This author wrote a series of satirical essays for Punch that profile people such as “university snobs,” “clerical snobs,” and “Irish snobs.” For 10 points each:
[10e] Name this author of The Book of Snobs, published the same year as this author’s novel where contempt for the snobbish Miss Pinkerton causes Becky Sharp to throw a dictionary out of a carriage.
ANSWER: William Makepeace Thackeray
[10h] This snobbish man is a dull middle-class clerk who writes the title Diary of a Nobody in a book by George and Weedon Grossmith. This character’s name has become a byword for having an inflated sense of self-importance.
ANSWER: Mr. Pooter [or Charles Pooter; accept Pooterism or Pooterish; prompt on Charles]
[10m] The word “Podsnap” derives from the name of a pompous man in this novel, the final one completed by Charles Dickens. In this novel, Bella Wilfer’s fiancé John Harmon fakes his death by drowning in the Thames (“tems”).
ANSWER: Our Mutual Friend
<S, British Literature>