Jerome K. Jerome Books

Even though Miss Alcott didn't have as much writing experience when she wrote these short stories, they are still a wonderful read. The first two stories are from 'Hospital Sketches'and are wonderful. "A Night" is a gripping acount based on her experience as a Civil War nurse. In the story a nurse is staying up all night with a dying soldier. The story is beautiful. "My Contraband" is a sad tale of how the war and slavery tore apart families. The last two stories are an enjoyable read also. Hey, for 90 cents this book is more than worth the price. If you like Louisa May Alcott, you won't be dissapointed with these stories, so give this book a try.

The Dover Thrift Edition of "Short Stories" by Louisa May Alcott contains 5 pieces: "Obtaining Supplies," "A Night," "My Contraband," "Happy Women," and "How I Went Out to Service." The book includes a brief introductory note on the life and career of Alcott.

The first two stories are from Alcott's "Hospital Sketches"; together with the third story, they deal with protagonists who work as nurses for Civil War soldiers. "My Contraband" has as a key theme the legacy of slavery. "Happy Women" is more of a sketch celebrating single women, and the final piece tells the "serio-comico experience" of a young woman who goes to work as a domestic companion.

I read this book shortly after reading Alcott's novel "The Inheritance," written when she was only 17; that simple but charming work makes for a fascinating contrast with the polished maturity of the pieces in this volume. Overall, this collection shows Alcott's wit, humor, compassion for humanity, attentive eye, and particular concern for women's issues. This short (55 + vii pages) book is a wonderful collection by one of the most remarkable figures in American literature.

Many of these brief but captivating stories are lovely, but one in particular captured my interest, and that was about the secret lives of silverware. There are other nonsensical but entertaining stories in this volume, all of which are perfect to read aloud to young children. The fact that these are lesser known makes it an all the more intriguing addition to your library. Simply enchanting!

Jerome K. Jerome originally meant to write a real travelogue about a trip up the Thames. He writes in his memoirs: "I did not intend to write a funny book, at first. The book was to have concentrated on the river's scenery and history with passages of humorous relief. Somehow it would not come. It seemed to be all humorous relief. By grim determination I succeeded... in writing a dozen or so slabs of history and working them in, one to each chapter." His editor deleted most but not all of the seriousness. (the dead body at Goring in chapter 16 is based on the suicide in July 1887 of a Gaiety Girl named Alicia Douglas.)

The editor's decision greatly strengthens this amusing book. It's remarkable how fresh and funny the jokes seem to a modern reader. In the preface, Jerome writes that he recorded 'events that really happened. All that has been done is to colour them; and, for this, no extra charge has been made.'

The three human characters were really three friends -- George Wingrave, Carl Hentschel and Jerome himself. The three made scores of trips on the Thames over the years. They also cycled together across Europe to the Black Forest. (Their cycling led to Jerome's Three Men on the Bummel, a less funny but still interesting journal of a trip to the Black Forest.)

Montmorency never existed: "Montmorency I evolved out of my inner consciousness. Dog friends that I came to know later have told me it was true to life." Montmorency does ring true to life; "fox-terriers are born with about four times as much original sin in them as other dogs are." Montmorency almost fights with a tom cat, he does fight with a tea kettle and loses, and at Oxford he gets into 25 fights.

George was a bank clerk (who "goes to sleep at a bank from ten to four each day, except Saturdays, when they wake him up and put him outside at two.") He must have been awake enough to have some banker sensibility: "We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can't do without." (I must remember that great advice before my next hiking trip.)

There are inside jokes. Harris is based on Hentschel, and Harris/Hentschel is fond of a drink. Jerome makes a point of the small number of pubs in the country which Harris has not visited. In fact, Hentschel/Harris was the only teetotaller.

Boating on the Thames became a craze. In 1888, the year in which Jerome wrote Three Men in a Boat, there were 8,000 registered boats on the river; by the following year there were 12,000. "At first we would have the river almost to ourselves... and sometimes would fix up a trip of three or four days or a week, doing the thing in style and camping out."

The book has a historical interest. Unlike much of the literature of the Victorian Age, it was based on ordinary people having an adventure near their homes. As Jerome wrote in The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow: "What readers ask now-a-days in a book is that it should improve, instruct and elevate. This book wouldn't elevate a cow."

Three Men in a Boat instructs but more than that delivers a view of the era that is revealing and very very funny.

Robert C. Ross 2008

Imagine Bertie Wooster and two of his idiot friends out on a boat... with no Jeeves. That about describes "Three Men in a Boat : To Say Nothing of the Dog," Jerome K. Jerome's enchanting comic novel about three young men (to say nothing of the dog) who discover the "joys" of roughing it.

The three men are George, Harris and the narrator, who are all massive hypochiandriacs -- they find that they have symptoms of every disease in existance (except housemaid's knee). To prop up their failing health, they decide to take a cruise down the Thames in a rented boat, camping and enjoying nature's bounty.

Along with Monty -- an angelic-looking, devilish terrier -- the three friends set off down the river. But they find that not everything is as easy as they expected. They get lost in hedge mazes, end up going downstream without a paddle, encounter monstrous cats and vicious swans, have picnics navigate locks, offend German professors, and generally get into every kind of trouble they possibly can...

Even though it was published more than a century ago, "Three Men in a Boat" remains as freshly humorous as when it was first published. While editor/playwright/author Jerome K. Jerome wrote a lot of other books, this book remains his most famous. And once you've read it, you'll see why.

Jerome's real talent is in finding humor in everyday things, like trying to erect a tent in the woods, getting seasick, or questioning whether it's safe to drink river water. Written in Jerome's dry, goofy prose, these little occurrances become immensely funny. One of the funniest parts of the book is when the boys listen to a fishermen telling of his prowess, only to accidently knock down his record-breaking stuffed fish.... and discover it's made out of plaster. Oops.

But Jerome takes a break from the humor near the end, when the boys find a drowned woman floating in the river. And here he becomes solemn and quietly compassionate: "She had sinned - some of us do now and then - and her family and friends, naturally shocked and indignant, had closed their doors against her."

But back on the funny stuff. The capstone on all this humor is the "three men." These guys are basically pampered Victorian aristocrats, who have a romantic yearning for the great outdoors. You'll be laughing at them and with them, as they struggle through the basics of boating and camping.

It's worth noting that the Digireads edition of this book is very good, with a flexible cover, extremely strong binding, and a nice reproduction with rather small print. Think "Dover Thrift," but of higher quality.

Funny, wacky and creepily true to life, "Three Men in a Boat" is an enduring comic classic in the vein of PG Wodehouse. Not to mention the dog!

Three Men in a Boat: (To Say Nothing of the Dog) (Dover Value Editions)
Three rather peculiar young Englishmen swan their holiday punting up the Thames. Their colorful adventures are in a soft and humorous key. It is partly a touring guide and partly a humorous introduction to the history of the villages and towns in their path, and partly about the foibles of the participants and their involvement with punting. Little lectures, little lesson, little family fictions all go to making this funny slim volume from 1889 a complete reading pleasure.

I found this book as a young child in my grandparents' library. It is composed of poetic, powerfully symbolic short stories that grapple with basic issues: what is truth, love, freedom, justice, heaven and hell? What enobles or destroys relationships?

I read and reread them then. And I still do. The language is of an older time, though easily understood and lovely. Glad to see this finally available in print.

Highly recommended.

I was thrilled to find this book has been reprinted and is available in a new copy. It is also great to find the company that publishes these reprints -- and keeps this book, and others, alive.

My grandmother would read this to us when we would come over to her house, and it was always a instant favorite. Guaranteed to bring smiles to everyone!

This story of a know-it-all rabbit is jumping with slapstick illustrations and has an energetic, egotistical monologue by "Uncle Podger" that will have pre-schoolers out-guessing and out-knowing this silly main character all the way through the story. The expressions on the rabbits' faces are very cleverly drawn and match the exclamations of the characters perfectly. This story, illustrated and adapted by Wallace Tripp, is an excerpt from "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome.

This work is a legacy to a great college professor whose dedication to hospitalized children and Child Life workers inspired the caring observations documented in the book. Anyone who has known an ill child or worked in hospitals will benefit from reading the insights gained through compassionate hands-on experiences like those found in these pages. Give this book to a pediatrician or pediatric nurse in hope that more hospitals advocate for Child Life programs.

This book provides a great look at the child life profession. Much of it consists of case studies of interns written in a journal-style format. If you are interested in Child Life, this book is worth getting your hands on--You get a look into the thoughts, mistakes, and rewards of a child life specialist.

Not just 'fantasy' scifi, but the real 'hard' brand! Thought-provoking stories in the classic style!

Reading this for my thesis involving critical literacy. This is a necessary read for those who want to put critical literacy into their curriculum. Very easy read with a vignette for each chapter and words of wisdom in a thought piece by Jerome Harste at the end of each small chapter. In the end the books has several invitations of what we can do in our classrooms to get started. A wonderful book for all because we all teach in diverse communities.

Imagine Bertie Wooster and two of his idiot friends out on a boat... with no Jeeves to save them from themselves.

That about describes "Three Men in a Boat : To Say Nothing of the Dog," Jerome K. Jerome's enchanting comic novel about three young men (to say nothing of the dog) who discover the "joys" of roughing it. Well, you can probably imagine the hilarious goof-ups that ensue.

The three men are George, Harris and the narrator, who are all massive hypochiandriacs -- they find that they have symptoms of every disease in existance (except housemaid's knee). To prop up their failing health, they decide to take a cruise down the Thames in a rented boat, camping and enjoying nature's bounty.

Along with Monty -- an angelic-looking, devilish terrier -- the three friends set off down the river. But they find that not everything is as easy as they expected. They get lost in hedge mazes, end up going downstream without a paddle, encounter monstrous cats and vicious swans, have picnics navigate locks, offend German professors, and generally get into every kind of trouble they possibly can...

Even though it was published more than a century ago, "Three Men in a Boat" remains as freshly humorous as when it was first published. While editor/playwright/author Jerome K. Jerome wrote a lot of other books, this book remains his most famous. And once you've read it, you'll see why.

Jerome's real talent is in finding humor in everyday things, like trying to erect a tent in the woods, getting seasick, or questioning whether it's safe to drink river water. Written in Jerome's dry, goofy prose, these little occurrances become immensely funny. One of the funniest parts of the book is when the boys listen to a fishermen telling of his prowess, only to accidently knock down his record-breaking stuffed fish.... and discover it's made out of plaster. Oops.

But Jerome takes a break from the humor near the end, when the boys find a drowned woman floating in the river. And here he becomes solemn and quietly compassionate: "She had sinned - some of us do now and then - and her family and friends, naturally shocked and indignant, had closed their doors against her."

But back on the funny stuff. The capstone on all this humor is the "three men." These guys are basically pampered Victorian aristocrats, who have a romantic yearning for the great outdoors. You'll be laughing at them and with them, as they struggle through the basics of boating and camping.

Funny, wacky and creepily true to life, "Three Men in a Boat" is an enduring comic classic in the vein of PG Wodehouse -- wry, witty, kooky and occasionally wistful.

OK, the first time I started this book I didn't get the ironic tone and thought it was very plain. I gave it another chance some years later and laughed till I thought I'd have an injury.

I haven't heard Nigel Planer read this but he is brilliant with the Discworld stories (sorry, Tony Robinson doesn't compare).

Imagine Bertie Wooster and two of his idiot friends out on a boat... with no Jeeves. That about describes "Three Men in a Boat : To Say Nothing of the Dog," Jerome K. Jerome's enchanting comic novel about three young men (to say nothing of the dog) who discover the "joys" of roughing it.

The three men are George, Harris and the narrator, who are all massive hypochiandriacs -- they find that they have symptoms of every disease in existance (except housemaid's knee). To prop up their failing health, they decide to take a cruise down the Thames in a rented boat, camping and enjoying nature's bounty.

Along with Monty -- an angelic-looking, devilish terrier -- the three friends set off down the river. But they find that not everything is as easy as they expected. They get lost in hedge mazes, end up going downstream without a paddle, encounter monstrous cats and vicious swans, have picnics navigate locks, offend German professors, and generally get into every kind of trouble they possibly can...

Even though it was published more than a century ago, "Three Men in a Boat" remains as freshly humorous as when it was first published. While editor/playwright/author Jerome K. Jerome wrote a lot of other books, this book remains his most famous. And once you've read it, you'll see why.

Jerome's real talent is in finding humor in everyday things, like trying to erect a tent in the woods, getting seasick, or questioning whether it's safe to drink river water. Written in Jerome's dry, goofy prose, these little occurrances become immensely funny. One of the funniest parts of the book is when the boys listen to a fishermen telling of his prowess, only to accidently knock down his record-breaking stuffed fish.... and discover it's made out of plaster. Oops.

But Jerome takes a break from the humor near the end, when the boys find a drowned woman floating in the river. And here he becomes solemn and quietly compassionate: "She had sinned - some of us do now and then - and her family and friends, naturally shocked and indignant, had closed their doors against her."

But back on the funny stuff. The capstone on all this humor is the "three men." These guys are basically pampered Victorian aristocrats, who have a romantic yearning for the great outdoors. You'll be laughing at them and with them, as they struggle through the basics of boating and camping.

It's worth noting that the Digireads edition of this book is very good, with a flexible cover, extremely strong binding, and a nice reproduction with rather small print. Think "Dover Thrift," but of higher quality.

Funny, wacky and creepily true to life, "Three Men in a Boat" is an enduring comic classic in the vein of PG Wodehouse. Not to mention the dog!