Three Men In A Boat, To Say Nothing Of The Dog (original 1889; edition 1981)

Enduringly hilarious. Yet another re-read in prgress. ( )

Since this was the next book I read after "[b:Moby Dick or The Whale|3685701|Moby Dick or The Whale|Herman Melville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1297636408s/3685701.jpg|2409320]", this was quite a change of pace and scale, if still set on the water! J., George and Harris' chaotic and inept adventures in a boat on the Thames with Montmorencey the dog kept me chuckling. Great fun, and cheered me up during a hard week! ( )

This fairly short work is strange mix of travel journal, storytelling, and social commentary. Jerome uses the setting of a group of friends embarking on a boating holiday up the Thames as a framework on which to hang a series of humorous stories and anecdotes (many unrelated to the main story), social commentary (mostly sarcasm in the guise of cluelessness), and observations on the various spots of interest along the Thames from Kingston to Oxford.

J. (as our narrator calls himself) is only slightly better than Sterne’s Tristram Shandy in staying on topic, but he always manages to get his crew a bit closer to their destination by the end of each fairly brief chapter. Jerome’s tongue-in-cheek narrative, mixed with full-out slapstick and the occasional genuine admiration of the beauty of the river environs makes for a fun read. How much it reveals about the life of the privileged in 1880s England, I can’t say.

If you enjoy a humorous bit of wandering through Victorian England, and aren’t much worried about plot, I highly recommend Three Men in a Boat is an engrossing diversion from the ordinary.

Os. ( )

3.5. Ah, British humor! This book was a bit strange, oscillating between that sort of dry ridiculous British wit that had me laughing out loud, to clever snickery observations, to places that lost me a bit through their overly thorough tediousness, & even big chunks of history & a VERY moving farewell essay, of sorts, to a "fallen woman" who committed suicide. But, truly lovely writing throughout. I'm giving it a 3.5, I listened to it on audiotape & feel that may have enhanced the tedium of certain passages. Worth a read if you like this kind of thing! And, the full title is "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)" which is SO funny & why I had to read it! :) ( )

I've been meaning to read this book for a while, and a long train trip yesterday proved the perfect opportunity. I found it moderately entertaining and moderately charming, with its strongest points being the narrator's digressions that provide sly insight into human nature. It is in these episodes that a novel that seems rooted in the occupations and preoccupations of the late 19th century instead sheds light on people today. Plus ça change . . .

The plot is slight. Three young men who work (or "work") at clerk-type jobs in London (to say nothing of the dog, Montmorency) embark on a boating trip up the Thames to Oxford and back as a way to cure their psychological malaise and hypochondriacal obsessions. Light on action, the book shines in its digressions, some extremely humorous (and others less so -- I am not the biggest fan of British humor, nor of slapstick humor). Some of my favorites are the narrator's conviction he suffers from all diseases except housemaid's knee after reading a medical tome (Google anyone?), his uncle's method of hanging a picture, the story of the mounted fish, the narrator's opinions on the sightseeing compulsion and on weather forecasting, and his varying perspective depending on whether he is in a skiff or a steam-launch. I also enjoyed the author's parodies of lyrical nature writing, and the British history he throws in, and Montmorency's antics. Almost hidden by the humor are some more serious points, including a woman found dead in the water and some comments on overconsumption. Above all, Jerome is a deft writer, and I enjoyed the way he moved the story along and some of his throwaway comments.

I have to say I was put off at one point by the use of a derogatory racial term; although I attributed it to the times, I was shocked to see the author of the introduction to my edition use the same term without comment in the notes section. However, he also points out in the introduction that Jerome, after a trip to the US, wrote harshly about lynching, so I guess this is more complicated than it seems.