He developed a music hall act of talking about life's mundane subjects, mixed with comic songs and surreal observations, and created a host of mostly working-class characters to illustrate his stories.
So next time you find yourself gossiping about the weather or what Rihanna wore to the Grammy's, resist the temptation to talk about life's emptier subjects and reach for something big and bold.
Twenty years later, the conventions of biography were considerably altered, frank discussion of the sex life of one's subject being well on its way to becoming de rigueur for biographers.
Impressionism, broadly viewed, was a celebration of the pleasures of middle-class life; indeed, Monet's subject matter from this period often involved domestic scenes featuring his wife, son, and garden.
In taking action, you are no longer a "victim of life's circumstance," or subject to the "whims of fate".
After three years in the travel business and a brief spell in Provence, she was convinced that wine and food were life's most rewarding subjects.
London looks set to host a permanent "Death Cafe", a coffee shop where people can go to talk about one of life's most awkward subjects - dying.
But not everything in Aisha's life was subject to her will.
The domestic turn in Owens's life and subject matter dismayed friends when she returned to L.A. "It was uncool.
The backbone of the evening is a survey of Wagner's life, "his subject of subjects – himself", as Callow puts it.
