Jerome Klapka Jerome

A Gab Bag for Book Discussion Groups : to Say Nothing of the Dog! & Three Men on the Bummel

Three Men in a Boat

Jerome K. Jerome

George, William, and J. agree on one thing. They're overworked and need a rest. A week on "the rolling deep" — they decide — may be just the thing! So off they go with Montmorency, the dog, anticipating the joys of long, lazy days during a glorious Victorian summer. What happens to these bungling bachelors on a two-week rowing excursion up the Thames provides fodder for one of the best-known classics of English humor. Jerome's timeless comedy follows the trio's misadventures as they struggle with camping equipment and meal preparation, confront rampant hypochondria and unreliable weather, and contend with other disasters — all of which trumpet simple truths that still resonate today.

(To Say Nothing of the Dog)

𝚕𝚒𝚕𝚢

4 ★ - (really liked it)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, a new favorite to be sure! It reminded me of Jeeves & Wooster - except Victorian - and it was quite hilarious, the same type of British humor. I laughed out loud quite a lot and there pieces that conveyed the loveliest imagery. I'm very glad I decided to read this when I did XD

To Say Nothing of the Dog ; Three Men on the Bummel

Gayathri Jinesh

This is a lazy saturday afternoon read. The humor is amusing, it made me laugh out loud at times too. The book doesn't have any emotions, but it does give you a feeling of... insouciance. After reading there's nothing of it left in my head, except for few incidences and jokes. An "enjoy as you read" book.

Belle

The first third or so is really fun, but once they get going on the river it's super tedious. I skipped a bunch of chunks that just talk about boating or the river.

Amir M 

As a "humor" book, it's a well-written and timeless one. you can still feel close to characters nearly 130 years after it's been published.
And if that's not enough for you, there's an Audiobook version read by Hugh Laurie. He's done an absolutely brilliant job portraying the characters and he deserves to be praised for it. I enjoyed every minute of listening to this audiobook and strongly recommend it to anyone have an interest in this genre.

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), published in 1889, is a humorous account by English writer Jerome K. Jerome of a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford.The book was initially intended to be a serious travel guide, with accounts of local history along the route, but the humorous elements took over to the point where the serious and somewhat sentimental passages seem a distraction to the comic novel. One of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers - the jokes seem fresh and witty even today.The three men are based on Jerome himself and two real-life friends, George Wingrave (who would become a senior manager at Barclays Bank) and Carl Hentschel (the founder of a London printing business, called Harris in the book), with whom J. often took boating trips. The dog, Montmorency, is entirely fictional but, "as Jerome admits, developed out of that area of inner consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an element of the dog." The trip is a typical boating holiday of the time in a Thames camping skiff. This was just after commercial boat traffic on the Upper Thames had died out, replaced by the 1880s craze for boating as a leisure activity.

Sarah Escorsa

So this is the second time I try to read this classic but for some reason I just can't get past the first 50 pages... All the people I know that have read Three Men in a Boat loved it and think it one of the funniest books ever written. Well this is a mystery too me as I simply find the book boring and don't enjoy Jerome's writing at all... I really wanted to like this book but it just didn't happen.

Three Men in a Boat A Gab Bag for Book Discussion Groups : to Say Nothing of the Dog! & Three Men on the Bummel

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