Excerpt : I sat for a while, frozen with horror; and then, in the listlessness of despair, I again turned over the pages. I came to typhoid fever - read the symptoms - discovered that I had typhoid fever, must have had it for months without knowing it - wondered what else I had got; turned up St. Vitus’s Dance - found, as I expected, that I had that too, - began to get interested in my case, and determined to sift it to the bottom, and so started alphabetically - read up ague, and learnt that I was sickening for it, and that the acute stage would commence in about another fortnight. Bright’s disease, I was relieved to find, I had only in a modified form, and, so far as that was concerned, I might live for years. Cholera I had, with severe complications; and diphtheria I seemed to have been born with. I plodded conscientiously through the twenty-six letters, and the only malady I could conclude I had not got was housemaid’s knee.

If there ever was a book about a catalogue of disasters, this is it. Jerome K. Jerome never wrote a funnier book. Three friends, looking for “rest and a complete change”, embark on a river trip with their dog Montmorency. Just about everything that can go wrong, does. From falling into a river to getting hopelessly lost in a maze, the escapades of the three men, George, Harris and J, will keep you doubled up with laughter till the last page.
Some reminiscences of family members, like Uncle Podger who tries to hang a picture on the wall, are absolutely hilarious. The clear, honest and humorous way in which the incidents are presented, make this book worth reading.
Jerome Klapka Jerome was born in 1859. He was the son of an ironmonger and brought up in London. He started work as a railway clerk at fourteen and later worked as a schoolmaster, actor and journalist. He published two volumes of essays and a few other books but none were as successful as Three Men in A Boat. He died in 1927.

Format : Paperback – Wordsworth Classics
ISBN 1-85326-051-7
No of pages : 185