Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog)
Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927), 1889
★ 3.82 from 83.5k ratings on Goodreads
Three friends and a fox terrier row up the Thames and fall into every small disaster available. The comedy of overpacking, bad weather and self-deception is still funny, and the digressions are sharp. The mood is loose and witty, with friendly banter, small disasters and sharp digressions that keep the river trip light.
Feels like humor, nostalgia and tenderness. About friendship, adventure and nature.
Who it’s for
You may enjoy it if you like comic travelogues, old-fashioned friendship and jokes about overpacking. The long digressions and Victorian phrasing can slow the going if you want a straight narrative.
Why read it
It offers a funny, companionable escape and a reminder that small mishaps make the best stories.
Pages from the book
The short list of what a life actually needs, packed in one sentence.
Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing. Working with all your strength and discovering you have gone nowhere.
I pulled splendidly. I got well into a steady rhythmical swing. I put my arms, and my legs, and my back into it. I set myself a good, quick, dashing stroke, and worked in really grand style. My two friends said it was a pleasure to watch me. At the end of five minutes, I thought we ought to be pretty near the weir, and I looked up. We were under the bridge, in exactly the same spot that we were when I began, and there were those two idiots, injuring themselves by violent laughing. I had been grinding away like mad to keep that boat stuck still under that bridge. I let other people pull up backwaters against strong streams now. Someone who loves watching you work is not the compliment he thinks.
I lived with a man once who used to make me mad that way. He would loll on the sofa and watch me doing things by the hour together, following me round the room with his eyes, wherever I went. He said it did him real good to look on at me, messing about. He said it made him feel that life was not an idle dream to be gaped and yawned through, but a noble task, full of duty and stern work. He said he often wondered now how he could have gone on before he met me, never having anybody to look at while they worked. More passages from Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog)
Jerome K. Jerome.Jerome meant the book as a serious Thames guidebook, then let the jokes take over. Harris and George were drawn from his real friends Carl Hentschel and George Wingrave.
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Questions readers ask
- Is Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog) for me?
- You may enjoy it if you like comic travelogues, old-fashioned friendship and jokes about overpacking. The long digressions and Victorian phrasing can slow the going if you want a straight narrative.
- What is Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog) like?
- The mood is loose and witty, with friendly banter, small disasters and sharp digressions that keep the river trip light. Feels like humor, nostalgia and tenderness. About friendship, adventure and nature.
- What should I read after Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog)?
- If you liked Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog), try The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas), The Man Who Died Twice (Richard Osman) and The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame).
A taste of the feed
The particular agony of walking into a room where everyone already knows each other.
It was, then, into the midst of this tumult and disorder that our young man advanced with a beating heart, ranging his long rapier up his lanky leg, and keeping one hand on the edge of his cap, with that half-smile of the embarrassed provincial who wishes to put on a good face. When he had passed one group he began to breathe more freely; but he could not help observing that they turned round to look at him, and for the first time in his life d’Artagnan, who had till that day entertained a very good opinion of himself, felt ridiculous.
The Three Musketeers · Alexandre Dumas
The friend who ends the argument by telling you what you already decided.
Elizabeth reaches for the white wine. “Ibrahim, not everything is about numbers. Ron, you would die long before the dog; male life expectancy is far lower than female life expectancy, and you know what your GP has said about your blood sugar. And Joyce, we both know you’ve already made up your mind. You’ll get a rescue dog. It’ll be sitting somewhere right now, all alone with big eyes, just waiting for you. You will be powerless and, besides, it’ll be fun for all of us, so let’s stop even discussing it.”
The Man Who Died Twice · Richard Osman
How to describe a massacre as though reviewing a parade.
There was never anything so gallant, so spruce, so brilliant, and so well disposed as the two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon made music such as Hell itself had never heard. The cannons first of all laid flat about six thousand men on each side; the muskets swept away from this best of worlds nine or ten thousand ruffians who infested its surface. The bayonet was also a sufficient reason for the death of several thousands. The whole might amount to thirty thousand souls. Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery.
Candide · Voltaire
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