Three Men in a Boat - Couverture rigide

Jerome, Jerome K.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1904919529 ISBN 13 : 9781904919520

Editeur : Macmillan Collector's Library, 2005

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

THREE MEN IN A BOAT (TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG)
By Jerome K. Jerome

Preface

The chief beauty of this book lies not so much in its literary style, or in the extent and usefulness of the information it conveys, as in its simple truthfulness. Its pages form the record of events that really happened. All that has been done is to colour them; and, for this, no extra charge has been made. George and Harris and Montmorency are not poetic ideals, but things of flesh and blood — especially George, who weighs about twelve stone. Other works may excel this in depth of thought and knowledge of human nature: other books may rival it in originality and size; but, for hopeless and incurable veracity, nothing yet discovered can surpass it. This, more than all its other charms, will, it is felt, make the volume precious in the eye of the earnest reader; and will lend additional weight to the lesson that the story teaches.

Chapter 1 Excerpt

THERE were four of us — George, and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency. We were sitting in my room, smoking, and talking about how bad we were — bad from a medical point of view I mean, of course.

We were all feeling seedy, and we were getting quite nervous about it. Harris said he felt such extraordinary fits of giddiness come over him at times, that he hardly knew what he was doing; and then George said that he had fits of giddiness too, and hardly knew what he was doing. With me, it was my liver that was out of order. I knew it was my liver that was out of order, because I had just been reading a patent liver-pill circular, in which were detailed the various symptoms by which a man could tell when his liver was out of order. I had them all.

It is a most extraordinary thing, but I never read a patent medicine advertisement without being impelled to the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease therein dealt with in its most virulent form. The diagnosis seems in every case to correspond exactly with all the sensations that I have ever felt.

I remember going to the British Museum one day to read up the treatment for some slight ailment of which I had a touch — hay fever, I fancy it was. I got down the book, and read all I came to read; and then, in an unthinking moment, I idly turned the leaves, and began to indolently study diseases, generally. I forget which was the first distemper I plunged into — some fearful, devastating scourge, I know — and, before I had glanced half down the list of “premonitory symptoms,” it was borne in upon me that I had fairly got it. . .

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Revue de presse

" Wonderfully fresh and funny, and among examples of Victorian humour I would place it high in the pantheon, right up there with The Importance of Being Earnest and The Diary of a Nobody...Jerome's writing... triumphantly stands the test of time, with its comic flights of exaggeration, its occasional archness, and its entirely innocent hint of the camp" ( Daily Telegraph)

"A charming comedy of friendship and human nature" ( Independent)

"One of the funniest books I've ever read. I laughed out loud and that doesn't happen often" (Vic Reeves Daily Express)

"Brought laughter to a country in the throes of Victorian gloom" ( The Times)

"As well as being very funny, it captures the innocence of a time before adventure became synonymous with bungee jumping into ravines in faraway places" ( Observer)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Macmillan Collector's Library
• Date d'édition: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1904919529
• ISBN 13: 9781904919520
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 272