Three Men in a Boat (Three Men, #1) in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Nov 26, 2009 Angela Randall is currently reading it · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century, classics, literature, humour, fiction, we-own, guardian-1000-best-novels, guardian-best-comedy, free-ebook, a-great-list-of-top-books-to-read

I did something very bad. I read this book while my kid was watching Pocoyo and realised that the background music actually fitted perfectly. Now I can't even look at this book without getting the Pocoyo music stuck in my head. But hey, it REALLY works. (You're welcome for that earworm) :) ...more

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Dec 30, 2008 Amy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2009

This book made me laugh several times - a rare thing in a book. If you like to read slightly humorous anecdotes about the idiosyncrasies of people, this book might be for you. A warning up front - it is not a novel. There is very little unique character development. The story structure is basically a trip on the Thames. This is a collection of humorous incidents, either directly related to the river trip or related in that something on the river trip reminded the author of the story.

For a book o This book made me laugh several times - a rare thing in a book. If you like to read slightly humorous anecdotes about the idiosyncrasies of people, this book might be for you. A warning up front - it is not a novel. There is very little unique character development. The story structure is basically a trip on the Thames. This is a collection of humorous incidents, either directly related to the river trip or related in that something on the river trip reminded the author of the story.

For a book originally published in 1889, I was amazed at how fresh the humor remained. Part of the genius of the book is in the author's way of pointing out the little hypocrisies that we all possess. My favorite example is the steam launch episodes. To the Victorian, steam launches represented progress. At one point, J. has only bad things to say about steam launches and their effect on river travel - in fact, he describes a game the three play. They stay in the middle of the river, pretending not to see the launch, and make the steam launch stop suddenly to avoid a collision! But later on the trip, the three men encounter a steam launch owned by friends - and hitch themselves to the back for a ride. At this point, he completely switches perspective: "It is really most annoying, the manner in which these rowing-boats get in the way of one's launch up the river; something ought to be done to stop it." He goes on to advocate having one or two of them "run down" to "teach them all a lesson."

Throughout the book, J. pokes fun at himself and everyone else. In another favorite part, he is describing an excursion made with some very snobbish girls, dressed in their finest, and afraid of getting dirty. He describes in great detail how, despite his efforts not to, one of his friends is continuously spraying the girls with water. And after the picnic scene, the young man makes the girls wash their dishes in the river. After describing the bumbling young man and his misguided efforts throughout the picnic, J. says this: "Now I come to think it over, was that young man as dunce-headed as we thought? or was he - no, impossible! there was such a simple, childlike expression about him!"

Somehow Jerome has a gift for making you change your perspective of a situation radically from one moment to the next, with just a brief observation. He also includes some serious ramblings about the history of the river Thames; sometimes these tended to drag, although I particularly liked the one about the Magna Carta. I think if I were more familiar with English history or this particular geography, I would have loved this book even more!

At the beginning of the chapter, Jerome includes a short synopsis of the chapter - it's fun to read through it prior to the chapter, and then read it again after the chapter, to match the short version to the full story.

This book would make good bedtime reading; there's no plot so you won't get sucked into 'just one more chapter' and end up reading all night. If you leave it for a few nights, you can pick it up and not have lost your place. ...more

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Aug 16, 2009 Lianna marked it as to-read

"wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian 'clerking classes'" ...more

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Feb 11, 2010 Deb rated it liked it

Shelves: humor, europe, audiobook

3.5 stars. Written in 1889 this book is a charming and humorous travelogue of 3 men (and a dog!) bumbling their way up the Thames camping in a boat. I could see much of this as a silent film/ stooges type movie as I listened to it. I often smiled as I walked and listened to the wonderfully voiced story. Occasionally the author often went off on another story tangent, and those were were more hit or miss regarding the humor.

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