Three Men in a Boat
Three overworked friends and a dog take a boating holiday up the Thames. Packing, tins without openers, a maze and a lot of very English disasters. By Jerome K. Jerome (1889). A public-domain classic.
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How it begins Three invalids.—Sufferings of George and Harris.—A victim to one hundred and seven fatal maladies.—Useful prescriptions.—Cure for liver complaint in children.—We agree that we are overworked, and need rest.—A week on the rolling deep?—George suggests the River.—Montmorency lodges an objection.—Original motion carried by majority of three to one.There were four of us—George, and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency. We were sitting in my room, smoking, and talking about how bad we were—bad from a medical point of view I mean, of course. Keep reading →About this story
Three friends, J., George and Harris, along with J.’s dog, Montmorency, decide they are overworked and need a holiday. They take a boat up the Thames from Kingston to Oxford, and nearly everything that can go wrong with camping, cooking, towing and tinned food does.
Jerome K. Jerome published it in 1889, subtitled To Say Nothing of the Dog. It was meant to be a serious guide to the river, and the history of the places along the way is still in it, but the jokes took over. It has been in print ever since, and it is one of the funniest English books of its age.
- Themes
- Friendship, holidays that go wrong, English humour
- Good for
- Anyone who wants a laugh; reading aloud; fans of comic travel writing
- Worth noticing
- How Jerome slides from a piece of history into a joke without any warning.
Chapters
- 1Chapter 116 min · 9 Oct
- 2Chapter 210 min · 9 Oct
- 3Chapter 313 min · 9 Oct
- 4Chapter 417 min · 9 Oct
- 5Chapter 514 min · 9 Oct
- 6Chapter 618 min · 9 Oct
- 7Chapter 715 min · 9 Oct
- 8Chapter 819 min · 9 Oct
- 9Chapter 917 min · 9 Oct
- 10Chapter 1016 min · 9 Oct
- 11Chapter 1117 min · 9 Oct
- 12Chapter 1220 min · 9 Oct
- 13Chapter 1320 min · 9 Oct
- 14Chapter 1419 min · 9 Oct
- 15Chapter 1523 min · 9 Oct
- 16Chapter 167 min · 9 Oct
- 17Chapter 1713 min · 9 Oct
- 18Chapter 1811 min · 9 Oct
- 19Chapter 1915 min · 9 Oct