Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog)

About the book

Three friends decide that a boating trip on the Thames will improve their health and spirits, accompanied by a dog whose presence adds another complication. Planning, packing, rowing, meals, weather, and attempts to find comfortable arrangements all become occasions for comic disagreement. Jerome repeatedly leaves the immediate journey for stories prompted by a place or object, making digression one of the book's chief pleasures. The narrator's confident complaints often reveal the very habits he attributes to everyone else. Historical associations and quieter landscape passages interrupt the farce without replacing it. The result captures the difference between an ideal holiday imagined from an armchair and the practical business of sharing limited space, uncertain competence, and an itinerary with friends who have opinions of their own.

• Friendship
• Leisure
• Comic self-deception

Why read it

For a companionable comic voice whose digressions are often as enjoyable as the journey supposedly holding them together.

English text