Three Men in a Boat (Three Men, #1) in MobileRead

Mar 09, 2018 Paul rated it liked it

Shelves: comedy, classic, read-as-ebook

3.5 stars

When I read The Big Sleep I commented that it felt cliched but that that was probably because of all the things I'd seen/read before that had actually copied it.

I think there's a kind of humour in this book that has been done a lot since. It's where you have someone express something in a kind of naive innocence that is either the exact opposite of what you think they really think, or a kind of absurdism. For example, perhaps the most famous quote from Three Men in a Boat is:

I like wor

3.5 stars

When I read The Big Sleep I commented that it felt cliched but that that was probably because of all the things I'd seen/read before that had actually copied it.

I think there's a kind of humour in this book that has been done a lot since. It's where you have someone express something in a kind of naive innocence that is either the exact opposite of what you think they really think, or a kind of absurdism. For example, perhaps the most famous quote from Three Men in a Boat is:

I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

So the thing that typifies my attitude toward this book is that I find that sentence funny. It's a perfect little joke. Man expresses liking for work, surprise! he's actually expressing his laziness.
However, this comes from a longer passage:

It always does seem to me that I am doing more work than I should do. It is not that I object to the work, mind you; I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.
You cannot give me too much work; to accumulate work has almost become a passion with me: my study is so full of it now, that there is hardly an inch of room for any more. I shall have to throw out a wing soon.
And I am careful of my work, too. Why, some of the work that I have by me now has been in my possession for years and years, and there isn’t a finger-mark on it. I take a great pride in my work; I take it down now and then and dust it. No man keeps his work in a better state of preservation than I do.
But, though I crave for work, I still like to be fair. I do not ask for more than my proper share.
But I get it without asking for it — at least, so it appears to me — and this worries me.
George says he does not think I need trouble myself on the subject. He thinks it is only my over-scrupulous nature that makes me fear I am having more than my due; and that, as a matter of fact, I don’t have half as much as I ought. But I expect he only says this to comfort me.

Now that's still funny, especially the last couple of sentences, but it feels like he's stretching the joke, labouring the point.

And I feel he does this a lot. Probably it's just the difference between modern attention spans (or just mine maybe!) and that of the nineteenth century.

All of which is to say that I really wanted to like this book more than I did. And liked it fine, many a wry smile was had, but based on its reputation, I was expecting to like it more and laugh out loud maybe. ...more

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Jul 17, 2009 Mel rated it really liked it

Really, really enjoyed this book. It was exactly what I needed to read after the emotional wreckage of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Nice light, frothy, subtle situational British humour without deep meaning or complicated plots. Better in my opinion than P.G. Wodehouse although he is good too. Will definitely look into what else he has written.

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