Three Men in a Boat

Jerome K. Jerome, 1889

Comic classics

Three friends and a dog plan a Thames holiday in a comic account full of digressions.

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Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by volunteers. Press Listen in the reader to hear each chapter as you read.

Length: 19 chapters
Reading time: About 4 hr 38 min
Words: 66,224

About the book

George, Harris and their narrator decide that they are overworked and need rest. A boating holiday seems to offer a remedy, although even its planning exposes differences of opinion, practical difficulties and the independent interests of Montmorency the dog.

Jerome makes a journey an excuse for stories, complaints and arguments about everyday competence. The narrator's confidence is often funniest when it is least deserved. Readers follow the river, but also the wandering course of a conversation in which a small inconvenience can prompt a much larger account of human behaviour.

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Comic classics

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Jerome K. Jerome died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original preface.