There was a time that the name Jerome Klapka Jerome (his middle name was in honor of a Hungarian war hero) was one of the best known writers in Great Britain. Not only for this novel, and it's comic sequel THREE MEN ON THE BUMMEL, but for his successful West End plays. The most notable one that has survived (though rarely revived today) was THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK, about a "Christ-like" roomer in a boarding house, who is able to force his fellow boarders (by gentle means) to see their own flaws and correct them. That play was turned into a film in the late 1930s that starred Conrad Veidt as the title figure. Not everyone thought highly of Jerome K. Jerome's plays. Max Beerbohm felt that they were too mechanical and unreal for lasting theater. Perhaps he was right, but in his heyday the public supported Jerome.
Today it is THREE MEN IN A BOAT (1888) that is considered (and rightly) Jerome's masterpiece. It is more than a comic novel. It is a wonderful window on an element of Victorian fun that still exists today - the gentle boat trips down the Thames into the countryside and among the small islands in the hinterlands. For some reason no British writer of stature ever mentioned punting and boating like this. Jerome did, and more credit to him.
Three friends, Jerome (Tim Curry - fresh from the Rocky Horror Picture Show), Harris (Michael Palin - fresh from Monty Python), and George (Stephen Moody) have decided to go away together on a three week vacation. They decide to take a boating holiday down the Thames past Hampton Court, Oxford, etc. With them is their only companion, Montmorency (Jerome's pet dog). They get plenty of food from Fortnum and Mason (which leads to a highpoint of hilarity later on), and board a rented house boat for their trip.
From this relatively mild beginning comes the series of crazy incidents that have entertained the readers (or viewers) since that day.
For example, they reach Hampton Court Palace, and find it's famous maze. One of them insists that he knows how to get through the maze and has such a self created sense of ability that everyone in the maze believes in him, follows him, and actually ends entrapped in the maze with the idiot.
Another one deals with the food supply. Our heroes are having a leisurely lunch on an island, and find a can of pineapple has been packed. As Jerome/Curry says, "The only thing that is better than a pineapple is a canned pineapple!" Not quite. They have forgotten to pack the can-opener. We see our heroes try knives, rocks, flinging the can from heights, and never opening the can at all.
The program was only an hour long, so much is not included from the novel. But what remains, such as Jerome discovering how many fatal illnesses he has when he reads a medical textbook, are quite funny. The show was quite good, although it had a bit of an epilogue that described the fates of Harris and George, which was a bit of a downer. It was a a fine production, and one hopes it will be shown again some time.
Today it is THREE MEN IN A BOAT (1888) that is considered (and rightly) Jerome's masterpiece. It is more than a comic novel. It is a wonderful window on an element of Victorian fun that still exists today - the gentle boat trips down the Thames into the countryside and among the small islands in the hinterlands. For some reason no British writer of stature ever mentioned punting and boating like this. Jerome did, and more credit to him.
Three friends, Jerome (Tim Curry - fresh from the Rocky Horror Picture Show), Harris (Michael Palin - fresh from Monty Python), and George (Stephen Moody) have decided to go away together on a three week vacation. They decide to take a boating holiday down the Thames past Hampton Court, Oxford, etc. With them is their only companion, Montmorency (Jerome's pet dog). They get plenty of food from Fortnum and Mason (which leads to a highpoint of hilarity later on), and board a rented house boat for their trip.
From this relatively mild beginning comes the series of crazy incidents that have entertained the readers (or viewers) since that day.
For example, they reach Hampton Court Palace, and find it's famous maze. One of them insists that he knows how to get through the maze and has such a self created sense of ability that everyone in the maze believes in him, follows him, and actually ends entrapped in the maze with the idiot.
Another one deals with the food supply. Our heroes are having a leisurely lunch on an island, and find a can of pineapple has been packed. As Jerome/Curry says, "The only thing that is better than a pineapple is a canned pineapple!" Not quite. They have forgotten to pack the can-opener. We see our heroes try knives, rocks, flinging the can from heights, and never opening the can at all.
The program was only an hour long, so much is not included from the novel. But what remains, such as Jerome discovering how many fatal illnesses he has when he reads a medical textbook, are quite funny. The show was quite good, although it had a bit of an epilogue that described the fates of Harris and George, which was a bit of a downer. It was a a fine production, and one hopes it will be shown again some time.