Mrs Pooter's Diary [antikvár]

IntroductionTo the Editor of the Bicycle News:Sir, May I crave the courtesy of your columns to put paid to a foul canard - namely, that I have had the temerity to re-write The Diary of a Nobody.Sir, I have not - would not - dare not! What I have ventured to do is to add the merest footnote to that major classic of English humour (always, for some odd reason, dubbed a minor classic, as if its proper place were down in the foothills of the humour Everest). By holding Mr Footer's immortal diary up to the distaff mirror, so to speak, I have attempted to show how that great wealth of absurd and touching minutiae may have looked from Mrs Footer's point of view.We know from the original source that Carrie is a woman of some independence of mind (may 30: 'Mrs James has more intellect in her little finger than both your friends have in their entire bodies'); that she possesses considerable spirit (may 9: 'Don't be theatrical, it has no effect on me. Reserve that tone for your new friend. Mister Farmerson, the ironmonger'); that her opinions of Charles Pooter and his doings stop far short of idolatry (april 29: 'He tells me his stupid dreams every morning nearly'); but as often as not it is only Mr Footer's evaluation of the day's events in the small world they share, with which we are favoured. What does Mrs Pooter make of it all? What does she really think of Charles Footer's friends, his jokes, his job, his aspirations? What are her aspirations? How does Mrs Pooter spend her day while Mr Pooter is at the office? What is her real opinion of Holloway and 'The Laurels,' Brickfield Terrace? Such are the questions which I have diffidently - and affectionately - tried to answer.A word to Footer scholars about the Footer calendar. In the original diary - possibly as a result of the confusion caused by the charwoman Mrs Birrell (sometimes spelled Mrs Birrel) having11