As with Three Men in a Boat, Three Men on the Bummel seems thoroughly modern in tone and style of humor. Jerome K. Jerome is particularly fond of comical exaggeration of the sort that would seem totally natural on a television sitcom today. After a mistake involving somebody else's bicycle, and a run-in with the authorities, he summarizes "My going scot free is regarded in police circles there to this day as a grave miscarriage of justice." Portions read much like Douglas Adams ("I wish no one to read this book under a misapprehension. There will be no useful information in this book.") and others like John Cleese in Fawlty Towers (a discussion of an English shopkeeper frustrated when the protagonists, as a prank, pretend not to be able to speak English). The material near the start of the book about the friends and their wives is all quite funny, and thoroughly modern in the way the women effortlessly outsmart the men. The discussions of stereotypical German behavior are remarkable mostly for how little such stereotypes have changed. Germans were, 120 years ago and today, thought to be officious and compulsive in following rules. Fans of old bicycle books will find much here to like, with description of the hazards of amateur bike-tuning, and lies in bike advertisements, and the observation that uphills always seem to last longer than downhills.
Jerome Klapka Jerome (1859-1927) was an English writer and humorist, best known for the humorous travelogue Three Men in a Boat. Jerome was born in Caldmore, Walsall, England, and was brought up in poverty in London. He attended St Marylebone Grammar School. Other works include the essay collections Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow and Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; Three Men on the Bummel, a sequel to Three Men in a Boat; and several other novels. In 1877, inspired by his older sister Blandina's love for the theatre, Jerome decided to try his hand at acting, under the stage name Harold Crichton. He joined a repertory troupe that produced plays on a shoestring budget, often drawing on the actors' own meagre resources - Jerome was penniless at the time - to purchase costumes and props. After three years on the road and with no evident success, the 21-year-old Jerome decided he had had enough with stage life, and sought other occupations. He tried to become a journalist, writing essays, satires and short stories, but most of these were rejected. Over the next few years he was a school teacher, a packer, and a solicitor's clerk. Finally, in 1885, he had some success with On the Stage - and Off, a comic memoir of his experiences with the acting troupe. Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, a collection of humorous essays, followed in 1886 (see 1885 and 1886 in literature). On 21 June 1888, Jerome married Georgina Elizabeth Henrietta Stanley Marris (a.k.a. Ettie), nine days after she had divorced her first husband. She had a daughter from her previous, five-year marriage, nicknamed Elsie (her actual name was also Georgina). The honeymoon took place on the Thames "in a little boat," a fact which was to have a significant influence on his next, and most important work, Three Men in a Boat.
