Three Men in a Boat

Jerome K. Jerome's tale of three well-to-do Englishmen, and one dog, on a boating expedition along the Thames is rightly famous as a comic classic. Jerome's masterful style turns even the most mundane events into a series of hilarious epics, from a visit to the doctor, to cooking breakfast, steering a punt or learning to play the banjo. But behind the light-hearted buffoonery and nimble-witted prose Jerome manages to weave into the story a pungent sarcasm, a pointed critique on both the self-centred nature of the English upper class, and the many ills of Victorian society.