Character Sketches

Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Analysis




J
This person is the narrator of the book and is
a young, single, middle-class man living in
London. A funny and lively man, who treats
about everything as a joke, lives the life the
way it takes it to. He has no practical
thinking. He just tries to do everything the
way he is asked. He has a dog. He loves food
and hates work.
HARRIS
This person is a young single
character with a fondness for
drink. At one point, this person
manages to get fairly drunk one
night and imagines being attacked
by swans. He is a nostalgic person,
does whatever he wants. He
doesn't care about the people
around, is keen at his own
decisions. He seems to love music
but people hate him sing.
GEORGE
This character is a bank clerk who
works on Saturdays. It is this
person's idea to take the river trip.
He has practical approach to life, is
mature enough for his age to be,
works well , experimental good
cook.
Three Men in a Boat, published in 1889, is a humorous
account by Jerome K. Jerome of a boating holiday on
the Thames between Kingston and Oxford.
The book was initially intended to be a serious travel
guide, with accounts of local history along the route, but the
humorous elements took over to the point where the serious
and somewhat sentimental passages seem a distraction to
the comic novel. One of the most praised things
about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to
modern readers the jokes seem fresh and witty even
today.
The three men are based on Jerome himself (the
narrator J.) and two real-life friends, George
Wingrave (who went on to become a senior manager
in Barclays Bank) and Carl Hentschel (the founder of
a London printing business, called Harris in the
book), with whom he often took boating trips. The
dog, Montmorency, is entirely fictional but, "as
Jerome admits, developed out of that area of inner
consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an
element of the dog. The trip is a typical boating
holiday of the time in a Thames camping skiff. This
was just after commercial boat traffic on the Upper
Thames had died out, replaced by the 1880s craze
for boating as a leisure activity.



George, William Samuel, Harris, Jerome and
Montmorency were sitting in a room and
discussing how bad they were from medical
point of view.
After sometime Jerome went to a library and
he discovered that he had the symptoms of
all the diseases except housemaids knee.
He sat for a while and thought that he was an
interesting case from a medical point.

Jerome followed his directions and thought that
his life was preserved.
After an hour they all met again. They sat there
and started describing each other their maladies.
The matter with all of them was overwork. Harris
suggested that they need some break.
Jerome suggested that they should seek out some
old world spot, far from the madding crowd.
Harris suggested that they should go for a sea
trip, which was objected by Jerome. Jerome
started to give an example of several people in his
objection.
They pulled out the maps, and discussed plans.
George and Jerome wanted to camp outside.
Harris warned both of them on the plan of
camping outside as the rain was forecasted.
They finally decided to camp out on fine nights
and in a hotel or an inn when it was wet.
Jerome was worried about Montmorency.
He was worried of the fact that how could
Montmorency survive with them.
Jerome recalled those days when
Montmorency first came to live on his
expenses.
He discovered that Montmorency idea of
life was to march around the slums with the
most disreputable dogs.




They settled the arrangements for the things
that they had to take with them.
Jerome described Harris as the one who is
ready to take the burden of everything himself
and put it on the backs of other people.
Jerome felt that Harris would grow up to be like
his uncle.
So Jerome took up the responsibility to do
things himself than to give it to Harris.
They made a list and then remade another list.
George said that they were on a wrong track
altogether. He sensibly helped to make the list.
They planned to take a boat with cover instead
of a tent and also planned other essential
amenities.

Then they discussed on the food question.
Based on their previous experience they all
agreed not to take oil stove with them, as
oil tends to get on everything and makes a
sooty, smelly mess.
Similarly, they decided their food stocks
should not contain any cheese.


Jerome told an amusing story of a time he
volunteered to carry some large chesses for a
friend on a train journey
All of them gathered the items they intended to
take, pushed aside the furniture, and piled
everything in the center of the room. Jerome
volunteered to pack and was dismayed when
George and Harris seemed to take no interest in
the packing.
At the end when the packing was done they all
went to sleep.
The next day began with the housekeeper, Mrs.
Poppets waking the men at 9:00 in the morning,
each blaming the other for not waking them all
up sooner.
After breakfast, Harris and Jerome moved the
luggage outside and waited for a cab.
As they waited for the cab, a group of boys
gathered around and started teasing the men.
The group got larger and the teasing continued.
By that time, quite a small crowd had gathered,
and people were asking each other what the
matter was.
An empty cab finally arrived and took them to
Waterloo
They reached Waterloo station at eleven to catch
the eleven five train.
When they got to Kingston they found their boat
waiting for them and so they finally set of for
their journey.
They finally reached Kingston.
Jerome told about a boy who used to study at
their school.
His name was Stivvings and was often called
Merton.
He liked to study, but he used to get ill about
twice a week so that he couldnt go to school.
During the great cholera scare of 1871, their
neighbourhood was singularly free from it. There
was only one reputed case in the whole society:
that case was young Stivvings.

He had to stop in bed when he was ill, and ate
chickens and custards and hot house grapes.
The men were rowing past Hampton court.
Harris described of getting lost at Hampton
court maze.
He told that he had gone to show somebody else
the way but he lost the way. Later more people
followed him and got lost following him.
Harris thought it was a very fine maze. The men
agreed that they would try to get George to go
into it on their way back.
The men reached a river.
The people near the riverside were brightly and
prettily dressed and enjoying as well as relaxing
on Sunday.
Harris wanted to see a funny tomb which was
with Mrs. Thomas.
He was thinking something when a man
approached him.

Harris was annoyed with him and told him to go
away.
The man burst into tears.
Harris consoled him and went to see his tombs.
Harris was angry with George that why he
couldnt come and do some work.
Harris climbed over the seat to pick the bottle of
lemonade, but it was right the bottom of the
hamper, so he leaned further and further, and,
trying to steer at same time he crashed the boat
into the bank.
Jerome and Harris stopped under the willows of
the Kempton Park, and had their lunch.
When they started eating, just then a gentleman
came.
This made Jerome very angry and wanted to kill
the man. Finally, the man ran off.
Jerome recalled those days when Harris was
asked to sing a comic sing in a party.



Harris started singing and he mixed two songs.
The pianist got nervous and ran from that place.
A new pianist was called and the song was started
all over again.
Speaking of comic song and parties, Jerome
recalled another incident.
They rowed to reach Weybridge, where they saw
George .
Jerome and Harris saw that George had a parcel
in his hand.
Harris and Jerome wanted George to do some
work, so they gave him a towline to tow the boat.
He told experiences of people who had worked
with towline earlier and fell in some sorts of
trouble. George got the line right, and towed
them steadily to Penton Hook.
Jerome remembered those days when he went
with his cousin to Goring in boat.


They reached Bensons lock and Jerome told his
cousin that they were just a mile and a half from
the next lock i.e. Wallingford lock.
After a mile or so they saw a boat.
Jerome enquired the men in the boat and they
told him that there wasnt no Wallingford lock
then.
They wanted to have their supper and wanted to
go to bed.
They decided that before having supper, they
would first put the canvas as it was getting dark.
George and Harris entangled themselves in the
boat cover. Jerome and Montmorency just
watched because they were told not to help.
George finally asked for a help.
Jerome disentangled them, and they werent
really happy.
After an hour, they finally sat down for their
dinner and ate in total silence.
They finally lay back wondering why life couldnt
be peaceful.
Jerome was uncomfortable as a part of the boat
kept digging in his spine.
He got up and went out to admire the glorious
night.
George told Jerome about that morning
when got up very early.
Once his watch went out of order and the
time it showed was quarter-past eight.
Mistakenly, he woke up at three and rushed
to get ready for work.



Only when a policeman told him that it was just
three o'clock in the morning, he realized that his
watch was showing the wrong time.
Jerome went to wake up Harris.
George, Harris and Montmorency kept away from
the water as it was too cold.
Harris proposed to prepare scrambled eggs for
breakfast.
He had some trouble in breaking the eggs and
getting them into the frying pan.
The lovely morning made Jerome mention about
King John who had slept at Duncroft Hall.

They went over to Magna Charta Island,
and had a look at the stone which stood in
the cottage there.
There were the ruins of an old priory in the
ground of Ankerwyke House and it was
round about the grounds of this old priory


Jerome expressed the irritation and
awkwardness one feels when is in the same
house with a pair of lovers.
George asked Jerome whether he remembered
their first trip up the river, and when they
landed at Datchet at ten oclock at night.
George draw out a tin of pine-apple and they all
brighten up. they were unable to open the tin
so, Harris threw the tin into the river.
Jerome considered sailing a task that made one
part of the nature.
The story "Three men in the boat" by Jerome
K. Jerome presents that three men with a dog
stayed at the village. The action centers after
their decision to stay at one of the ship lake
islands for a night. Then, they decided to
make a supper, using all the ingredients and
remains of food they have. They enjoyed
an excellent supper. The climax of the story is
episode when dog brings a water-rat and
friends decided whether they will put it in the
Irish stew or not.