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 & proved so popular that Jerome reunited his now older
- but not necessarily wiser
- heroes in " Three Men on the Bummel" for a picaresque bicycle tour of Germany. With their benign escapism authorial discursions & wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian 'clerking classes' both novels hilariously capture the spirit of their age."