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    Three Men in a Boat
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    Three Men in a Boat
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    Three Men in a Boat
    Ebook230 pages3 hours

    Three Men in a Boat

    By Jerome K. Jerome

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Originally intended as a serious travel guide, then streamlined into an amusing account of a farcical boating excursion on the Thames river, Three Men in a Boat is Jerome K. Jerome’s controversially “vulgar” take on English history and recreation. A mix of social satire and Victorian wit, this book of ramblings broaches a variety of unlikely subjects, including leisure, nostalgia, and friendship. Despite telling a story where everything goes wrong, this funny travelogue offers a vivid portrait of Victorian England the reader will not soon forget.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Publishing LLC
    Release dateDec 12, 2012
    ISBN9781625581433
    Author

    Jerome K. Jerome

    Jerome Klapka Jerome was born in 1859 and was brought up in London. He started work as a railway clerk at fourteen, and later was employed as a schoolmaster, actor and journalist. He published two volumes of comic essays and in 1889 Three Men in a Boat. This was an instant success. His new-found wealth enabled him to become one of the founders of The Idler, a humorous magazine which published pieces by W W Jacobs, Bret Harte, Mark Twain and others. In 1900 he wrote a sequel, Three Men on the Bummel, which follows the adventures of the three protagonists on a walking tour through Germany. Jerome married in 1888 and had a daughter. He served as an ambulance driver on the Western Front during the First World War and died in 1927.

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    Reviews for Three Men in a Boat

    4/5

    1,901 ratings135 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) recounts a two-week boating holiday on the Thames from Kingston to Oxford and back again. The story focuses on George, Harris, Jerome, and Jerome’s dog, Montmorency, as they plan the trip and recount past stories in the course of their adventures. Jerome humorously muses on the nature of cheese, the habit of visiting tombs in picturesque villages, historical Thames islands like Magna Charta Island, their visitors such as Kings John and Henry VIII, the nature of Victorian-era flirting, the relationships of dogs, the methods of rowing, fish stories, and more. Though some of the situations Jerome describes are uniquely nineteenth-century, the wit of his writing will entertain readers over a hundred years later. This Folio Society edition reprints the original 1889 text with illustrations from Paul Cox that capture the humor of Jerome’s text.
    • 3/5
      Mild fun up the Thames. This book was originally commissioned as a travelogue but it does seem to have hung on remarkably well. It takes about two hours to read, but it is best taken in small bites. It was originally copyright in 1889.
    • 5/5
      Timeless humor. Very easy to read.
    • 4/5
      This is a gentle, fitfully humorous book about three men and a dog taking a boat trip up the Thames from London (and back). It is full of humorous digressions, a couple of which will make you chuckle a bit. Mostly, however, these episodes just serve to show that human nature hasn't changed since 1889 when this was written. There are also poetic passages extolling the landscape as well as factual passages about particular places. I found myself turning to the Internet again and again to look things up--and it doesn't appear much has changed. You could, in fact, still use this as a travel guide for such a journey. And despite the mishaps portrayed, you'll want to go.
    • 3/5
      Light, amusing and occasionally brilliantly written (I'm a sucker for alliteration). Full of digressions, each of which is just about precisely the right length. > I do think that, of all the silly, irritating tomfoolishness by which we are plagued, this “weather-forecast” fraud is about the most aggravating. It “forecasts” precisely what happened yesterday or a the day before, and precisely the opposite of what is going to happen today. … But who wants to be foretold the weather? It is bad enough when it comes, without our having the misery of knowing about it beforehand.> We had just commenced the third course—the bread and jam—when a gentleman in shirtsleeves and a short pipe came along, and wanted to know if we knew that we were trespassing. We said we hadn’t given the matter sufficient consideration as yet to enable us to arrive at a definite conclusion on that point, but that, if he assured us on his word as a gentleman that we were trespassing, we would, without further hesitation, believe it. He gave us the required assurance, and we thanked him, but he still hung about, and seemed to be dissatisfied, so we asked him if there was anything further that we could do for him; and Harris, who is of a chummy disposition, offered him a bit of bread and jam.…> It always does seem to me that I am doing more work than I should do. It is not that I object to the work, mind you; I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart. You cannot give me too much work; to accumulate work has almost become a passion with me: my study is so full of it now, that there is hardly an inch of room for any more. I shall have to throw out a wing soon. And I am careful of my work, too. Why, some of the work that I have by me now has been in my possession for years and years, and there isn’t a fingermark on it.> The river—with the sunlight flashing from its dancing wavelets, gilding gold the grey-green beech-trunks, glinting through the dark, cool wood paths, chasing shadows o’er the shallows, flinging diamonds from the mill-wheels, throwing kisses to the lilies, wantoning with the weirs’ white waters, silvering moss-grown walls and bridges, brightening every tiny townlet, making sweet each lane and meadow, lying tangled in the rushes, peeping, laughing, from each inlet, gleaming gay on many a far sail, making soft the air with glory—is a golden fairy stream.> But the river—chill and weary, with the ceaseless raindrops falling on its brown and sluggish waters, with a sound as of a woman, weeping low in some dark chamber; while the woods, all dark and silent, shrouded in their mists of vapour, stand like ghosts upon the margin; silent ghosts with eyes reproachful, like the ghosts of evil actions, like the ghosts of friends neglected—is a spirit-haunted water through the land of vain regrets.
    • 4/5
      There are loads of reviews on this work, so this is only to say, I loved this book. It is one I will be seeking in hardcover so that I may read it again. I had the ebook version, and although the story was still wonderful, the illustrations were tiny. I need to hold this book, flip the pages back and forth, reread passages, underline some of them and make notes in the margins. I want to have a relationship with it and I can't do that with an ebook. There are not many books I feel that way about.This one had me laughing out-loud frequently. Not hysterical laughing, but amused laughing. Much of it felt modern, but certain passages made the reader aware of the times the book was written in. I took my time reading this, because I wanted to appreciate it. It is farce, comedy, poetic, philosophical, and retrospective. Good, clean fun. The only thing which could make it better for me, is if I had been on a boating trip on the Thames, but the author describes it in such a way, that I feel I have been.
    • 4/5
      The classic tale of three young men who decide to take a respite from their lives and spend two weeks rowing up the river Thames.I knew this was a comic novel but I wasn't quite prepared for just how often this book would have me laughing out loud. The many asides our narrator gives on his previous boating experiences, the locales that surround him, and the adventures that he and his two friends as well as his dog get up to had me giggling loudly both at home and in public. Probably best read if you've had some other experience with Victorian literature but highly recommended if you haven't picked this one up already.
    • 5/5
      What a complete little gem this is! A quick read, only 100 pages, but I laughed from beginning to end. I was needing something funny to read, and this quickie really worked. Recommended!
    • 4/5
      Three Men in a Boat is exactly what it says on the cover -- a travelogue of three young men, plus the terror dog Montmorency, going boating on the Thames for a fortnight. Interspersed with stories from other boating holidays, stories closely or tenuously linked to the river or the towns passed through, and the odd Reflection on Life, this is a slow moving, poetical, and frequently comical ramble. Unlike many 'classics of English literature', which this book is advertised as on the back cover, this is not a horrid story about horrid people. I don't think that George, Harris, or the narrator would be people I would want to spend much time with, but they do appear to have a friendship that holds together despite the frustrations of their time together.
    • 1/5
      I didn't enjoy this, except in very small bursts. Most of the jokes didn't appeal to me, but I can easily see how others might find it funny. I'm very glad to be done reading it.
    • 3/5
      Mildly enjoyable - I don't find this type of humor funny, but I do find it amusing. I liked the excursions into the history of places along the river - a relief from the rather strained funny bits. Most of the "contemporary" stories - stories the three men tell, about their own actions and events that befell themselves and their friends and relations - are boring or unpleasant (the trick about the German song is really nasty). But overall, it's not bad to read; not a favorite, and not a particularly humorous book, but interesting. I thought I'd read it before, but apparently not; there are several scenes I think I would have remembered.
    • 2/5
      I understand completely why this was considered funny when it was published in London, August 1889.

      Three Dandy's & their dog go on a boating trip down the Thames and make quite the mess of it.

      The writing had a distinct air of pomposity to it (as those men must have been in those days) which might (still) be considered funny in particular circles, and I found that it fell quite flat.
    • 5/5
      Imagine Bertie Wooster and two pals and a fox terrier decide that to cure their general seediness and hypochondria, they will take a boat down the river Thames for a couple of weeks, camping out, cooking their own food and other wholesome entertainments. That is basically the tone and situation of this book. Laughed out loud at least once in every chapter.
    • 5/5
      Entertaining comedy.
    • 3/5
      A Victorian era collection of anecdotes about three impractical friends who decide a two-week boating holiday up the River Thames would be perfectly sublime. Little do these hypochondriacs suffering from 'overwork' take note of the practicalities involved. Along with fox-terrier Montmorency they wrestle with ropes, inclement weather, lack of a tin opener and other mishaps in this classic comedy. Fabulous to know that they were just as mad in 1889 as we are today!
    • 4/5
      Hilarious. Overripe comedy in the style of Mark Twain. I subtract one star only for the excruciatingly long passages which mimic and mock lyrical writing of the 19th century; it's expertly done, and I'm sure it killed at the time, but today it's a bit much.
    • 4/5
      A funny, touching and enjoyable trip on the River Thames. Enjoyable with company that comes along and side trips the characters take you through.
    • 4/5
      If Monte Python and Oscar Wilde were to collaborate, I think they might have writen this book. The official title is "Three Men in a Boat: to say nothing of the dog" and it took me the good first half of the book to realize that Montmorency was the dog and not a companion along for the jaunt.
    • 2/5
      It looked like a breezy read, a good natured gently comical novel. Certainly it is not at all hard to read but nevertheless this book was a grind for me to get through. Humorous novels suffer a great disadvantage in that I tend to expect to find something to laugh at on each every page. This is quite a tall order and very hard for most books to accomplish. P.G. Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett often make me laugh with their fiction but generally I try to avoid comedy novels. I prefer humour to be a facet of the novel rather than the focus. Novels which are based on plots, thrills and characterization, including serious novels often make me laugh when the author slip in humorous scenes or dialogue at unexpected moments. This help to balance the overall tone of the book for me. Dickens is often funny somewhere in his long novels, even Victor Hugo's Les Mis has funny bits.

      With Three Men in a Boat I am surprised to find that the humour totally fell flat for me. I find the humour in this book is very tame, very polite and centered on the silliness of the protagonists, particularly the narrator. The style of narration is also rather whimsical, going off on tangents with little supposedly comical vignettes every few paragraphs. Unfortunately I did not find any of it funny. The characters are indeed suitably silly but there is no depth to them, they are all self absorbed and I could not work up any interest in their antics. Tomfooleries like getting up late, waiting for a defiant kettle to boil, drinking horrible tea and whatnot leave me cold.

      The entire enterprise seems completely pointless from beginning to end, and not a single chuckle escaped me. OK, it is a beloved classic which has been in print for more than a century so I have to respect it for that. If you find it funny I respect that too, but humour is very subjective and I subjected myself to this. Ah well, what you gonna do?
    • 4/5
      Jerome K. Jerome wrote a leisurely chronicle of a summer's boating holiday on the Thames. It was published in 1889 when he was only thirty years old. It was a success as a popular humorous book and has remained in print to this day. While some of the book is pure farce his main approach to humor was understatement and outrageous exaggeration in a style that reminds one of some of Twain's comic writings. He described his technique thus:"Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing: but this is a mistake. Mere bald fabrication is useless; the veriest tyro can manage that. It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general air of scrupulous---almost pedantic---veracity, that the experienced angler is seen."His humor relies on the diabolic malice of inanimate objects when they escape from civilization: of the infrangibility of cans when the can opener has been left behind, the ingenuity of an untended rope, the cunning of kettles and leaking kerosene. His narrator is known simply as J. while his companions are Harris and George (though they are somewhat shadowy characters) and of course there is Montmorency, the dog."To look at Montmorency you would imagine that he was an angel sent upon the earth, for some reason withheld from mankind, in the shape of a small fox-terrier. There is a sort of Oh-what-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-could-do-something-to-make-it-better-and -nobler expression about Montmorency that has been known to bring tears into the eyes of pious old ladies and gentlemen."With a convivial narrator and two friends, to say nothing of the dog, this tale of a boat trip is simply one of the funniest and most delightful short books that I have ever read.
    • 1/5
      no story just a bunch of anecdotes. should have been a short story book. the story weaved around the anecdotes was rather flat. a few giggles, but not as funny as expected. long passage without any action.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars? It would be 5, but the occasional serious sections tossed in here and there - and the abrupt change of direction at the end - knocked it down a bit for me. One of the funniest books I've read in a long time, though. Highly recommended!
    • 3/5
      Three Men in a Boat (Xist Classics) Story of three men and how they plan to camp out while traveling around in a boat.So many things can go wrong and so do and how they deal with it.
    • 2/5
      Three men and their dog row a boat from Kingston to Oxford. This book was a huge seller when published in 1889. Initially devised as a means of highlighting various historical sites and places of interest along that stretch of river but it developed into more of a comedy. In some ways, sometimes, the humour is pretty clever but it generally failed to hit the mark with me but no doubt comedy tastes have changed considerably over the past 100 plus years. I preferred the limited historical details but these were islands in a sea of long digressions that gave vehicle to the authors humour. Some might still appreciate the funny stuff here but it wasn't for me.
    • 3/5
      An obviously good writer with a good sense of humour. But the views feel a little dated and the jokes and stories become a little wearing. The structure at times feels too formulaic. Despite this, it is an interesting look at leisure a century ago, and how things are still very much the same, but also different. It is only 190 pages long, but it still seemed to take me an inordinately long time to finish.
    • 5/5
      Light funny and entertaining as well as giving you a history lesson as J and friends travel up the thames. I now want to get a fox terrier :-)
    • 4/5
      Very amusing. Somehow, I had Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster narrating as I read.
    • 5/5
      What a complete little gem this is! A quick read, only 100 pages, but I laughed from beginning to end. I was needing something funny to read, and this quickie really worked. Recommended!
    • 4/5
      Enduringly hilarious.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic. Hysterical. Sly. Beautiful. Historical. Sarcastic. Witty. Read it.