Three men in a boat (novel)
Three men in a boat - not to mention the dog (also: Drei Männer im Boot… not to mention the dog , English original title: Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog ), published in 1889, is a humorous story by Jerome K. Jerome on a boat trip on the Thames .
action
The storyline is based on a boat trip by three young men at the end of the 19th century: Jerome, the first-person narrator, plans to rent a rowing boat with his two friends George and Harris and thus cover the Thames between Kingston and Oxford for about two weeks drive on. There are real role models for the characters, but the dog Montmorency who accompanies the three is fictional. According to Jerome, he has "a lot in common with me". Jerome uses an associative narrative style. He takes individual events during travel preparations and the trip itself as an opportunity to tell in detail various stories and anecdotes that have little or nothing to do with the trip. The journey therefore only forms the framework and, as far as the scope of the overall work is concerned, takes a back seat to the interspersed anecdotes. Originally the book was planned as a serious travel guide, with stories about the history of places along the route, but the humorous descriptions ultimately gained the upper hand.
A later, but not so successful sequel is entitled Drei Männer auf Bummelfahrt ( Three Men on the Bummel ) and is about a bike tour through Germany.
reception
British writer Nigel Williams , whose 1993 published Reiseerzählung Two and a half men in a boat (German title: Two and a half men in the boat , 1996) based on Jerome's journey, and often takes on the literary model respect, wrote about Jerome's book: brought "How this man finished writing one of the funniest books in English literary history? The secret of Jerome's comedy is the uniquely modern mixture of truthful anecdotes and fantasy. And because Jerome, unlike Dickens, is not entirely in control of his material, the result is pure comedy. "
The story provided the title and some motifs for the German feature film Drei Mann in einer Boot from 1961 with Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff , Heinz Erhardt , Walter Giller , Willy Reichert and others. a.
Quotes
- “I like work very much: it fascinates me. I can sit there for hours and watch. "
- "George sleeps in a bank from ten to four every day, except Saturday, which is the day you wake him up at two and put him out the door."
- "Everyone has what they don't want at all, and what they would like others to have."
Web links
expenditure
- Jerome K. Jerome .: Not to mention three men in a boat from dogs . Roman (original title: Three men in a boot - to say nothing of the dog , translated by A. and M. Springer, revised and supplemented by Jan Strümpel), Anaconda, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-86647-769-8 ( German first edition: Ullstein, Berlin 1920).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Blurb for the double edition: Jerome K. Jerome: Three men in the boat / Nigel Williams: Two and a half men in the boat . Translated from the English by Arnd Kösling. Book guild Gutenberg (licensed edition), Frankfurt am Main / Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7632-45790 .