"Trois hommes dans un bateau" by Jerome K. Jerome is a humorous novel written in the late 19th century. It follows three friends—J., George, and Harris—and a fox-terrier, Montmorency, who set out on a boating holiday up the Thames in search of rest and change. The tone blends travelogue and comedy, poking fun at hypochondria, overwork, and social habits through deadpan anecdotes and genial satire. The opening of the novel shows the
trio diagnosing themselves as “overworked” while the narrator, a comic hypochondriac, recalls convincing himself he had every disease in a medical book until a doctor prescribes steak, beer, long walks, and early nights. They debate vacation plans, reject a sea voyage amid tales of seasickness, and settle on the Thames, compromising to camp in fine weather and sleep at inns in the rain, while Montmorency’s mischief-loving character is introduced. Planning turns to what to bring: George wisely insists on essentials, there is bravado about morning swims and naive talk of laundering in the river, and they avoid paraffin and cheese after malodorous past disasters (capped by an extended cheese fiasco). Provisions and gear are listed; packing becomes farce as J. battles the eternal toothbrush, George and Harris crush and misplace items (notably butter in the kettle), and Montmorency gleefully sabotages. They oversleep on departure day until Mrs. Poppets rouses them, and the scene ends with George awakened in a rush and stepping straight into a tub. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Laurent Vogel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica))
Reading Level
Reading ease score: 78.3 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
