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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I found this novel hilarious from beginning to end. It's the amusing account of a journey along the river Thames undertaken by three quite useless and pampered young men and a particularly vicious fox-terrier. The narration is entertaining, ironic, sweet and informative at the same time, which means you walk out of the book feeling cheerful, but also having learnt a lot about British history and geography, and even about sailing.
A fun listen if you enjoy wry humor. If you can, listen to Martin Jarvis read the audiobook.
Mildly amusing... A strong tendency to drift off-topic (early Stephen Fry). Still, an interesting glimpse of an era. The second book especially took my fancy, since it reflects British sentiments toward Germany before the Great War.
A very funny book whose wit holds up amazingly well given it was written in the 1880s. The humorous bit about J. reading an encyclopedia of illnesses and determining he has them all is a brilliant precursor to current day's fascination with WebMd. The tangents about the Uncle hanging the picture, the kid learning bagpipes, and Harris making eggs are some highlights among many.
Most of the extravagant flowery writing regarding the riverside towns didn't do much for me, but overall well worth a read if you're looking for a comedic book.
Most of the extravagant flowery writing regarding the riverside towns didn't do much for me, but overall well worth a read if you're looking for a comedic book.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A pretty neat little book. Full of weird little pathetic anecdotes and some very funny ones at that. Fascinating in a historical context, too, seeing as it was written about 130 years ago but has aged exceptionally well, except to leave in some strange and lovely customs and some things we in the 21st century can pick fun about and think ourselves very smart.
For example the part where the narrator ponders upon his ugly ass miniature dog statue and wonders if people in the year 2000 would like it and think it valuable. Hell yeah we would. And every reference to how the 19th century is so busy and oppressive. It makes the modern reader (at least me) kind of scoff but also feel this kind of reach to them because then again, 130 years from now may well be the busiest and most oppressed any human has been ever. If we're not all dead. Who knows?
As for the lovely and strange old customs, I'd like to first bring up how exciting the river-side tourism was- "I know the proper thing to do, when you get to a village or town, is to rush off to the churchyard, and enjoy the graves; but it is a recreation I always deny myself." Is this usually a thing? Is it a British thing? I guess going to see graves and tombs and "skulls down in the crypt" must have been a ton of fun. Except for the narrator of course.
Overall though it seemed it has aged very well, especially the humor with weirdly specific things, like how every kid's always doing great healthwise until the first day of winter break. It's still true to this day I'm afraid. There are many more examples but I won't give them all away.
I'm not sure if the boating humor is just as relevant today, though; maybe the sailing stuff but I'm pretty sure they don't have people towing boats along on tow paths anymore? Again, this could just as easily be my observations as an American.
Personally I rather liked the physical humor bits just because I'm always messing around and think that kind of stuff is funny enough. Case in point, and a rather nice summary of the book, I'd say- "When another boat gets in my way, I feel I want to take an oar and kill all the people in it."
The other part that absolutely killed me which was in this vein was the scene at the graveyard which I mentioned, where the narrator is standing around refusing to look at all the fascinating and very fun and educational tombs. To make a long story short, he doesn't want to see the fucking tombs and makes his point very well in a couple of violent and hilariously uncalled for yet eloquent monologues.
These three humans and their dog in their boat had a hell of a time in that boat. Lots of the time was spent with travel writing about where their boat was wobbling past, or in poetic drabbles about how the scenery looked.
The funny parts were pretty neat but overall their boating trip was kind of crappy for them and so there as a certain joy in reading it, that maybe, could only have gone so far.
Epic little dog they had, too.
For example the part where the narrator ponders upon his ugly ass miniature dog statue and wonders if people in the year 2000 would like it and think it valuable. Hell yeah we would. And every reference to how the 19th century is so busy and oppressive. It makes the modern reader (at least me) kind of scoff but also feel this kind of reach to them because then again, 130 years from now may well be the busiest and most oppressed any human has been ever. If we're not all dead. Who knows?
As for the lovely and strange old customs, I'd like to first bring up how exciting the river-side tourism was- "I know the proper thing to do, when you get to a village or town, is to rush off to the churchyard, and enjoy the graves; but it is a recreation I always deny myself." Is this usually a thing? Is it a British thing? I guess going to see graves and tombs and "skulls down in the crypt" must have been a ton of fun. Except for the narrator of course.
Overall though it seemed it has aged very well, especially the humor with weirdly specific things, like how every kid's always doing great healthwise until the first day of winter break. It's still true to this day I'm afraid. There are many more examples but I won't give them all away.
I'm not sure if the boating humor is just as relevant today, though; maybe the sailing stuff but I'm pretty sure they don't have people towing boats along on tow paths anymore? Again, this could just as easily be my observations as an American.
Personally I rather liked the physical humor bits just because I'm always messing around and think that kind of stuff is funny enough. Case in point, and a rather nice summary of the book, I'd say- "When another boat gets in my way, I feel I want to take an oar and kill all the people in it."
The other part that absolutely killed me which was in this vein was the scene at the graveyard which I mentioned, where the narrator is standing around refusing to look at all the fascinating and very fun and educational tombs. To make a long story short, he doesn't want to see the fucking tombs and makes his point very well in a couple of violent and hilariously uncalled for yet eloquent monologues.
These three humans and their dog in their boat had a hell of a time in that boat. Lots of the time was spent with travel writing about where their boat was wobbling past, or in poetic drabbles about how the scenery looked.
The funny parts were pretty neat but overall their boating trip was kind of crappy for them and so there as a certain joy in reading it, that maybe, could only have gone so far.
Epic little dog they had, too.
I enjoyed this rambling boating adventure. It felt a bit like a description of three stooges going out on the river. Very funny in parts, but filled with so many anecdotes that it’s confusing to follow as a narrative. My version ended with JKJ’s book of ghost stories, which I didn’t realize was a separate book.
Non malvagio! Decisamente non più il tipo di divertimento che potrebbe far sbellicare dalle risate un uomo del 2015, ma tuttavia un classico che ho apprezzato e mi ha strappato qualche sorriso. Non penso entrerà mai a far parte dei miei classici preferiti ma è stato il mio primo esperimento di lettura digitale e devo dire che si è prestato alquanto, anche per il fatto che i capitoli sono abbastanza scorrevoli e scritti in un linguaggio alla portata di tutti, con una trama decisamente piuttosto semplice.
We all have that one friend who narrates stories, real or made up, so well that he/she has you in splits just by virtue of being articulate. Jerome K Jerome is that friend.
Hilarious. Overripe comedy in the style of Mark Twain. I subtract one star only for the excruciatingly long passages which mimic and mock lyrical writing of the 19th century; it's expertly done, and I'm sure it killed at the time, but today it's a bit much.