In his amusing story, "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)," English writer Jerome K. Jerome describes a two-week boating vacation on the Thames from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford and back to Kingston. The book was released in 1889. With stories of local history along the way, the book was originally meant to be a serious travel guide. However, the hilarious aspects eventually overtook the serious and rather sad portions, making them appear like a diversion from the comic novel. One of Three Men in a Boat's greatest attributes is how timeless it seems to contemporary readers; the jokes are hailed for being clever and new.The three men are based on the narrator, Jerome K. Jerome, and two real-life friends of Jerome's, Carl Hentschel (the founder of a London printing company, named Harris in the book), and George Wingrave, who would go on to become a senior manager at Barclays Bank. Jerome enjoyed going on boat rides with Carl Hentschel. Although completely made up, Montmorency is a dog that "developed out of that area of inner consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an element of the dog," according to Jerome . The journey is a classic boating vacation in a Thames camping skiff during that era.[Note 2]
Three Men on the Bummel, also known as Three Men in a Boat, was Jerome's sequel to the hugely popular Three Men in a Boat. It told the story of a bicycle tour across Germany.George, Harris, Jerome (who is usually referred to as "J."), and Jerome's dog, Montmorency, are introduced at the beginning of the novel. The men are smoking and talking about diseases they think they might have while spending the evening at J's room. They come to the conclusion that everyone is exhausted from "overwork" and needs time off. Both a land stay and an ocean voyage are taken into consideration. Harris rejects the rural stay, saying it would be boring, and J. agrees to the sea trip after hearing about the unpleasant experiences his brother-in-law and a friend had on earlier sea voyages. Finally, the three decide on a boat trip along the River Thames from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford, where they will camp. This decision is made despite more of J's stories about past tent-related accidents .
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