Three Men in a Boat

One of the best-loved classics of all time, Three Men in a Boat is a hilarious account of three friends and their dog on a holiday trip on the Thames in England. Harris, George, Jerome (the narrator), and Montmorency (the fox terrier) decide to take a break from their tedious routine, to restore their 'mental equilibrium'. And so they take a trip on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford, making certain stops at interesting places, camping out, and inadvertently landing up in comical muddles and misadventures.

Originally planned as a travelogue, this book turned into a literary classic, thanks to the narrator's humorous digressions, segueing into the historical background of some places. It is sprinkled with his own musings as they cross Hampton Court Palace, Monkey Island, Magna Carta Island, Marlow, little villages, and other known landmarks on the way.

The three men in the novel are based on real-life characters: Jerome himself, and his two friends, George Wingrave and Carl Hentschel.

About the Author

Jerome Klapka Jerome was born in Walsall on 2 May 1859 and brought up in East London. After his father died, Jerome left school at fourteen and worked as a railway clerk, actor, journalist and teacher. In 1885 he published On the Stage - and Off which was followed in 1886 by Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. In 1888 Jerome married Georgina Stanley and a year later he published his most famous work, Three Men in a Boat. The sequel, Three Men on the Bummel, appeared in 1900. Jerome also wrote several other novels, plays, stories and autobiographical writings, edited The Idler and Today magazines and, during the First World War, worked for the French ambulance service. Jerome K. Jerome died on 14 June 1927.