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A review by fictionfan
Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome
3.0
The Bummel?
Our companions from Three Men in a Boat set out on a new journey, to cycle through the Black Forest, one on a bicycle and the other two sharing a tandem. It’s about twelve years since we met them last, and they’re older and to some degree wiser. George is still a bachelor, but J. and Harris are both married men with children, so their first task is to persuade their wives that a little break will inevitably lead to greater connubial bliss on their return. To their surprise, the wives seem quite happy at the notion of surviving without their husbands for a few weeks, informing the men that they will take the children off for a little holiday of their own at the seaside.
While this is a perfectly pleasant travel memoir, it doesn’t compare in any way to its hilarious prequel. It often feels as if Jerome is trying to recapture the joyous tone of the earlier book, but failing, leaving it feeling contrived and a little false, especially in the dialogue between the men. However, there are enough mildly amusing adventures and mishaps to keep it entertaining.
It’s interesting to read Jerome’s impressions of Germany and the Germans in 1900, before the two wars that would change the kind of cousinly friendship between the two nations into bitter enmity for a large part of the twentieth century. I actually found it quite a strange experience reading from the other end of that century as Jerome described pretty towns and handsome cities that then had no war-time resonances for him but did for me – Dresden, Berlin, Potsdam, etc. It gives his account a kind of innocence and a pathos, reading it now, that obviously it wouldn’t have had for contemporary readers. He stereotypes the Germans (or does he? Was he perhaps the originator of the stereotypes? I don’t know…) as tidy, hard-working, stolid and rather unimaginative burghers. He does the usual Brit abroad thing of suggesting British superiority to all “foreigners”, but he knows he’s doing it and mocks himself for it too, which takes the sting out of it. He also mocks the Brit abroad, suggesting that the stereotypes Europeans use about us may not be undeserved! Occasionally, again looking back with hindsight, I found some of his observations on the German character and culture rather chillingly prescient, though I suspect he didn’t see it that way himself and was being reasonably light-hearted about it.
In fact, the bike ride through the Black Forest is only a minor part of the book. Mostly the men spend their time visiting towns and cities, travelling by train, and since their visits to each are short there’s not a great deal of depth to the descriptions of them. Jerome himself says he sees no point in replicating what can be found in guide books, but this left me wondering what he was trying to do instead. In Three Men in a Boat, the humour covers up for any lack of hard information, but with less humour in this one, it all feels a little superficial. Perhaps it’s because of the too-high expectations set up by the previous book, but overall I found this one somewhat disappointing. Still, it filled a few hours pleasantly enough.
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Our companions from Three Men in a Boat set out on a new journey, to cycle through the Black Forest, one on a bicycle and the other two sharing a tandem. It’s about twelve years since we met them last, and they’re older and to some degree wiser. George is still a bachelor, but J. and Harris are both married men with children, so their first task is to persuade their wives that a little break will inevitably lead to greater connubial bliss on their return. To their surprise, the wives seem quite happy at the notion of surviving without their husbands for a few weeks, informing the men that they will take the children off for a little holiday of their own at the seaside.
While this is a perfectly pleasant travel memoir, it doesn’t compare in any way to its hilarious prequel. It often feels as if Jerome is trying to recapture the joyous tone of the earlier book, but failing, leaving it feeling contrived and a little false, especially in the dialogue between the men. However, there are enough mildly amusing adventures and mishaps to keep it entertaining.
It’s interesting to read Jerome’s impressions of Germany and the Germans in 1900, before the two wars that would change the kind of cousinly friendship between the two nations into bitter enmity for a large part of the twentieth century. I actually found it quite a strange experience reading from the other end of that century as Jerome described pretty towns and handsome cities that then had no war-time resonances for him but did for me – Dresden, Berlin, Potsdam, etc. It gives his account a kind of innocence and a pathos, reading it now, that obviously it wouldn’t have had for contemporary readers. He stereotypes the Germans (or does he? Was he perhaps the originator of the stereotypes? I don’t know…) as tidy, hard-working, stolid and rather unimaginative burghers. He does the usual Brit abroad thing of suggesting British superiority to all “foreigners”, but he knows he’s doing it and mocks himself for it too, which takes the sting out of it. He also mocks the Brit abroad, suggesting that the stereotypes Europeans use about us may not be undeserved! Occasionally, again looking back with hindsight, I found some of his observations on the German character and culture rather chillingly prescient, though I suspect he didn’t see it that way himself and was being reasonably light-hearted about it.
For the direction of German character into these channels, the schools, of course, are chiefly responsible. Their everlasting teaching is duty. It is a fine ideal for any people; but before buckling to it, one would wish to have a clear understanding as to what this "duty" is. The German idea of it would appear to be: "blind obedience to everything in buttons." It is the antithesis of the Anglo-Saxon scheme; but as both the Anglo-Saxon and the Teuton are prospering, there must be good in both methods. Hitherto, the German has had the blessed fortune to be exceptionally well governed; if this continue, it will go well with him. When his troubles will begin will be when by any chance something goes wrong with the governing machine. But maybe his method has the advantage of producing a continuous supply of good governors; it would certainly seem so.
In fact, the bike ride through the Black Forest is only a minor part of the book. Mostly the men spend their time visiting towns and cities, travelling by train, and since their visits to each are short there’s not a great deal of depth to the descriptions of them. Jerome himself says he sees no point in replicating what can be found in guide books, but this left me wondering what he was trying to do instead. In Three Men in a Boat, the humour covers up for any lack of hard information, but with less humour in this one, it all feels a little superficial. Perhaps it’s because of the too-high expectations set up by the previous book, but overall I found this one somewhat disappointing. Still, it filled a few hours pleasantly enough.
"A 'Bummel'," I explained, "I should describe as a journey, long or short, without an end; the only thing regulating it being the necessity of getting back within a given time to the point from which one started. Sometimes it is through busy streets, and sometimes through the fields and lanes; sometimes we can be spared for a few hours, and sometimes for a few days. But long or short, but here or there, our thoughts are ever on the running of the sand. We nod and smile to many as we pass; with some we stop and talk awhile; and with a few we walk a little way. We have been much interested, and often a little tired. But on the whole we have had a pleasant time, and are sorry when 'tis over."
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