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    Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
    Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
    Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
    Audiobook6 hours

    Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

    Written by Jerome K. Jerome

    Narrated by Steven Crossley

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them just fine. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather forecasts, and tins of pineapple chunks-not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.'s small fox-terrier Montmorency.

    Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and, with its benign escapism, authorial discursions, and wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian clerking classes, it hilariously captured the spirit of its age.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 23, 2011
    ISBN9781452670959
    Author

    Jerome K. Jerome

    Jerome Klapka Jerome was born in 1859 and was brought up in London. He started work as a railway clerk at fourteen, and later was employed as a schoolmaster, actor and journalist. He published two volumes of comic essays and in 1889 Three Men in a Boat. This was an instant success. His new-found wealth enabled him to become one of the founders of The Idler, a humorous magazine which published pieces by W W Jacobs, Bret Harte, Mark Twain and others. In 1900 he wrote a sequel, Three Men on the Bummel, which follows the adventures of the three protagonists on a walking tour through Germany. Jerome married in 1888 and had a daughter. He served as an ambulance driver on the Western Front during the First World War and died in 1927.

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    Reviews for Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

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    • 4/5
      If Monte Python and Oscar Wilde were to collaborate, I think they might have writen this book. The official title is "Three Men in a Boat: to say nothing of the dog" and it took me the good first half of the book to realize that Montmorency was the dog and not a companion along for the jaunt.
    • 4/5
      In this comic story about three friends on a boating trip up the Thames, Jerome K. Jerome, the narrator and one of the three men in question, weaves in countless anecdotes about his boatmates George and Harris and their various acquaintances, not to mention some very funny details about their misadventures. Apparently, the author had originally intended this book to be a serious travel guide, and while there are some descriptions of the sites and local history along the way, even these passages are usually told with with a good dose of irony, while in some places with quite a lot of lyricism. I found the narrator in this particular recording quite excellent. My only complaint is that I kept wondering why there was not more mention of the dog, and which of his two friends he kept referring to as 'Montmorency' until the very end when I realized they were of course one and the same. Silly me.
    • 4/5
      Hilarious. Overripe comedy in the style of Mark Twain. I subtract one star only for the excruciatingly long passages which mimic and mock lyrical writing of the 19th century; it's expertly done, and I'm sure it killed at the time, but today it's a bit much.
    • 4/5
      Enduringly hilarious.
    • 4/5
      This was very funny, sometimes in a laugh out loud way. It probably mostly deserves its high reputation as a comic masterpiece. I was struck by the almost offhand insertion of a random moment of tragedy amidst the otherwise lightweight material when they discover in the river a suicide's body, that of a young woman who gave birth out of wedlock and was rejected by her family and friends in consequence.
    • 5/5
      My father was right,: never read this book in public ! The frequent fits of irresistible laughter gave the people commuting with me in this train reasons to think I had become mad.Besides, more seriously, if you look well, I do believe you'll realize this book holds the key to ALL questions in the universe, be it practical or philosophical, starting of course with how to travel with a cheese.Probably the best british contribution to the world literature, ever, I'm not kidding !
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars? It would be 5, but the occasional serious sections tossed in here and there - and the abrupt change of direction at the end - knocked it down a bit for me. One of the funniest books I've read in a long time, though. Highly recommended!
    • 5/5
      I read that Jerome K. Jerome didn't intend Three Men In A Boat to be a humorous tale, but his editor took out all the serious parts. I don't know how happy Jerome was about that, but I have to say I'm quite pleased.Three Men In A Boat is one of the funniest books I've ever read. It's so clever and so witty and so -fun-! I will have to read it about ten million more times so I can quote every single line when the occasion arrises.
    • 5/5
      I listened to this on audio (Librivox) and read the ebook. If you enjoy this type of wit as I do then you will probably love this book, but if you expect modern pacing, characterization, and plot, you might be bored with it instead. The comedy on and off the river is interspersed with some passages of purple prose here and there, too. It might help somewhat to have a map of the country if you are unfamiliar with it, but I don't think it is essential.
    • 4/5
      Jerome transitions from slapstick to sublime and back smoothly and unnoticeably, just like the everyday life tends to do for each of us.
    • 1/5
      I found this book dull in the extreme and could not wait for it to finish! I was looking foward to it, having read so many favourable reviews, and being a huge fan of Victorian literature. I did not find it funny at all. It was silly, exaggerated and the both the poetic descriptions and the boating details went straight over my head.
    • 5/5
      I read the Connie Willis book To Say Nothing of the Dog, which I found only vaguely entertaining. However, the book was written as a tribute to Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, so I bought that to see what it was about. It is very amusing, which is all the more remarkable considering that it was written in 1889. The sequel, Three Men on the Bummel, is also quite amusing, up until the part where they actually go on the trip, whereupon it becomes rather unremarkable. The first book was written by JKJ about himself and his friends when they were in their 20s, and the second, written in 1900, finds them now in their 30s and married. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Hilarious, and well-written in a tongue-in-cheek way. Laughed out loud several times.
    • 4/5
      humous tale exaggerating the experiences of three men taking a boat trip up the thames past Kingston, Staines, Windsor, etc.
    • 4/5
      Pure fun. Victorians come off as a generally self-serious bunch: either they're buttoned-down to the core, or they're superficially buttoned-down, with serious kinkiness underneath.
    • 2/5
      Three men and their dog row a boat from Kingston to Oxford. This book was a huge seller when published in 1889. Initially devised as a means of highlighting various historical sites and places of interest along that stretch of river but it developed into more of a comedy. In some ways, sometimes, the humour is pretty clever but it generally failed to hit the mark with me but no doubt comedy tastes have changed considerably over the past 100 plus years. I preferred the limited historical details but these were islands in a sea of long digressions that gave vehicle to the authors humour. Some might still appreciate the funny stuff here but it wasn't for me.
    • 3/5
      Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for this, but I found it very fidgety and kind of stressful to read.
    • 5/5
      The funniest travel book you could find
    • 2/5
      Some humorous insights into people; otherwise, it's quite boring. Favorite Quote: "Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing. But that is a mistake. Mere bold fabrication is useless. It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general air of scrupulous - almost of pedantic - veracity, that the experienced angler is seen."
    • 5/5
      Light funny and entertaining as well as giving you a history lesson as J and friends travel up the thames. I now want to get a fox terrier :-)
    • 5/5
      "People who have tried it, tell me that a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well, and is cheaper, and more easily obtained"This book had me in tears of riotous laughter. I had to keep tissue handy to dab away the water from my eyes and muffle my hysterical giggling. If you have ever been sailing, rowing, fishing, camping, owned by an ornery dog, packed for a trip or vacationed with friends you will heartily appreciate the humor herein."One of them rubbed the cushion with the forefinger of her glove, and showed the result to the other, and they both sighed, and sat down, with the air of early Christian martyrs trying to make themselves comfortable up against the stake."And yet, this book is also full of profoundly beautiful observations of nature:"And the red sunset threw a mystic light upon the waters, and tinged with fire the towering woods, and made a golden glory of the piled up clouds. It was an hour of deep enchantment, of ecstatic hope and longing." And of mankind (well Englishman, at any rate): "After a cup of tea (two spoonsful for each cup and don't let it stand more than three minutes), it says to the brain, "Now, rise, and show your strength. Be eloquent, and deep, and tender; see, with a clear eye, into Nature and into life; spread your white wings of quivering thought, and soar, a god-like spirit, over the whirling world beneath you, up through long lanes of flaming stars to the gates of eternity!"Really one of the most remarkable little books I've ever enjoyed.
    • 3/5
      Loved listening to this book on audio. The narrator had great comedic timing and an even better british accent. I think I underestimated this book being solely comedic, but no, you not only learn about the hilarious adventures of three men and a dog while on a boat, but you learn about geography and history and human nature. Very insightful in a great format. I loved this and it should be a must-read for everyone!
    • 4/5
      This 19th century novel is the story of three men, accompanied by a dog, as they travel in a boat up the Thames River. The trip is taken by George and Harris and the narrator J., along with his rat terrier, Montmorency. After a few false starts in the preparations, the three men leave on their journey in a rented rowboat. As they pass each town and village along the way, J. provides brief, humorous histories of the area and the various monarchs and other notable figures associated with it, or side stories of his friends, himself or his dog (and even an uncle who has great difficulty hanging a picture). What starts out as a travel novel ends up being a comedy about the hilarious misadventures of this troublesome group plus one dog in a boat. The book is silly, but great fun, with a few rather poignant moments. One of my favorite was the description of being in the dark woods with the night stars. A 4 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5

      Delightful and laugh out funny.

      It's showing its age in places and because it has been the inspiration for many other writers (incl. Pratchett, Wodehouse and Adams) the style has been expanded upon and occasionally bettered.
    • 5/5
      If you'd imagined Victorian era classic would be un-relatable to reader of 21st century, you'd be very wrong. Three Men in a Boat is immensely funny, laugh out loud humourous book of three extremely lazy and good for nothing men's journey along the river. Narrative is characterized by expansive digressions which feel all too familiar. It's salute to author's writing (not at all difficult to read) or human nature, that what was funny 100 years ago is still the same today. Recommended read among humour books.
    • 3/5
      A Victorian era collection of anecdotes about three impractical friends who decide a two-week boating holiday up the River Thames would be perfectly sublime. Little do these hypochondriacs suffering from 'overwork' take note of the practicalities involved. Along with fox-terrier Montmorency they wrestle with ropes, inclement weather, lack of a tin opener and other mishaps in this classic comedy. Fabulous to know that they were just as mad in 1889 as we are today!
    • 4/5
      A lovely little rambling story about a trip three friends took down the Thames in a boat... You find out about the authors views on Steamboats (Both For and Against, depending on situation), his view of how work is divided up, and all sort of other things that is works well in today's world. Interspersed between the witty insights of human nature, there is a less enjoyable description of the towns and land that Jerome K. Jerome is boating through. These tend to be rather annoying. If the book didn't include these, it would be a 4.5 star book.My one big complaint is the description of the boat... being from the Land of 1000 lakes, I really couldn't visualize it, even after Googling it :) Since a portion of the book describes the process of pulling, towing, and sailing this boat, I was a bit lost.
    • 3/5
      This is a good book, with strong English humor. I just couldn't stop comparing it to PG Wodehouse, who is one of my favorite authors, and who just writes these kind of drift less, meaning well, bit of a bumpkin types so much better than anyone else.
    • 3/5
      Jerome takes us on a quaint little adventure through the British countryside. This book is lovely as it describes tongue-in-cheek the sites of the Thames as well as the historical trivia of various villages. From a modern perspective, it also gives interesting insight on the mores and habits of the day (most specifically young men!).Humour is always tricky: what will make some laugh will puzzle another. Whereas I found the comedy funny at first, I became bored with it later on: the same mechanisms were always at work, namely exaggeration, and it became tiresome. Although this book is short, I would have enjoyed it yet shorter or with a bit more variety.
    • 4/5
      Very amusing. Somehow, I had Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster narrating as I read.