Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collection
Publication
Mandarin (1994), Edition: New Ed, 256 pages
Description
Can an adult still have a secret diary? Everyone's favorite angsty adolescent Brit is now a tormented twentysomething and still "a brilliant comic creation" (The Times). Question: What have I done with my life? Answer: Nothing. At 23¾ years old, Adrian Mole is now an adult and almost prepared. On the upside: He's fallen for a perfectly lovely Nigerian waitress; he's seeing a therapist so as to talk about himself without interruption; and he's added vowels to his experimental novel-in-progress (so much more accessible to the masses!). The downside? Pandora is probably history; a pea-brained rival has been published before him to great acclaim; and worse, Adrian realizes he may not be uncommon after all. In fact, he may fall somewhere within the range of normalcy. How can an intellectual be expected to live with that? "Thank God for Sue Townsend and Adrian Mole" (The Observer). Her "achingly funny anti-hero" (Daily Mail) returns to take the world by storm--or least weather it--in the beloved bestselling series from "one of Britain's most celebrated comic writers" (The Guardian). Adrian's continuing chronicle of angst has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide, and been adapted for television and staged as a musical--truly "a phenomenon" (The Washington Post). … (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member EmScape
Adrian Mole, erstwhile novelist and self-styled intellectual, returns for a fourth installment of his diaries.
While the first 3/4 of this book was more or less filled with the same whining naivety of the preceeding volume of this series, I was pleased with the final quarter in which Adrian seems
While the first 3/4 of this book was more or less filled with the same whining naivety of the preceeding volume of this series, I was pleased with the final quarter in which Adrian seems
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to finally be growing up. Not a moment too soon. I am now vindicated in having purchased the entire series and am looking forward to the next volume. Show Less
LibraryThing member ladysunshine
sue townsends alter ego, adrian as a young adult absolute scream
LibraryThing member bibleblaster
Always a good time...on to the Capuccino Years!
LibraryThing member MiaCulpa
As an artist who must go where my pen leads me, I obviously identify with Mr Adrian Mole. Sue Townsend (RIP) manages to get into the mindset of a young, gormless man and takes us along for the ride.
"The Wilderness Years" sees Adrian mong along life's railroad, watching as others in his vicinity
I stopped reading Adrian Mole not long after this edition but don't let that hold you back from the wilderness.
"The Wilderness Years" sees Adrian mong along life's railroad, watching as others in his vicinity
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make it big, such as Pandora and Barry Kent. There are also other women in his life like Bianca and Jo Jo, and thus more opportunity for Adrian to prove he is as clueless about women as the rest of us.I stopped reading Adrian Mole not long after this edition but don't let that hold you back from the wilderness.
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LibraryThing member -Eva-
The fourth installment of diary entries of Adrian Mole, now an adult still in love with Pandora (although it is no longer mutual) and still misunderstanding most of the events in his life. Adrian might not be a teenager anymore, but he is still wonderfully naive and entertaining. The satire in
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Townsend's books works because Adrian is so very sincere about everything he believes, although some of his ideas and views are so very ludicrous; he manages to be endearing even when he goes completely bonkers. The audiobook narrator, Nicholas Barnes, does a really great job with Adrian's voice. Show Less
LibraryThing member IonaS
This diary recounts further hilarious episodes from the life of Adrian Mole. He is now nearly 24 years of age.
The first entry is from January 1st, 1991 when Adrian has a throbbing head owing to being “forced” to drink excessive amounts of alcohol at his mother’s party the night before. (He
Sue Townsend describes not only Adrian’s life but the lives of the whole host of characters in his life.
Adrian’s life is dictated by these other people. He is still in love with Pandora, now married to a bisexual semi-aristocrat who wears a monocle, and with a lover called Professor Jack Cavendish (it is Pandora who has the lover, not her husband, though I’m sure he has many too).: he still looks after the centenarian. Bert Baxter, buys his “vile” cigarettes and cuts his “horrible” toenails.
Adrian has an 8-year-old sister, Rosie.
His first love is now Dr Pandora Braithwaite, fluent in Russian, Serbo-Croat and “various other little-used languages” (Though I wouldn’t say Russian is little-used.) She looks more like a supermodel than a Doctor of Philosophy.
At present Adrian is living in Pandora’s box room in Oxford, still hoping to marry her one day, and still hoping to become a famous author.
He is working at the Department of the Environment charged with protecting colonies of newts, paid to champion their rights but privately sick of them.
Adrian is trying to find a girl-friend by a series of blind dates, who either don’t turn up or who leave in a hurry with some lame excuse or other.
He is normal-looking, clean and pleasant, yet can’t get a young woman into his bed.
Adrian’s father had an illegitimate son, Brett, born to his lover, termed Stick Insect by Adrian. His mother had a short affair with the neighbour, Mr Lucas. He himself had an affair with an illiterate woman called Sharon Bott but deserted her when she announced she was pregnant. (Prepare for a series of DNA tests subsequent to these infidelities/affairs.)
Adrian despises himself – he feels he is a loathsome person.
He spends much time penning poems, included in his diary for our edification, and has begun to write an experimental novel, originally written with consonants only.
Feeling that Adrian is in dire need of psychological help, Pandora makes an appointment for him to see her friend, Leonora De Witt, who is a psychotherapist.
Britain is at war with Iraq, and Adrian hires a portable colour TV so he can watch it in bed.
Adrian’s old class-mate, Barry Kent, who bullied him at school, is becoming a famous writer – one of the characters in his book, Dork’s Diary, is coincidentally called Aiden Vole and is an “outrageous caricature” of Adrian – he “is obsessed with matters anal. He is jingoistic, deeply conservative and a failure with women.”
Sue Townsend is one of my absolute favourite authors. The Adrian diaries reflect and parody life in Britain in the years in question.
In my view, and everybody else’s too, I’m sure, Sue Townsend is immensely gifted, and her books are some of the funniest in print. She has a talent for finding the humorous sides of all the negative aspects of life.
I highly recommend that you read this volume too.
The first entry is from January 1st, 1991 when Adrian has a throbbing head owing to being “forced” to drink excessive amounts of alcohol at his mother’s party the night before. (He
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obviously is unable to say “no”.)Sue Townsend describes not only Adrian’s life but the lives of the whole host of characters in his life.
Adrian’s life is dictated by these other people. He is still in love with Pandora, now married to a bisexual semi-aristocrat who wears a monocle, and with a lover called Professor Jack Cavendish (it is Pandora who has the lover, not her husband, though I’m sure he has many too).: he still looks after the centenarian. Bert Baxter, buys his “vile” cigarettes and cuts his “horrible” toenails.
Adrian has an 8-year-old sister, Rosie.
His first love is now Dr Pandora Braithwaite, fluent in Russian, Serbo-Croat and “various other little-used languages” (Though I wouldn’t say Russian is little-used.) She looks more like a supermodel than a Doctor of Philosophy.
At present Adrian is living in Pandora’s box room in Oxford, still hoping to marry her one day, and still hoping to become a famous author.
He is working at the Department of the Environment charged with protecting colonies of newts, paid to champion their rights but privately sick of them.
Adrian is trying to find a girl-friend by a series of blind dates, who either don’t turn up or who leave in a hurry with some lame excuse or other.
He is normal-looking, clean and pleasant, yet can’t get a young woman into his bed.
Adrian’s father had an illegitimate son, Brett, born to his lover, termed Stick Insect by Adrian. His mother had a short affair with the neighbour, Mr Lucas. He himself had an affair with an illiterate woman called Sharon Bott but deserted her when she announced she was pregnant. (Prepare for a series of DNA tests subsequent to these infidelities/affairs.)
Adrian despises himself – he feels he is a loathsome person.
He spends much time penning poems, included in his diary for our edification, and has begun to write an experimental novel, originally written with consonants only.
Feeling that Adrian is in dire need of psychological help, Pandora makes an appointment for him to see her friend, Leonora De Witt, who is a psychotherapist.
Britain is at war with Iraq, and Adrian hires a portable colour TV so he can watch it in bed.
Adrian’s old class-mate, Barry Kent, who bullied him at school, is becoming a famous writer – one of the characters in his book, Dork’s Diary, is coincidentally called Aiden Vole and is an “outrageous caricature” of Adrian – he “is obsessed with matters anal. He is jingoistic, deeply conservative and a failure with women.”
Sue Townsend is one of my absolute favourite authors. The Adrian diaries reflect and parody life in Britain in the years in question.
In my view, and everybody else’s too, I’m sure, Sue Townsend is immensely gifted, and her books are some of the funniest in print. She has a talent for finding the humorous sides of all the negative aspects of life.
I highly recommend that you read this volume too.
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LibraryThing member thorold
Back to diary format, opening with Adrian lodged in Pandora's box-room in Oxford and working — on the strength of his non-existent biology "A"-level — on the newt desk at the Environment Department. The story takes us on to a Soho restaurant and to Adrian's epiphany at a writers' workshop on
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Naxos, with some nice comic scenes along the way, but there's always a sense here that Townsend hasn't really got a feel for the adult Adrian yet, and she makes him unnecessarily autistic to force comedy out where it doesn't belong. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1993
Physical description
256 p.; 7.01 inches
ISBN
0749316837 / 9780749316839
UPC
000749316837