7 h 37 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 37 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your restful river holiday depends on friends who can turn packing a bag into a disaster?
J., George, and Harris decide they need a holiday after discussing their ailments at length. A boat trip up the Thames sounds like the answer. But choosing supplies and packing luggage soon expose the distance between their confident plans and their practical skills. Montmorency, their fox terrier, adds his own share of disruption.
In Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), rowing, steering, eating, and finding somewhere to sleep become comic struggles. J. narrates the journey from Kingston toward Oxford, wandering into memories and complaints along the way. Between mishaps, the river offers quieter moments of countryside, history, and lives beyond the boat.
What you’ll discover
- Confidence meets the luggage Watch ambitious holiday plans collide with the stubborn business of choosing supplies and packing.
- Friends at close quarters Enjoy affectionate mockery as J., George, and Harris share work, arguments, and ordinary troubles.
- A gloriously wandering narrator Follow J. into anecdotes where a small annoyance becomes a story worth lingering over.
- A dog among blunderers Meet Montmorency, the fox terrier who brings more disruption to an already chaotic party.
- Quiet stretches of river Pause between the jokes for reflections on English countryside, history, and life beyond the holiday.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoy comic storytelling, English rivers and flawed friends. It suits anyone who likes small disasters growing ever grander, told in a funny voice.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Three friends convince themselves they are dying
- Pack only what you cannot do without
- Packing is where the real trouble starts
- The trip begins badly but cheerfully
- Small chores on the river grow into comedy
- The river teaches them lessons about meals
- Every meal and every dispute becomes an adventure
- Boats, fish and tall tales fill the days
- Friendship and the simple life are the heart
- A comic voice that wanders and then turns serious
Who’s who
- J.The narrator, who thinks himself the most sensible of the three, and wants a restful holiday and a share of credit for the work.
- GeorgeA bank clerk who sleeps a great deal, buys a banjo he cannot play, and wants a river holiday to cure his nerves.
- HarrisA confident friend who believes he can sing, cook and guide, and wants everyone to admire his talents and his knowledge of good pubs.
- MontmorencyThe fox terrier, who looks like an angel, loves a street fight, and wants nothing more than to get in the way.
- Mrs. PoppetsJ.'s landlady, who brings the supper tray and wakes the friends, long after they have asked to be woken.
- Uncle PodgerJ.'s uncle, who cannot hang a picture without turning the household upside down, and who thinks he has done well.
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Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
by Jerome K. Jerome · 1889
Three friends and a dog row up the Thames, and nothing goes to plan, from the tow-line to a tin of pineapple.
Medium level5–10 hours to readfrançais
Excellent
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In short
Four friends sit in a room, comparing their illnesses. The narrator recalls reading a medical handbook and finding he had every disease in it except housemaid's knee.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Three friends convince themselves they are dying
The book opens in the narrator's room, where four friends compare their ailments. George and Harris describe spells of dizziness. J. blames his liver, because he has just read a pill advertisement listing every symptom.
J. then tells of a visit to the British Museum, where he looked up hay fever and kept reading. He worked through the whole alphabet of diseases and decided he had every one except housemaid's knee. He felt almost insulted by the omission. His doctor writes a prescription the chemist cannot fill, for it calls for beefsteak, bitter beer and a ten-mile walk each morning.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1889
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 5 h 0 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Jerome, Jerome K. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog). Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/three-men-in-a-boat-to-say-nothing-of-the-dog.
Jerome, J. K. (2026). Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/three-men-in-a-boat-to-say-nothing-of-the-dog (Original work published 1889)
Jerome, Jerome K. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog). Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/three-men-in-a-boat-to-say-nothing-of-the-dog.
@book{jerome2026three,
author = {Jerome, Jerome K.},
title = {Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/three-men-in-a-boat-to-say-nothing-of-the-dog},
note = {First published 1889}
}
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What is Three Men in a Boat about?
It is a comic account of three friends, George, Harris and the narrator J., who row up the Thames from Kingston toward Oxford with a fox terrier named Montmorency, meeting trouble and humour at every stage.
Who is Montmorency in Three Men in a Boat?
Montmorency is the fox terrier who travels with the three friends. He looks innocent but loves fights and mischief, chases cats, quarrels with the kettle, and keeps getting in the way of the packing.
Is Three Men in a Boat a true story?
The author says in the preface that the events really happened, though the book is comic fiction that grew out of real river trips. It was published in 1889 and began as a guide to the Thames.
The author
Jerome K. Jerome
1859–1927 · English humorist
Jerome K. Jerome was an English writer and humorist whose Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), the account of a bumbling boating holiday on the Thames, has never been out of print since it appeared in 1889.
More by Jerome K. Jerome
Voir tous ses livresMore like this
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