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A light and funny read, The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield was written in 1930 and has never been out of print. Structured in the form of episodes taken from the mostly domestic life of an upper-class English countrywoman, the Diary sketches the characters and events of her immediate family as well as servants, friends and neighbours.

As she goes about her daily activities, the provincial lady of the title confronts and deals with various situations that are mostly trivial but which keep the momentum of the story going. Reflecting the kind of life that many people of the time (and later) would have been familiar with, the constant round of activities, obligations and minor domestic challenges contribute to the identification with the writer of the diary that many readers have found. The use of repetitive devices such as philosophical notes-to-self in the form of bracketed comments reinforce the wry self-deprecation that provides much of the interest and humour in the story.

This presents the interesting conundrum of how far The Diary of a Provincial Lady can be read as a record of the author’s own life and thoughts, bringing to the fore the idea of how much autobiography can be integrated into an ostensibly fictional novel, particularly one in the form of a diary. In Delafield’s case, the answer appears to be quite a bit.

Writing under a pseudonym (Delafield is a play on her maiden name of de la Pasture), Delafield has mined her own life for subject matter, incorporating her husband and two children (although with different names), and using local events and situations such as those connected to the local Women’s Institute of which Delafield was a president in real life. Other characters reflect the habits and idiosyncrasies of her near neighbours, with the talkative vicar’s wife and the intrusive Lady Boxe having regular walk-on roles.

In a broader context, the novel is in the tradition of other humorous stories written in the form of a fictional diary, such as the Grossmiths’ The Diary of a Nobody and Bridget Jones’s Diary by Fielding, although both of these books are markedly different in content and characterisation.

The Diary of a Provincial Lady was originally published in the form of regular columns in the publication Time and Tide, which also incidentally appears in the novel. Delafield wrote three further books that featured the provincial lady, depicting periods of her life set in different places and situations, all adding grist in support of her fictional posterity.

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Authors

E.M. Delafield; George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith; Helen Fielding;

Titles

The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield; The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith; Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

Why do most funny books have a happy ending? Is it because happy is synonymous with funny? Not necessarily, but it could be that a story that finishes with a happy ending, or at least a satisfactory one, completes it in a way that gives a sense of fulfilment to the reader looking for an enjoyable read.

A happy ending often means love and marriage for the main character(s), or the promise of at least one of them. Jane Austen states the case beautifully with her novel Emma (1815); George and Weedon Grossmith tie up the loose ends with it in their The Diary of a Nobody (1892); Lucky Jim (1954) by Kingsley Amis concludes with a hint of romance; and Graeme Simsion has his two main characters deciding to marry each other in The Rosie Project (2013).

Part of the popularity of Jane Austen is the entirely satisfactory way in which all six of her novels conclude. Austen set a formula for written romantic comedy which sees the marriage (or romantic attachment) of the main character (in Austen’s case all female) as a fitting conclusion to the various vicissitudes that precede it. This readily-encompassed story-line may have contributed to her books’ regular transitions to the screen.

The novel Emma has a heroine of whom Austen said, ‘I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.’ This of course proves not to be the case, and Emma Woodhouse has been an enduringly popular character in humorous fiction. A main character with whom the reader can sympathise is a crucial element in a book that revolves around a romantic plot, and in Emma the interest begins in the first sentence with its economical and pointed description of the heroine. The humour continues with similarly astute passages until the book’s appropriate conclusion.

Later in the 19^th century, George and Weedon Grossmith published their fictional book The Diary of a Nobody, which had previously been available in serial form in the magazine Punch. The book’s humour rests on the social pretensions and ambitions of the fictitious main character and writer of the diary, Charles Pooter. Focusing on the aspirations of the lower-middle class of the time, it also forms a social commentary.

A subplot with a romantic element is threaded throughout the narrative with the adventures of Pooter’s son Lupin, whose inability to hold down a job and poor judgement in the investment and financial areas help to move the plot along. The varying ambitions, trials and eventual triumph of his amorous plans interact with the activities of his father and his friends, and Lupin becomes an extension of the family social standing and fortunes.

On a different note, Kingsley Amis centres the humour of his first published book on the pretentious and hollow aspects of life in a second-rate university. The main character of Lucky Jim, Jim Dixon, is a temporary lecturer at the university and intent on attaining a permanent position there. Combined with his career aspirations, or if not aspirations then at least forward planning, Dixon also contends with difficulties on the romantic front, with a manipulative girlfriend and his own preference for another woman.

The story moves along through comic set pieces, such as Jim’s drunken delivery of an important lecture. The transparent greed, affectations and illicit amorous activities of some of the secondary characters provide further comic detail, and Jim walking off arm-in-arm with the other woman gives a satisfactory ending to the story.

The Rosie Project also has part of its setting in a university, but with a completely different main character in the socially challenged academic Don Tillman. Don is in search of a wife and has set out a list of questions for potential candidates detailing the attributes he requires in a wife. He thinks the process shouldn’t be too difficult, because due to his acceptable work situation and physical features, ‘Logically I should be attractive to a wide range of women’.

This doesn’t prove to be the case, with his social skills not always equal to the demands of a potentially romantic situation, and his actions and decisions lead to various humorous encounters. The eventual denouement when Don realises that the best person to be his wife is Rosie, who on paper appears to be the least suitable, confirms the humour of the story.

The difficulties in developing empathy and an understanding of other people are often a feature of romantic comedies, and all four books employ this characteristic to keep the momentum going as they head towards their happy endings. The resolutions are romantic, but also contain elements of a renewed outlook in the main character as they reach what they finally realise they had been striving for all along. A happy ending, and a satisfactory ending.

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Authors

Jane Austen; George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith; Kingsley Amis; Graeme Simsion

Titles

Emma by Jane Austen; The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith; Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis; The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Daily Doings

Satisfactorily Ever After

The Diary of a Nobody

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