three man in a boat

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Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome - Summary
The story beings by introducing the main characters - George, Harris, 'J' (Jerome, the narrator) and Montmorency, the dog. The men are spending an evening in J's room, smoking and idly discussing various illnesses they fancy they are suffering from. They conclude they are suffering from 'overwork' and are badly in need of a holiday. The options of a stay in the country and a sea-trip are considered, then rejected (J. describes the bad experiences had by his brother-in-law and another unnamed friend on sea-trips). The three eventually decide upon a boating trip up the Thames during which they'll camp-out, notwithstanding more anecdotes from J. regarding previous mishaps with tents and camping stoves.
The next Saturday, they embark. George must go into work that morning ("George goes to sleep at a bank from ten to four each day, except Saturdays, when they wake him up and put him outside at two") so J. and Harris make their way to Kingston by train. Unable to find the correct train at Waterloo Station, they resort to bribing a train driver to take his train to Kingston where they collect their hired boat and start upon their journey. They meet George later in the day, up-river at Weybridge.
The remainder of the story relates their leisurely journey up the river and the incidents that occur. The book's original purpose as a guidebook is apparent as the narrator describes the many landmarks and villages they pass by such as Hampton Court Palace, Monkey Island, Magna Carta Island and Marlow, and he muses upon the historical associations of these places. However, he frequently digresses into funny anecdotes that range in subject from the unreliability of barometers for weather forecasting to Harris' hopeless ineptness at singing Gilbert and Sullivan comic songs (that contrasts with his belief that he has a talent for it). The most frequent topics are river pastimes such as fishing and boating and the difficulties they may present to the unwary.
The book includes several classic comic set-pieces, such as the plaster of Paris trout in chapter seventeen and the "Irish stew" in chapter fourteen - made by mixing together most of the leftover items in the party's food hamper.