Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

I'd be willing to bet that a modern reader unfamiliar with this very funny book would be far into it before suspecting that its author is not contemporary. Although it was written in 1889, it is still just as amusing today because apparently people have not changed even after all these years. They still behave in much the same ridiculous and predictable ways, making them fit subjects for farcical satire.

This is a travel guide, of sorts, of a boating trip down the Thames river. The author does provide factual information about the history of the villages and towns along the way, but all that is secondary to the rambling accounts of the mishaps of the three men, and of the people they meet and the people they remember in their stories to each other, and of the adventures of their dog.

The many people you read about will sound familiar to you, with all their infuriating idiosyncrasies, which become funny when only slightly exaggerated and having to do with somebody else. I particularly appreciated the portrait of a man who always insists he is best qualified to do any bit of skilled work, but his efforts consist of telling others what to do while he criticizes their efforts. And then when the task is completed, he claims full credit. I know this guy well; he once directed me while I tiled a floor and then told everyone what a good job he had done.

Only one aspect of human behavior not typical of the modern era (at least not in England, or America) is portrayed by the discovery of the body of a woman dead by suicide who was rejected by her Victorian peers because she had borne a baby out of wedlock. This incident is unsettling and strangely out of place with the tone of the rest of the book. But it does serve to illustrate to us that maybe some human behaviors do change, and for the better.

This book reminds me very much of A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, a modern humor and travel book. If you liked that one, you will like this one.

Recommended.