Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

By: Jerome K. Jerome

Narrated by: Martin Jarvis

Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Here is one of the greatest English comic novels read by incontrovertible king of English comic audiobook readers, Martin Jarvis. Three men, worried about their health and in search of different experiences, set off 'up the river' in a boat. Jerome's delightful novel, dating from 1900, paints a vivid picture of innocent fun.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. (P)2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.

A timeless classic

Would you consider the audio edition of Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) to be better than the print version?

On a par

What was one of the most memorable moments of Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)?

The 'flashbacks' qualified the present extremely well.

What aspect of Martin Jarvis’s performance would you have changed?

Martin Jarvis has a smooth and consistent voice which isn't always suited to the circumstances described in the book.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

It's not that sort of book.

An enjoyable "Poor Man's Pickwick" novel.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Sure. It's funny, light, an easy listen. What's not to enjoy?

What about Martin Jarvis’s performance did you like?

I have listened to several of Jarvis' performances. He always does a fantastic job.

Could you see Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

It would make a fine film or series if heavily expanded which would be easy as it is a travelling story in which the protagonists see new places and meet new people daily.

Any additional comments?

As my title states, this is a "Poor Man's Pickwick". It is very similar in many respects and enjoyable but no where near as enjoyable as the Dicken's classic. The characters aren't as fleshed out. Just about any of them could have their name exchanged with one of the others and you wouldn't know the better of it.

Go try The Pickwick Papers if you liked this book. You'll like it even more. This (http://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B0031AP0WE) is the version I have purchased here from Audible.

Wonderful story

Would you consider the audio edition of Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) to be better than the print version?

Yes, I definitely liked the audio version better than the print version.

What did you like best about this story?

It was good overall, but no one incident stands out.

What does Martin Jarvis bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Jarvis' wonderful insertion of emotion and intonations added a lot of color to the story line and made it interesting.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, it was not the "un put downable" kind.

A Fun Easy Listen

I have wanted to read/listen to the book for years. Perhaps the fact that it is a period piece is what added to my enjoyment. I always have several books going at the same time, and may require concentration and/or attention. This, on the other hand, is the type of audiobook you can lean back, close your eyes and enjoy. The narration was excellent and suited the style of the book. I am looking forward to reading the sequel at some point.

Hilarious

Loads of fun! Howlingly funny. Anyone who loves P. G. Wodehouse will also love this. Brilliant reading by Martin Jarvis.

One of the greatest books in English ever written, and timeless humor

Both Douglas Adams and P.G. Wodehouse cite this as inspiration for their own writing. And the narrator here does a fantastic job. This is one of my top three favorite audiobooks in my library of more than eight hundred titles over nearly twenty years; I have listened to this one specifically at least twice a year since getting it). Lovely.

Brilliant comedy and beautiful prose!

If you could sum up Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) in three words, what would they be?

Delightful! Clever! British!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Montmorency...but I don't want to give away who

Have you listened to any of Martin Jarvis’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No- but when I tried the other excerpts, I had to admit that Jarvis' rendition was far and away superior...at least for my tastes.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was pleasantly surprised by unexpected turns in the descriptions or storyline that made me chuckle or laugh. Some of the descriptive prose carried me away, enabling me to vividly imagine different times and places. The ebb and flow of comedy and description kept my attention well.

Any additional comments?

This is wonderfully funny period book. If you don't like British accents or books about British life in the 19th century, then give it a miss. But if you like things like Jeeves and Wooster (by P.G. Wodehouse), or Rumpole, or some of the BBC comedies available on TV, you might give this a try. It is a mixture of absurb situations and absolutely beautiful descriptive prose! You have to really sit and listen, though, to appreciate it. Listening to this book is like having a friend sitting by the fireside relating his thoughts and his history. The interplay of comedic moments with some of the most beautiful prose I have ever heard makes this book a special favorite. (Stick with it into chapter two to hear the descriptions of the river to experience the beautiful prose.) It is possible that some people might be irritated by the narrator, and this is, of course, strictly a matter of personal taste. I happen to feel that Jarvis has just the right personality, ability to express the characters and situations, and manner to narrate this audiobook. But, as I said, sometimes the enjoyment of the narrator is strictly personal and has little to do with the skillfulness of the narration. Jarvis sounds like he is actually the author relating his own experience and thoughts. Some of the other versions sounded like just narration. The music between chapters is just wonderful. It helps draw one into the proper mood of things. Can you tell that I thoroughly enjoyed this very clever old story?

Great book, great narration

This is just a classic. It's a great story to listen to and the narration was excellent. Perfect production.

Without a good story life would be boring

Any additional comments?

"The person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it!" - Agent K, Men In Black

But let's face it, we're all, at one time or another, selfish, dangerous idiots. When we drive too fast on the highway we shake our head at all the idiots driving too slow as we pass them and then shake our fists at the lunatics passing us in turn. We give ourselves up to every degree of cognitive dissonance when we say, for example, we believe in nuclear energy ... but not in my backyard (remember Carlin's NIMBY?); let some other idiots deal with the mess. When we lose it's because someone else cheated but when we win it's because of our skill. Our children are perfect saints; your kids are spoiled brats incapable of even rudimentary biological functions. We might think everyone should pass a test to vote in an election, except us, of course, because we are reasonably informed and capable of rational decisions in all weighty matters.

We're idiots, every one, and this book makes the case for it.

There's a scene near the end of the book where they come upon the dead body of a woman whom, we learn, has killed herself because she has no prospects in life and cannot hope to provide for her child. All her friends and family have turned her out (why exactly we do not know) and so she drowns herself in the very same river our three idiot heroes drift along with not a care in the world. The scene serves as a stark reminder of our own callousness, even if we have no idea we are being cruel. Shūsaku Endō, in his novel Silence tells us “Sin, he reflected, is not what it is usually thought to be; it is not to steal and tell lies. Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.”

The climax of the novel (if you could call it a climax in the traditional sense), is the literal shattering of a lie, in this case a trophy fish hanging on the wall that everyone claims was their miraculous catch. In the end we learn it wasn't even a fish at all, just a piece of plaster art.

Yet the novel, funny as it is (and it's very funny) is not just trying to make a point that lying is bad, either. Lying is good, too. Lying is good because it makes a story better, it makes life more enjoyable, more fun. If I told you I caught one fish that would not be an interesting story, however, if I say I caught 20 fish, and each one I battled with for over an hour upon a stormy sea, and they were all Sturgeons, then that's a story. Even if you know I'm lying, it really only matters how well I tell the story. Without a good story life would be boring, there would probably be no real art, no comedy, no fun.

So how do we reconcile the two: lying vs. fun?

Well, we can't really, at least not when we think about too much. We have to pick our battles, we have to be our own, as Einstein theorized, relativistic observer upon which everything else orbits. If we start looking at our lives through another person's eyes then we might see what total idiots we are, see how callous we are, how rude and hostile, too. But how can we possibly go through life self analyzing ourselves through other people's perception of us? We might as well toss ourselves in the nearest river!

The whole argument reminds me of what our parents always told us when we were eating dinner and hand't finished, "There are starving children in Africa; don't you know how lucky you are!"

Well of course I don't know how lucky I am because I've never been a starving African child. How could I ever hope to relate! How could that child possible relate the other way back to me living in a world where we have so much food in the refrigerator that it blocks our view of more food in the back that we forget it's there and it all goes bad. We have so much food it blocks our view of our food! It's absurd all the way around.

Now I'm not suggesting the author had all this immediately in mind when he wrote this wonderful book, however, it does answer why the book feels so contemporary because even though it's over a hundred years old, it speaks to that part of human nature that will never change, a selfishness we can't really help and an absurdity in all of modern life.

Brilliant concoction!

If you could sum up Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) in three words, what would they be?

Desperately funny - side-splitting!

What did you like best about this story?

There is no end to irony, and everything is presented in such an amusing way. The narrator is often sarcastic, but not always - sometimes only the author is using sarcasm.

Which character – as performed by Martin Jarvis – was your favorite?

The narrator, certainly.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Why take the train if you can row?

Any additional comments?

If you appreciate humor, this book is more than likely for you. If you appreciate language, this book is a good choice for you. If you appreciate life, this book is certainly for you.