Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, a comedy masterwork that has never been out of print since it was first released in 1889, has an introduction and notes by Jeremy Lewis in Penguin Classics. J. and his cronies George and Harris feel that a trip up the Thames would suit them to a “T,” being martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness. Tow lines, inaccurate weather predictions, and cans of pineapple pieces, not to mention the destruction left in the path of J.’s little fox-terrier Montmorency, are among the problems they can hardly foresee when they start out.
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
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When Three Men in a Boat debuted in 1889, it became an immediate hit. With its benign escapism, authorial discourses, and superb portrayal of the late-Victorian “clerking classes,” it hilariously nailed the spirit of its time. In his introduction, Jeremy Lewis looks at the life and times of Jerome K. Jerome as well as the changing Victorian England he paints, from the emergence of a new mass culture of tabloids and best-selling books to the crazes for day trips and biking.
Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927) attended Marylebone Grammar School after being born in Walstall, Staffordshire. At fourteen, he dropped out of school to work as a railway clerk, the first in a long string of careers that also included acting, teaching, and journalism. His first book, On Stage and Off, a collection of humorous theatre-related essays, was released in 1885. The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, his second book, was more commercially successful and came out the following year, but Three Men in a Boat (1889) was the book that brought Jerome long-lasting fame. He continued to create articles and plays after becoming one of the creators of the funny journal The Idler.
Three Men in a Boat, Jerome Jerome’s amusing tale of his two-week vacation in Victorian England, was fantastic. With two close friends, a Fox Terrier, and a droll, understated style of humour that necessitates two or three background passages the length of Flash Fiction just to get the reader to any given punch line, how could this guy’s rowboat trip from Kingston to Oxford on the Thames ring so true? For one thing, it’s extremely, really funny. All you have to do is unwind and follow the flow (no pun intended). Even Americans like myself who have only ever seen the Thames in pictures of Tower Bridge in London and will miss many of the historical and sociological references will enjoy the humour.
Additionally, the book is a well-written travelogue of a beautiful region of the world in an earlier time that may still be seen if you squint through a few Tesco Supermarkets and some highways. I enjoyed following Jerome’s development on Google Earth and was encouraged to see portions of the current environment that at least somewhat matched his exquisitely evocative writing.
The fact that this odd little book still stands up quite well in spite of all the differences between Victorian England and our fast-paced Information Age is possibly its best feature. When it was initially released in 1889, Three Men in a Boat was a best-seller and has never been out of print.
The interaction between the three male friends, including their playful banter, is instantly recognizable. The same three friends now would probably be bumbling around a golf course or on a camping trip. It’s especially funny in the opening riff when the narrator describes how the marketing copy on the bottle of liver pills led him to a museum library and eventually to a comprehensive list of human ailments, leading him to think he had symptoms for nearly every sickness known to science. Anyone who has browsed WebMD before will easily relate.
