Review of 'Three Men in a Boat Jerome Klapka Jerome (Illustrated)' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Three young Englishmen decide to spend a fortnight boating on the Thames for their health.
A classic of English humor; I'm quite dismayed that I hadn't discovered it before now! It's one of the funniest books I've read in a long time (and I've read many funny books). I found myself laughing out loud quite often, and couldn't resist reading sections of it to my wife - even though I know it's not the sort of thing she cares for.
It's astonishing that a book written 123 years ago should feel so modern. I hadn't realized that such dark humor had been invented back in 1889!
The occasional turns into more somber and lyrical prose are a bit jarring at first (they're quite reminiscent of The Wind In the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame, which was published 19 years later), but you soon get used to them. And the …
Three young Englishmen decide to spend a fortnight boating on the Thames for their health.
A classic of English humor; I'm quite dismayed that I hadn't discovered it before now! It's one of the funniest books I've read in a long time (and I've read many funny books). I found myself laughing out loud quite often, and couldn't resist reading sections of it to my wife - even though I know it's not the sort of thing she cares for.
It's astonishing that a book written 123 years ago should feel so modern. I hadn't realized that such dark humor had been invented back in 1889!
The occasional turns into more somber and lyrical prose are a bit jarring at first (they're quite reminiscent of The Wind In the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame, which was published 19 years later), but you soon get used to them. And the serious passages are quite brief, just sufficient to cleanse the palate (so to speak) before the next comic gem.
The illustrated EPUB edition at Project Gutenberg is excellent and, of course, free. The illustrations are well-formatted, clear, and enhance the text. If you appreciate humor, you have no excuse for missing this book!
Incidentally, I "found" Three Men In a Boat via Robert A. Heinlein's Have Space Suit - Will Travel. The protagonist's father is a fan. I'd read the book (Heinlein's that is) a dozen times before, easily - but I always assumed that Three Men in a Boat was fictional. For some reason while reading Have Space Suit - Will Travel out loud to my son, I found myself wondering if Three Men in a Boat was real; and Wikipedia soon set me right.
I'm glad it did. And now, on to Three Men on the Bummel! I've already downloaded it from Project Gutenberg.
Oh, I almost neglected to mention: there's an audio book of Three Men in a Boat read by Hugh Laurie. A perfect choice, of course. It can be found in sections on YouTube, or, I presume, it can be purchased. But I must say that I laughed more when reading the book then while listening to it. I'm not quite sure why!
