You may have heard of Diary of A Wimpy Kid. But long before those there was a series written by two cousins and published in Sweden.
The Bert Diaries, indeed the Bert Universe, is mainly a series of diary style novels written by Anders Jacobsson and Sören Olsson.
The diaries document the life of one Bert Ljung, an ordinary elementary/middle/high school student from the swedish town of Öreskoga. Bert falls in love (a lot), makes music and hangs around with his friends.
The following books have been published in Swedish and English:
- Berts dagbok (Bert's Diary) - 1987, new edition in 1993
- Bert och brorsorna (Bert and the Brothers) - 1995
- Bert och Boysen (Bert and the Boys) - 1996
- Bert och bacillerna (Bert and the Coodies) - 1997
- Berts första betraktelser (Bert's First Reflections) - 1990
- Berts vidare betraktelser (Bert's Further Reflections) - 1991
- Berts ytterligare betraktelser (Bert's Additional Reflections) - 1991
- Berts bravader (Bert's Exploits) - 1991
- Berts bekännelser (Bert's Confessions) - 1992
- Bert och badbrudarna (Bert and the Bath Chicks) - 1993
- Berts bekymmer (Bert's Worries) - 1994
- Berts bryderier (Bert's Embarrassments) - 1995
- Berts befrielse (Bert's Liberation) - 1996
- Bert och beundrarinnorna (Bert and the Admirers) - 1997
- Bert Babyface (Bert Babyface) - 1998
- Berts bokslut (Bert's Closure) - 1999
- Bert och kalla kriget (Bert and the Cold War) - 2005
- Bert och Heman Hunters (Bert and the Heman Hunters) - 2006
- Bert + Samira = Sant? (Bert + Samira = True?) - 2007
- Bert Badbojen (Bert the bath boy) - 2008
- Bert och ryska invasionen (Bert and the Russian Invasion) - 2009
- Bert och datadejten (Bert and the Computer Date) - 2010
- Bert och friheten (Bert and Freedom) - 2011
- Bert får scenskräck (Bert gets stage fright) - 2012
- Bert och frestelsen (Bert and the temptation) - 2012
- Berts fejsbok (Bert's facebook) - 2013
- Bert och skrynkliga tanten (Bert and the wrinkled lady) - 2014
There was also a TV series, a comic book adaptation, and a movie made in 1994 and 1995.
This book series includes examples of the following tropes:
- A Man Is Always Eager: Subverted. Bert thinks that he'd do anything to get laid, with any girl and at any time, but whenever things heat up too much too fast he tends to become terrified and bail.
- Art-Shifted Sequel: The art in the first book was by a different artist and had a very different style than that in the following books. The second edition added new pictures in the new style along with changes to the text.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Bert's parents have a number of furious argument and at some points seem to be on the verge of divorce, but they always realise at the last minute that they can't live without each other.
- Bumbling Dad: Bert's father tends to mess up most things he tries.
- Bungling Inventor: Åke in the early books fancies himself an inventor, but the most his inventions ever seems to do is catch fire.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Bert thinks pretty much only of himself. The same seems to be true for most other characters.
- Diaries Are Girly: In the first book, Bert thinks diaries are girly and tries to make his diary less girly by drawing a skull on it. (First he tried drawing a brain, but it ended up looking like a bunch of sausages.)
- Dreadful Musician: Bert and his band, the He-Man Hunters, are implied to be pretty bad, though of course Bert himself thinks otherwise.
- Embarrassing First Name:
- Bert is not fond of his name since it rhymes with the Swedish word for "butt."
- Klimpen's real name is Klas note . No one dares to call him that, though.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Bert, so very much.
- I Call Him "Mister Happy": Bert has a lot of whimsical names for his genitals, including "Charlie Tjenis" and "Wild Bill."
- Kavorka Man: The pictures show Bert as gangly, awkward and generally goofy-looking, while showing all the girls as looking pretty stunning. He still manages to date quite a few of them.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Lill-Erik is nice (if only because he's too much of a Dirty Coward to pick a fight), Åke is mean, and Bert is in between.
- Raging Stiffie: Bert is prone to erections at inconvenient moments. He's occasionally known in school as "the Hunchback in Notre Dame" because he's always walking bent over to try to hide one.Bert: This body part will be the death of me!
- Real Men Love Jesus: Bert thinks he's no end of tough and cool (though whether he actually is is another story), and also considers himself a Christian (though again, his grasp on just what that means leaves a little to be desired).
- Self-Serving Memory: When Bert is reconnecting with his ex Nadja, he recalls them breaking up because of her three scary older brothers. Readers may instead recall that he broke up with her because he'd fallen in love with someone else.
- Still Believes in Santa: Lill-Erik still believes in the Easter Bunny. In fact, he lives in fear of it.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In the early books, Åke is an eccentric but good-natured wannabe Mad Scientist. Puberty hits him pretty hard, though, and he starts flying into rages at odd intervals.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Bert and Åke can barely stand each other at times, and both of them are absolutely horrible to Lill-Erik.
- Waking Non Sequitur: Twice in the comic.
- After being put on a diet, Bert dreams that he's become a skeleton and wakes up screaming, "only cheeseburgers can save the skeleton Bert now!"
- When falling asleep in church he dreams that he's a monk in the middle ages. As things heat up with his Love Interest he wakes himself up hollering, "yes, strip more! No naked nun is as sexy as you!"
