Three Men in a Boat, AND Three Men on the Bummel--------------------------------------------------Other works may excel this in depth of thought and knowledge of humannature: other books may rival it in originality and size, but, forhopeless and incurable vivacity, nothing yet discovered can surpassit.' (Jerome, Preface to Three Men in a Boat). Three Men in a Boatdescribes a comic expedition by middle-class Victorians up the Thamesto Oxford. It provides brilliant snap-shots of London's playgroundin the late 1880s, where the fashionable steam-launches of river swellsencounter the hired skiffs of city clerks. The medley of social vignettes,farcical incidents, descriptions of river fashions, and reflectionson the Thames's history, is interspersed with humorous anecdotes toldby a natural raconteur. Three Men on the Bummel records a similar escapade,a break from the claustrophobia of suburban life some ten years later,their cycling tour in the Black Forest, at the height of the new bicyclingcraze, affords Jerome the opportunity for a light-hearted scrutinyof German social customs at a time of increasing general interest ina country that he loved. This account of middle-aged Englishmen abroadis spiced with typical Jeromian humour.