A comic masterpiece that has never been out of print since it was first published in 1889, Jerome K. Jerome`s Three Men in a Boat
Includes:: an introduction & notes by Jeremy Lewis in Penguin Classics. Martyrs to hypochondria & general seediness, J. & his friends George & Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a `T`. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather forecasts & tins of pineapple chunks
- not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.`s small fox-terrier Montmorency. Three Men in a Boat was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, &, with its benign escapism, authorial discursions & wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian `clerking classes`, it hilariously captured the spirit of its age. In his introduction, Jeremy Lewis examines Jerome K. Jerome`s life & times, & the changing world of Victorian England he depicts
- from the rise of a new mass-culture of tabloids & bestselling novels to crazes for daytripping & bicycling. Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) was born in Walstall, Staffordshire, & educated at Marylebone Grammar School. He left school at fourteen to become a railway clerk, the first in a long line of jobs that included actor, teacher & journalist. His first book, On Stage & Off, a collection of humorous pieces about the theatre, was published in 1885, & was followed the year after with the more commercially-successful The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; but it was with Three Men in a Boat (1889) that Jerome achieved lasting fame. He later went on to become one of the founders of the humorous magazine, The Idler, & continued to write articles & plays. If you enjoyed Three Men in a Boat, you might like Stella Gibbons`s Cold Comfort Farm, also available in Penguin Classics.