Quick Classics Collection: Travel: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Three Men in a Boat; Robinson Crusoe

Written by Mark Twain, Jerome K Jerome and Daniel Defoe

Narrated by Bing Crosby, Jeremy Nicholas and Harry Andrews

William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic fiction read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly abridged and remastered stories are now available to download for the first time.

Moving from a long hot summer in Mississippi to the rivers of London, and beyond to a remote tropical desert island, this collection of fictional travel writing contains some of the most famous novels from the 18th and 19th century and includes Bing Crosby’s superb reading of Mark Twain’s classic coming of age tale.

These classic stories are read by singer, comedian, and actor Bing Crosby; president of the Jerome K. Jerome Society, Jeremy Nicholas; and The Red Beret’s Harry Andrews.

This collection includes:
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, read by Bing Crosby
• Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, read by Jeremy Nicholas
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, read by Harry Andrews

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Oct 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9780008447533

Mark Twain

Mark Twain, who was born Samuel L. Clemens in Missouri in 1835, wrote some of the most enduring works of literature in the English language, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc was his last completed book—and, by his own estimate, his best. Its acquisition by Harper & Brothers allowed Twain to stave off bankruptcy. He died in 1910. 

Reviews for Quick Classics Collection

[judygibson-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Always humorous.

[scott4r · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Inspired to read after To Say Nothing of the Dog. Breezy reading, occasionally amusing, eventually boring. Dropped after about 11 chapters.

[adzebill · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Happy to have read this, only to enjoy the occasional long-winded lyrical passage and droll story, and because, sadly, this is a classic of British literature. Malcolm Bradbury put it quite well in DOCTOR CRIMINALE: "So when you thought about it 1889 was quite a year, right across Europe – the time of Freud and Nietzsche, Ibsen and Zola, Max Nordau and Max Weber. In fact it was the great year of Modernismus, modern thought. And in Britain that year…well, in Britain that year, the British, as the British do, were coming along just a little late. The book of the year…was Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat."

[kslade-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mildly humorous. Not the laugh out loud type, but still an amusing read. Found out there is an old movie which I would like to see.

[albertgoldfain · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The comedic effect is by turns helped and hurt by this book's overwhelming British-ness.

[nickduberley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you don't get 5 or 6 really huge laughs out of this, then I doubt much can be done to help you.

[murderbydeath · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As part of my plan to knock off TBR books quicker by checking out audio versions, I started this book just at the tail end of last year, but didn't make enough progress before holidays, so picked it back up this month. But there were problems: My first audio, checked out from my local library, was a popular edition with holds, so my check-out expired before I could finish it and I couldn't renew - there are currently still 2 holds on it before mine. When I went to dig out my paperback copy to finish reading it, I couldn't find it. I remember showing it to MT because he'd heard mention of the book somewhere, and now neither of us can find it. Not a happy camper. Because my library copy has numerous holds, I went to a neighbouring system I have a card with and checked out their audio edition - a different one, but it's narrated by Hugh Laurie, and he can't suck right? Right. But when it ended much sooner than I expected it to, I discovered it's abridged. SO - I'm reviewing it anyway and when I get home there will be a possibly violent rummage through the house and the paperback will be found. At which point I will figure out what I missed. It doesn't really matter though, because the book is lovely. Light, amusing, entertaining and often poetic. While Hugh Laurie was brilliant, I think I have to give an extra nudge to Frederick Davidson's edition. He adds a certain ironic gravitas to his reading that makes lightly amusing anecdotes hilarious. Highly recommended in any form.

[et.carole · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very few can write as delightfully as this book, with such a rousing yet harmless humor that graces all it touches. A childhood favorite; still a good tale that makes one want to get in a boat and start paddling.

[snash_44 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book written in the 1800's was written as a travel guide but is now presented as humor. I found the humor rather like some British TV Comedy (for example 'Faulty Towers') somewhat predictable and over the top. I grew tired of it before it was done.

[laytonwoman3rd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In which an otherwise sensible dog takes a trip up the Thames with three hapless humans, and somehow manages to come out of it unscathed. As do the humans, one of whom tells the tale. It's Wodehouse witty, and owes much to Twain as well. Hang on to your sculls, because you'll laugh 'til you squeak for breath one minute, and be moved to find a good biography of Queen Matilda or Edward the Confessor in the next.Reviewed in 2012

[ffortsa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had read this back in 2011, and didn't understand why it was considered a comic classic, but one of my reading groups chose it and I thought it might be funnier if I listened to it.This is a perfect example of arch, late 19th century British silliness. Listening to it was eventually better than reading it. The first third or so was deadly, and I actually fell asleep. But I persevered, and also sped up the audio just a little bit (1.2), and the rest of the book gained in humor. Some of the small, serious interludes are thought-provoking as well.The three men in question (and the dog) decide to take a boat trip the way young men might decide to take a motorcycle getaway these days. There's a lot about the Thames itself, and if I were familiar with the river that part would have been much more interesting. Some of the small, serious interludes are thought-provoking as well.

[mbmackay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

First published in 1889, this book has travelled well - the humour still works.It paints a picture of a different social era, one of a slower pace than society today, but where the instincts of individuals are not that different from today. But there are also dark spots - the body in the river of the woman who committed suicide after an illegitimate birth provides a jarring note.The scenic highlights have not changed much - it is easy to follow the course of the trip in Google and Google maps - the landmarks are still there - as are a surprising number of the old inns.A good read.

[kamgeb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I started to read this for about the 3rd time and I still couldn't get through the book. My English teacher (whom I loved) said it was laugh out loud funny but I quickly got bored of the book. Maybe I will try again another time.

[jigarpatel-6 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

19th century British comedy about the inadequacies of three men who embark on a boating expedition. Covers their inability to pack, lack of boating skills, woeful cooking skills, and the like. I don't believe the novel stands the test of time. You really have to take yourself back in time to appreciate some of the humour.

[tonauac-506321 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It was not what I was expecting. My expectations were much hire from what the various comments where saying about it. This is not a great our even a good book… mediocre? maybe.
Sure, there's some few pages where imagination and cleverness is evident, but is not enough to be a "great 5 stars" book.
Some laughs = yes
Like ti? = no, feel like a waist of time

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog last year. That book uses this classic as a backdrop but I had not read it so I determined to remedy that as soon as possible. When I saw a copy in my local USB for only $2.00 I knew I had to get it.Supposedly this book is based upon a real journey the author, two friends and a dog took in a boat up the Thames in 1888. I don't want to libel a man who is long dead but I do suspect that some of the incidents were imagined or at least hyperbolic. Nevertheless the story is a good view of life in Victorian England when people were not in such a hurry and the idea of spending two weeks going from London to Oxford and back was one way to spend a vacation. Jerome has that dry wit that one only seems to find in the English and it often caught me by surprise. On the other hand he can describe scenes of nature handily and he sometimes even dips into social commentary. He also delves into the history of places encountered along the way which is quite illuminating. Here is a little example from Chapter 16:In later years, Reading seems to have been regarded as a handy place to run down to, when matters were becoming unpleasant in London. Parliament generally rushed off to Reading whenever there was a plague on at Westminster; and, in 1625, the Law followed suit, and all the courts were held at Reading. It must have been worth while having a mere ordinary plague now and then in London to get rid of both the lawyers and the Parliament.

[darthdeverell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[mickyfine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[breic-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[datrappert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[liivin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Timeless humor. Very easy to read.

[whatsmacksaid · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

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.

[fred_mouse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[debbiemccauley-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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!

[charlie68_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A funny, touching and enjoyable trip on the River Thames. Enjoyable with company that comes along and side trips the characters take you through.

[mrgan-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[lindoula-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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!

[solitaryfossil · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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!