A guest blog by Tamsien West from @BabblingBooks
The premise for Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) is a pretty simple one - three friends who live very privileged lives decide to go on a boating trip to cure their general malaise and boredom. This trip leads to a hilarious series of disasters and sets the stage for a thorough send-up of the pretentious upper class man! Someone who has no job, or really much purpose other than to dedicate himself to leisure, and perhaps some light study that might lead to a ‘noble’ profession such as a lawyer or member of parliament.
The whole book is an extended farce, filled with mocking, joyful slapstick comedy. It pokes fun at the snobbish, hopeless way these men navigate the world and their hopelessly distorted view of their place within it. One of my favourite scenes involves their attempts to pack for the trip. They discover all the things they need before they leave, like toothbrushes, are at the bottom so they have to unpack and re-pack. The dog keeps stealing things. Someone sits on the butter. It’s utterly silly, but so deeply relatable to anyone who has packed in a rush the night before a trip.
A perfect example of the humour is one of my favourite quotes. It begins with a statement many of us would identify with, but it’s then immediately followed up with the opposite of what you would expect.
“I can’t sit still and see another man slaving and working. I was to get up and superintend, and walk around with my hands in my pockets and tell him what to do. It’s my energetic nature. I can’t help it.”
The main plot is frequently interrupted with amusing anecdotes, side stories and exaggerated boasts by characters. Everything is told in a meandering style, going in circles as different characters add recollections or contradictions.
The visuals of the story are so vivid that I really felt like I was going on a journey along the river with them. From quaint little towns in the English countryside, to the muddy river banks, and even the chaos of a group of friends trying to pack the night before a trip. All these scenes were like a movie in my mind. So though there’s no chance we’ll be travelling for quite a while, I really enjoyed my vicarious boating adventure.
It was amusing from start to finish, and it was great to see how much of the humour was not only still funny, but closely aligned to contemporary jokes. This book truly lived up to the hype for me. I was promised a rollicking good time and that’s exactly what I got. And I was not at all surprised to learn that it hasn’t been out of print since it was first published in 1889.