Jerome K. JeromeRezensionen

Enjoying it -- particularly the description of the uncle hanging a painting -- until chapter 7 dropped the N-word out of the blue, which was startlingly unpleasant.

Decorative hardcover with insert

It's nice.

Generally, I dislike Victorian authors. Many, like Dickens, were writing for serialized publication in magazines for which they were paid by the word, and it shows. JKJ, on the other hand, strikes the right balance for a modern audience. His work is just florid enough to evoke an after-dinner conversation with a skilled raconteur. He has a fine sense of how long he can indulge in describing a place before moving on to something happening. 3MiaB is filled with fine dashes of gentle, self-deprecating irony and occasional stabbing wit. One need not be a scholar of 19th century history or literature to appreciate its content.

The same excellent layout I loved in The Secret Garden, great before and after reading activities, vocabulary at the bottom of the page, double spreads at the end. Also, if I scan the page in ELI's app, I can download the audio accompanying that specific page. I think this is entertaining enough for A2 (Pre-Intermediate) readers, I intend to use this book in teen summer camps. I want to make them read.

The original style probably suffered because of the retelling, I haven't read it yet, but it is still very amusing. I loved how it was not obvious after the first chapter that Montmorency was a dog, and at reading about his cold, wet nose, I had to go back and double-check how I missed this piece of information. It was very cleverly omitted beforehand.

Mix of real information about the localities they pass through with humorous anecdotes about boating, health, life in general. Pretty light but fun. Some of the anecdotes are genuinely laugh out loud, they're very well told

Sequels are rarely as good as the original and this follow-up to Three Men in a Boat is no exception to the general rule. In this one our intrepid trio go on a cycling tour of the Black Forest. There are some genuinely funny set pieces mixed in with an awful lot of rather unfunny generalising about German society. As lazy national stereotyping goes it’s all fairly innocuous and good-natured (‘your German’, as Jerome somewhat unfortunately and indeed repeatedly has it, is law-abiding and efficient, but perhaps over-deferential to authority; all that sort of thing) and there was nothing here to seriously offend my delicate 21st century sensibilities. Still, it’s quite a big part of the book, and soon became more than slightly tedious. The real problem with Jerome’s humorous essaying on Germany is that most of it isn’t funny; in a comic novel this is surely the worst offence of all. To be fair, he depicts the English abroad in equally hackneyed fashion, though I’m not convinced that improves matters.

He was, nonetheless, an unusually nimble prose stylist, at his best every inch the equal of Wodehouse, whom he clearly influenced, and his playfully digressive narrative voice is the best thing about this book. At the end of it (don’t worry, this isn’t a plot spoiler, for the very good reason that there is no plot) he claims that a bummel is a rambling and pleasant journey, short or long, without an end. I haven’t the faintest, but it’s certainly a pretty neat metaphor for the way he wrote.

This is a flawed and curious outing, to be sure. I was alternately amused and irritated by it, and sometimes I was both simultaneously. A collection of sketches in search of a structure, it lacks the satisfying formal completeness of Boat, but is by no means the complete dud some have claimed. Jerome’s sweeping observations on national identity have dated embarrassingly, while his wonderfully funny sideswipes at advertising and cycling fads - including a super-duper ergonomic saddle which is excruciatingly uncomfortable - seem bang up-to-date. It’s a bumpy ride but, during the more rewarding stretches of the trip, the present reader was left in no doubt that his genial tour guide was a comic master of the first order.

Avevo letto Tre uomini in barca molto tempo fa, forse frequentavo ancora le scuole medie, e l’avevo trovato molto divertente. Mi fa piacere dire che anche la rilettura è andata bene e Jerome mi ha di nuovo fatto sbellicare dalle risate.

Risate che, c’è da puntualizzare, vi farete solo se vi piace l’umorismo inglese, quel wit che alcune persone trovano irresistibile (tra le quali, manco a dirlo, ci sono anch’io), mentre altre vi guarderanno stranite e non faranno che chiedersi cosa ci si trovi di così divertente.

Se non trovate Tre uomini in barca così divertente, comunque, c’è da dire che, se non fosse stato per l’editore, sarebbe state decisamente noioso (e forse non staremmo qui a parlarne). Infatti, il buon Jerome aveva scritto una guida turistica di ciò in cui ci si può imbattere navigando sul Tamigi, ma l’editore pensò che tutte quelle informazioni storico-culturali fossero una palla e ne tagliò gran parte, regalandoci il romanzo che conosciamo oggi.

Quindi, aspiranti autori e autrici, imparate la lezione: quando un editor vi dice di tagliare, tagliate, perché di solito ha ragione. Le parti turistiche rimaste in Tre uomini in barca sono quasi unanimemente considerate quelle più noiose: non so se lo siano in sé o perché sfigurano a confronto con quelle più divertenti, ma comunque sia date retta agli editor e non liquidateli come quei coglioni che non capiscono la grandezza della mia opera. Potreste pentirvene amaramente…

This has been on my plan to read list for a while and I am really glad I got to it. It's hard to describe, it's just comic in a particular British way that I find very amusing and it made me happy all the time I read it.

Three men and another passenger of whom I cannot speak embark upon a watercraft to explore the upper reaches of the Thames. Jerome was poking fun at stuffy types who undertake adventures while believing bookish intelligence will adequately take the place of practical knowledge. I am happy to say I only read about these fools instead of adding to their number, keeping my foolishness at home where it belongs.

It's fun to know that long before people googled illness symptoms on the Internet they were already doing it in medical books and coming to the same erroneous conclusions. Modern technology merely makes this more convenient. Similarly, road-rage has a precursor in 19th century riverboating: "The mildest tempered people, when on land, become violent and blood-thirsty when in a boat." We are following a time-honoured tradition when we get behind the wheel and begin cursing everyone else.

Obligatory observation: strange tonal changes appear when the comedic adventure is rudely interrupted at unexpected times by poetical landscape descriptions or dramatically depicted historical scenes. Do not worry, more absurdity will soon follow.½

C'est la lecture de (l'excellent) [b:Sans parler du chien] qui m'a donné envie de lire trois hommes dans un bateau. Un bon moment : drôle et très imagé

If you would like a book to take your mind off things for a bit, I recommend "Three Men in a Boat". It is a quick read and is still rather funny, even 100 years after it's publication. My favorite parts are when Jerome (not sure if I am calling him by his first or last name) goes off on a tangent that may have little or nothing to do with his trip or what he is even talking about at the time. It reminds me of a time when some friends and I were in a tavern and after a few hours of discussion, decided that we would take a tour out west, just for something to do. So, Edgar (whom we called "John"), Pile-on (real name is Norman), and I piled into my car with my pet turtle Norman (not to be confused with "Pile-on") and hit the road. After several hours, we became somewhat confused as to where we were, so after some arguments we decided to stop and ask directions at a bar we were passing. We went in and realized that we were in the very place we had left hours before. We decided to raise a toast to our adventure, but wished we had brought a camera. Maybe I digress from this review. I checked online to see if Jerome (see note above) was touring, but could find no info. But, if you want a quiet laugh, pick up a copy of this book.

The book is probably 4.5 stars but this Kindle edition from Project Gutenberg has wonderful illustrations which helped put it up to a 5 star book. For those of you (like myself) who like to get the free ebook editions, note that the free Amazon Kindle edition doesn't have these illustrations but just has phrases describing the image instead.

As for a review of the book itself, all I can really say is that I found it hilarious for the most part. This is supposed to be a travelogue of sorts but Jerome goes off on all kinds of tangents, giving anecdotes to illustrate some point he had been making. These anecdotes were the best part for me; some sections of the actual description of the countryside I found less interesting (perhaps because I am unfamiliar with the area).

Jerome's sense of humor and writing style reminded me of P.G. Wodehouse & now I have read this, I suspect that this must have been an inspiration to Wodehouse. If you don't enjoy Wodehouse, chances are you won't find this novel funny either.

This review is for the audiobook edition. For a review of the text, see my review of the Kindle edition.

I don't often rate the audiobook less than the text (partly because if I am hating the narration I will dump the audio). However, I do so in this instance, even though I thought that Steven Crossley did a fine narration, for two reasons.

1) Unfortunately I found the sound quality to be a little uneven; the biggest issue was that at times his voice seemed to be fading away even though I hadn't changed the volume. I don't know if that was part of the recording or an issue with my individual download but it was noticeable enough to be disconcerting especially in the car.

2) The illustrations in my Kindle edition were so enjoyable and added to the fun of the book so I felt that in this case, the text had to have a higher rating than the audio.

This is a friend's favorite book, and she has been trying to get me to read it for a while. I finally found it on a discount shelf in a used bookstore and gave it a try. Not for me.

The somewhat jarring transitions between madcap comedy and overly wrought serious descriptions of the sights on the river made for an uneven book. And the humor became so tiring that by the time I got to the much-lauded trout incident in chapter 17, I just didn't find it funny anymore.

Light hearted tale of a river boat trip in a past time. Easy to read with some good humour.

Once again, he’s the Victorian Seinfeld making offbeat observations about the small things in life. Even more so than Three Men in a Boat, he can become sentimental and earnest, and that kind of kills the overall effect a bit. And then there’s the Victorian sexism, classism and race callousness, that makes it a little gear grinding for a modern reader. But when it works it works, and there’s funny stuff. He can be entertainingly deadpan. And it’s short.

En 1935 eldonis ĝin Literatura Mondo en traduko de G. Badash. En The British Esperantist 1935, p. 206, aperis recenzo de M.C.B., el kiu oni citas:

La tasko traduki libron tiel tipe anglan en lingvon internacian tute ne estas facila, kaj mi komencis ĝin legi kun iom da timo; ĉar jam aperis tro da tradukoj el la angla, kiuj klare montris, aŭ, ke la tradukinto ne bone scias la anglan lingvon, aŭ, ke li ne plene posedas Esperanton. Sed baldaŭ mi trovis, ke mia timo estas senbaza. S-ro Badash bonege plenumis la taskon. La burleskaj rakontoj , la tuŝoj de kvieta humoro, la sentimentala monologado batose rompita de io ŝoka aŭ ridiga, kiu ĵetas la revanton denove sur la krudan teron, kaj la aliaj karakterizaĵoj de la libro - ĉio estas tie; kaj li tiel sukcesis kapti la spiriton de la libro, ke oni tute ne sentas, ke oni legas tradukon. Malofte mi legis Esperantan verkon kun tiom da plezuro, kiom donis al mi la nuna volumo. Entute S-ro Badash skribas laŭ maniero samtempe klasika kaj moderna: fundamenta, flua, kaj natura. Li havas la nuntempe maloftan kuraĝon nomi vagonaron vagonaro, kaj skribi Zamenhofe mi amus loĝi tie ; kaj li evitas la plimulton el la modaj eraroj kaj strangaĵoj kiuj makulas multajn lastatempajn eldonaĵojn.

"Tre uomini in barca (per non parlar del cane)" è un romanzo umoristico scritto da Jerome K. Jerome e pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1889. Il libro racconta le avventure di tre amici, George, Harris e il narratore, mentre fanno una gita in barca lungo il Tamigi, accompagnati dal loro cane Montmorency. Durante la loro avventura, i tre incontrano una serie di personaggi bizzarri e vivono situazioni comiche e disavventure che mettono alla prova la loro amicizia e la loro abilità di marinai. Il libro è diventato un classico della letteratura comica inglese ed è stato molto popolare fin dalla sua pubblicazione.
Ci sono molte situazioni divertenti che i protagonisti incontrano durante la loro avventura in barca lungo il Tamigi. Ecco alcuni esempi:

- Durante la preparazione per la gita, i tre amici si portano dietro una quantità enorme di oggetti inutili, tra cui anche una stufa a gas che non riescono a far funzionare.

- Una volta in barca, i protagonisti si perdono e finiscono per navigare in un cerchio per ore senza accorgersene.

- Mentre cercano un posto dove passare la notte, i tre amici finiscono per dormire in un campo di vacche e vengono svegliati di soprassalto dai mugolii degli animali.

- Durante una visita a una città sul fiume, uno dei protagonisti cerca di fare colpo su una ragazza con un discorso molto pomposo, ma finisce per fare una figura ridicola.

- In un'altra occasione, i protagonisti si imbattono in un uomo che racconta loro una storia incredibile sulla sua vita avventurosa, ma che si rivela essere un bugiardo patologico.

- In una delle scene più famose del libro, i protagonisti provano a cucinare la cena, ma finiscono per bruciare tutto e dover mangiare del pane raffermo con del formaggio.

Queste sono solo alcune delle situazioni divertenti che i protagonisti incontrano durante la loro avventura in barca lungo il Tamigi. Il libro è pieno di episodi comici e gag che lo rendono una lettura molto divertente e leggera.
Oltre alle situazioni che ho menzionato prima, ci sono molte altre avventure e disavventure che i protagonisti incontrano durante la loro gita in barca lungo il Tamigi.

Ad esempio, i tre amici si imbattono in una regata dove cercano di dimostrare la loro bravura come marinai. Tuttavia, la loro barca è molto vecchia e malconcia e finiscono per essere superati da tutte le altre imbarcazioni.

In seguito, i protagonisti scoprono che il fiume è molto più difficile da navigare di quanto pensassero, soprattutto a causa delle correnti e delle onde provocate dai traghetti e dalle navi a vapore. In una occasione finiscono per essere trascinati in un vortice e rischiano di affogare.

Durante il loro viaggio, i protagonisti incontrano anche diversi personaggi curiosi, tra cui un uomo che vende souvenir improbabili, un artista che dipinge paesaggi sul fiume e un pescatore che racconta loro storie di fantasmi.

Infine, i tre amici si rendono conto che la vita in barca non è così romantica come pensavano, soprattutto quando devono fare i conti con la mancanza di acqua, la pioggia, i morsi di insetti e la fatica di remare per ore.

Tutte queste situazioni, unite alla comicità della prosa di Jerome K. Jerome, rendono "Tre uomini in barca (per non parlare del cane)" un classico della letteratura umoristica inglese e una lettura molto divertente.

Was almost going leave this one in the middle but I guess it grows on you with time.
Keeping the travelogue aside; I was more fascinated by the narrator's conclusions on nature, man and destiny, as he lay on ground stargazing✨.

Vad som skulle bli en vanlig reseguide blev en av världens roligaste romaner. Jerome K. Jeromes Tre män i en båt utspelar sig under två veckor längs med floden Themsen, från Kingston upon Thames i London, till Oxford och tillbaka. Berättelserna om de viktiga historiska platserna förlöses i en hejdlös komik, när J. och hans vänner, George och Carl, och J:s (påhittade) hund, Montmorency, ger sig ut på båtsemester.

A curious tale that requires the reader to enjoy Old English vocabulary due to the time frame of the story. While I normally enjoy British humor such as Wodehouse or other contemporary authors, I struggled with this one. It's a quick read with lots of vintage illustrations which in my opinion could have been left out. Another one bites the dust!

Hilarious!

Vad som skulle bli en vanlig reseguide blev en av världens roligaste romaner. Jerome K. Jeromes Tre män i en båt utspelar sig under två veckor längs med floden Themsen, från Kingston upon Thames i London, till Oxford och tillbaka. Berättelserna om de viktiga historiska platserna förlöses i en hejdlös komik, när J. och hans vänner, George och Carl, och J:s (påhittade) hund, Montmorency, ger sig ut på båtsemester.

A capable light travelogue that fails to recapture the magic of its predecessor, Three Men in a Boat. In Three Men on the Bummel, Jerome K. Jerome revives his two friends from the Boat journey and takes them to Germany, but where the Thames of the first book came through vividly and generously, Bummel's Black Forest does not. We don't arrive in Germany until 80 pages in, and when we do there's no organisation, no real difference on the page between Stuttgart and Dresden and Hanover. There's a general sense of Germanness – beer, Alpine views, strict policemen – but not enough to satisfy.

There is plenty that still appeals: Jerome can still deliver a dry and amusing anecdote about his friends, and his general observations are still funny: "At the end of each bridge stands a policeman to tell the German how to cross it. Were there no policeman there, he would probably sit down and wait till the river had passed by" (pg. 197). In the humour there's a lot of truth, not only in the German deference to petty authority but also in the influence of the travelling Englishman: it was not Shakespeare or Milton who spread the English language throughout the world, Jerome says, but "the Englishman who, unable or unwilling to learn a single word of any language but his own, travels purse in hand into every corner of the Continent… For him it is that every foreign hotel- and restaurant-keeper adds to his advertisement: 'Only those with fair knowledge of English need apply.'" (pg. 165).

With such light and clever content in its pages, Bummel remains a fun and inoffensive read. A 'bummel', after all – Jerome informs us – is a journey where "the only thing regulating it being the necessity of getting back within a given time to the point from which one started", and to have "a pleasant time, and [be] sorry when 'tis over" (pg. 207). That's all Three Men on the Bummel tries to do, and it does it well. It would be perhaps ungrateful to expect it to also recreate the improbable success that was Three Men in a Boat.