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    Three Men in a Boat
    Three Men in a Boat
    Three Men in a Boat
    Ebook255 pages2 hours

    Three Men in a Boat

    By Jerome K Jerome

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    The story begins by introducing George, Harris, Jerome and Montmorency, a fox terrier. The men are spending an evening in J.'s room, smoking and discussing illnesses they fancy they suffer from. They conclude they are all suffering from 'overwork' and need a holiday. A stay in the country and a sea trip are both considered, then rejected after J. describes the bad experiences had by his brother-in-law and a friend on sea trips. The three decide on a boating holiday up the River Thames, from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford, during which they will camp, notwithstanding Jerome's anecdotes about previous experiences with tents and camping stoves... (Excerpt from Wikipedia)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOtbebookpublishing
    Release dateDec 27, 2015
    ISBN9783956763199
    Author

    Jerome K Jerome

    Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927) was an English writer who grew up in a poverty-stricken family. After multiple bad investments and the untimely deaths of both parents, the clan struggled to make ends meet. The young Jerome was forced to drop out of school and work to support himself. During his downtime, he enjoyed the theatre and joined a local repertory troupe. He branched out and began writing essays, satires and many short stories. One of his earliest successes was Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) but his most famous work is Three Men in a Boat (1889).

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    Reviews for Three Men in a Boat

    4/5

    1,884 ratings128 reviews

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    • 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.
    • 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
      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 :-)
    • 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
      Such a funny little book. Jerome puts me in mind of a British Mark Twain. If it weren't for how respectful everyone seems, it could have been written in this century. I loved his little jabs at his friends as they were also pointed self-deprecating humor, leaving no one off the list - to say nothing of the dog! No wonder it has never gone out of print. Delightful.
    • 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.
    • 3/5
      Reasonably funny, in an understated old-fashioned British sort of way.
    • 4/5
      Half travel guide and half humorous story about three friends who go on a boating holiday on the Thames. I had heard this was funny, but I was surprised how well the humor has stood the test of time; I even laughed out loud a couple of times. I hadn't actually realized that it started out as a travel guide, so those parts were somewhat of a surprise, but still very interesting, since I know the area reasonably well. Not surprised this keeps getting listed on various "classics" lists.
    • 4/5

      Delightful and laugh out funny.

      It's showing its age in places and because it has been the inspiration for many other writers (incl. Pratchett, Wodehouse and Adams) the style has been expanded upon and occasionally bettered.
    • 5/5
      "People who have tried it, tell me that a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well, and is cheaper, and more easily obtained"This book had me in tears of riotous laughter. I had to keep tissue handy to dab away the water from my eyes and muffle my hysterical giggling. If you have ever been sailing, rowing, fishing, camping, owned by an ornery dog, packed for a trip or vacationed with friends you will heartily appreciate the humor herein."One of them rubbed the cushion with the forefinger of her glove, and showed the result to the other, and they both sighed, and sat down, with the air of early Christian martyrs trying to make themselves comfortable up against the stake."And yet, this book is also full of profoundly beautiful observations of nature:"And the red sunset threw a mystic light upon the waters, and tinged with fire the towering woods, and made a golden glory of the piled up clouds. It was an hour of deep enchantment, of ecstatic hope and longing." And of mankind (well Englishman, at any rate): "After a cup of tea (two spoonsful for each cup and don't let it stand more than three minutes), it says to the brain, "Now, rise, and show your strength. Be eloquent, and deep, and tender; see, with a clear eye, into Nature and into life; spread your white wings of quivering thought, and soar, a god-like spirit, over the whirling world beneath you, up through long lanes of flaming stars to the gates of eternity!"Really one of the most remarkable little books I've ever enjoyed.
    • 5/5
      A true classic that transcends the passage of time.Despite being written in 1899 and not being particularly well received by the critics of the day this book has never been out of print and that is because it has a timeless quality. This could have been a simple travelogue but is so much more.There is no plot as such but is a series of anecdotes and witticisms as the author himself,J, and two friends,all self confessed hypochondriacs, and a dog take a boat trip up the Thames. The writing style,language and pace is both gentle and simple. The author starts telling an anecdote and then just keeps on exaggerating it with hilarious results. The tale about the cheese and the hunt for a train at Waterloo station literally had me in tears with laughter and I read virtually every page with a smile on my face. Whats more many of the observations still ring true today.Why oh why did I take so long to read this book? It is a gem and a real joy. If you want to read a 'classic' then this is an easy as well as fun place to start.
    • 4/5
      Three Men In A Boat is a humourous novel from the 1880s detailing the trip that three young, wealthy, Wooster-style gadabouts take from London to Oxford, up the Thames by rowing skiff. The novel is actually based on Jerome’s honeymoon, I believe, with his wife replaced by two friends to make the novel more amusing. It’s a perennial classic which has never been out of print, and it’s easy to see why. Jerome has a surprisingly modern writing style, and the book feels undated to the point where the appearance of horse-drawn carts feels anachronous. It also never stopped feeling odd when Jerome would compare the peacefulness of bygone eras with the hustling, bustling modern world of “the 19th century.”It reminded me, inevitably, of the shaggy dog story travelogues of Mark Twain, though Jerome is far more readable than Twain. They follow the same sort of style – firmly tongue-in-cheek, constantly diverted by anecdotes, and with the strong sense that neither man would let the truth get in the way of a good story (although Jerome at least classified his as fiction). It’s not without its flaws – certainly some of the amusing stories can become long-winded and unfunny, as was the style at the time, and the humour is curiously interspersed with patches of sentimental writing in which Jerome genuinely appreciates the beauty of the Thames. Nonetheless, Three Men In A Boat is a short and pleasant novel which remains one of the more accessible pieces of writing from the 19th century.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic. Hysterical. Sly. Beautiful. Historical. Sarcastic. Witty. Read it.
    • 5/5
      Entertaining comedy.
    • 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.
    • 5/5
      Hilarious, and well-written in a tongue-in-cheek way. Laughed out loud several times.
    • 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.
    • 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
      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!
    • 4/5
      Enduringly hilarious.
    • 4/5
      This is a look at the misadventures of three men and their dog on a two week voyage on the Thames in the 19th century. I laughed quite a bit and often pictured the men as the three stooges. A fun romp!
    • 4/5
      What a joyful book.Not at all what I expected, as although humourous, it is written in a "shaggy dog" story style, with reminiscences, recollections and imagined historical retellings of history (especially at Runnymede with the Magna Carta).This is a travel book about a boat trip up the Thames from Richmond to Oxford.The boat is either rowed by two of the three men or pulled along. It is a fascinating story, which I imagine is half based on fact.A delightful sunny book (although it does rain on the return trip, which realistically hastens their return to London).It was strange to read references to the nineteenth century as modernity.I read a beautifully illustrated Folio Society edition, well worth getting as the numerous pictures perfectly capture the mood.

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    Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome

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