several ways writers can show the true nature of their characters: by what the characters think and say (and write, in Pooter’s case), by what they do, and by what others say about them. The authors employ all these techniques in Chapters 10-14, often to show Pooter in a positive light. The discussion of his and Carrie’s marriage provides a more tender moment that humanizes Pooter. Pooter’s actions at the “country” Christmas at the home of Carrie’s mother show that when he can put aside his snobbery, he can genuinely enjoy himself. When he receives his promotion from Mr. Perkupp, who speaks glowingly of him, the Grossmiths depict Pooter as a deserving and hard worker.
Since the novel is a satire, Pooter also cannot help taking himself too seriously even when his character shines. He can’t resist giving a pompous speech at the Christmas celebration, for instance, which results in Carrie receiving a kiss from a bold young man. Nor can he resist telling Lupin that his raise is the result of tending to the interest of his “superiors,” to which Lupin promptly one-ups him by saying he made twice the amount of Pooter’s raise simply by investing well.
Mr. Burwin-Fosselton is a rich source of satire on Victorian entertainment in these chapters. Not only does he force his imitation of actor Henry Irving on the Pooters but also when Pooter declines a further visit, he initiates a rude letter exchange. His insistence on the superiority of acting over trade continues to develop a theme embodied by multiple characters: The Discrepancy Between Self-Perception and the Perception of Others. Burwin-Fosselton is especially unaware of his grandiosity in the letter he writes to Pooter claiming that he will one day be famous. In this scene, the Grossmiths characterize Burwin-Fosselton as lacking self-awareness and further present The Absurdity of Social Aspirations in the novel.
The authors depict Gowing’s behavior as increasingly outrageous in these chapters, particularly through his careless attitude toward Cummings’s health and keeping his dinner engagement. Pooter is “too indignant” to say anything and would rather write a letter. It is Cummings, not Pooter, who criticizes Gowing by calling him a scoundrel. He can see through Gowing in a way that Pooter cannot and serves as a foil to the novel’s main protagonist.
