If you've never read anything by Jerome K. Jerome, you'd be well advised to heed this warning by the Glasgow Herald: "It would be dangerous to [listen to] this book in any place––say a full railway compartment––where the reader was not at perfect liberty to laugh as loudly and as long as he chose." And the passage of time has not altered that verdict. Here is a perfect picture of those lazy summer days "messing about in boats."

After his final trip up the river Thames with his three companions––Harris, George, and Montmorency the dog––Jerome K. Jerome sat down to write his proposed book, The Story of the Thames. But before he could tackle the work in the serious manner intended, his humor took over and gave birth to a masterpiece of unquenchable comedy. This is a classic of English humor, justifiably loved around the world.

JEROME K. JEROME (1859-1927), English humorist, novelist, and playwright, was born in Staffordshire and brought up in London. Successively a clerk, schoolmaster, reporter, actor, and journalist, he became joint editor of The Idler in 1892 and launched his own twopenny weekly, To-Day. His magnificently ridiculous Three Men in a Boat (1889) established itself as a humorous classic of the whimsical. Other books include The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1889), Three Men on the Bummel (1900), Paul Kelver (1902), the morality play, The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1907), and his autobiography, My Life and Times (1926).