STAGE

Three Men in a Boat

4 Jerome K. Jerome

Introduction

This ungraded summary is for the teacher’s use only

and should not be given to students.

The story
George, William and Jerome, the narrator, are all
feeling ill and decide they need a holiday. A sea trip,
they think, would be far too uncomfortable and boring
and a trip to the country would be both boring and
isolating, but a trip up the river seems an enjoyable
option. The work involved would give them an appetite
too. So the three (plus Montmorency the dog) travel
up the River Thames from Kingston to Oxford and part
of the way back.
In a series of amusing anecdotes and reminiscences
too numerous to summarize, Jerome reveals to the
reader just how incompetent they are at coping with
the day-to-day practicalities of life.
When they pack for the trip the three of them are
so clumsy and lacking in common sense that, amongst
other things, they attempt to place the butter they are
taking into a teapot, change their minds, extract it
with great difficulty only to see George step on it and
William sit on it before finally deciding to place it back
in the teapot!
Their trip seems doomed to be problematic from
the start: they agree to start at six-thirty in the morning
but do not stir until nine. After breakfast they find it
difficult to find a taxi and when they do, they need two
taxis to take them and their bags to the river.
The plan is for William and Jerome to begin the
trip without George who is going to join them at
Shepperton. On the way there, William gets very
thirsty but not for water: while he searches for a bottle
of whisky he is thrown head first into the basket!
Once George joins them, he is persuaded to pull
the boat until Penton Hook where they stop for the
night. Putting up the cover for the night proves yet
something else which they tackle with great difficulty
and William traps himself inside the cover. After
supper, they settle down for their first uncomfortable
night on the boat.
The next morning, the three travellers are not
so keen on bathing in the river as they were when
they were planning the trip. Jerome, however, tries
to splash some water on himself by climbing onto a
tree branch. Of course, he falls in. William has great
problems cooking their breakfast: he manages to get
eggs all over himself and burn himself badly.
Later that day they have a great battle opening a
tin of fruit, as they have forgotten to bring a tin-opener
with them. They try many different methods, none
of which work, and they are so angry they eventually
throw the battered tin into the river!
On another day, George and Jerome leave William
alone with the boat while they go for a walk in Henley.
When they come back William seems very tired
and explains that he has had a big fight with a large
number of swans although the others later realize that
his tiredness seems to have more to do with the bottle
of whisky that goes missing!
Returning to London from Oxford, the three men
are determined to finish their journey despite the
terrible weather they are having. However, as they are
shut up in the boat and conversation naturally turns to
illnesses they could develop, their resolve weakens!
At Pangbourne, they decide to visit the theatre in
London and catch a train home.
Background to the story
Jerome K. Jerome lived from 1859–1927 and is
principally remembered for Three Men in a Boat,
although he wrote other novels and plays. He helped
found The Idler, a magazine which featured authors
such as Mark Twain and W. W. Jacobs. Three Men in a
Boat was made into a TV film by the BBC in 1975.

131 © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

 STAGE
Three Men in a Boat
4 Pre-reading activity
Match the words with the pictures
1 2
5 6
a Then George, with great feeling, showed us
how he felt in the night.
b ‘Why don’t you help us, you great stupid
thing!’ cried George.
c Harris said that he had had a terrible battle
with the swans.
d Montmorency and the cat did not speak,
of course, but it was easy to imagine their
conversation.
To the teacher
Aim: To familiarize students with the setting
Time: 15 minutes
Organization: Give one copy of the worksheet to
each student or each group of students. Ask them to
match the words with the appropriate picture. When
the students have completed this task, check the
answers with them. Then ask them to try and put
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3 4
7 8
e The rain come down without stopping.
Everything in the boat was wet.
f ‘Good heavens! Old J.’s gone in!’ Harris said.
g The most exciting thing of all is to let girls
tow your boat.
h We beat that tin into every shape there is – but
we could not make a hole in it.
the pictures into the order they might appear in the
story – and perhaps to suggest a story which might
link these pictures. It is not important if they get the
correct order. The important thing is to suggest an
order which makes sense of the pictures.
Key: 1a, 2c, 3b, 4d, 5f, 6e, 7h, 8g.
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 STAGE
Three Men in a Boat
4 After reading activity
A game of Snap!
Rules
SNAP
1 Give the players equal numbers of cards, face
down so that they cannot see them.
2 Each player in turn lays one of their cards,
face up, in a pile in the centre of the table. If
two corresponding cards (that make a ‘pair’)
are put down one after the other, the player
who realizes it first either shouts ‘snap!’ or
puts a hand on top of the pile of cards. (The
second method is less noisy!) That player then
picks up the whole pile of cards in the centre.
3 The game continues until one player has got
all the cards and is thus the winner.
PELMANISM
1 Put all the cards face down in parallel rows.
2 Each player can turn over two cards (in any
position) at a time. If the two cards are a
matching pair, the player keeps both cards.
3 If the cards are not a matching pair, they
are turned face down again and put back in
exactly the same positions. The next player
then has a go.
4 The winner is the player with the most pairs
of cards at the end of the game.
To the teacher
Aim: To revise events and key facts of the narrative
Time: 30–40 minutes
Organization: Make a pack of 52 cards by cutting
out and sticking each of the words and sentences
on a piece of card. The pack consists of two sets
of 26 cards. The first set has a character’s name,
an action, or an object. The second set has pieces
of information from the story, each one of which
corresponds exactly to a card from the first set. The
cards have been printed in sequence and should be
read vertically, column by column, so ‘HE was certain
133
GIN RUMMY
1 Each player is given eight cards, face down,
and the rest of the pack is placed face down in
the centre of the table. The aim of the game is
to put down matching pairs and to get rid of
all your cards.
2 The players in turn take one card from the
centre pile, and either swop it for one of
the cards in their hand, or discard it. The
discarded card is placed, face up, next to the
first pile.
3 The next player may only pick up this
discarded card if it matches a card in his or
her hand, thereby making a pair, and must
then discard another card from his or her
hand. Alternatively, this player may take an
unknown card from the face down pile. He
or she must still discard a card because each
player must not hold more than eight cards at
any one time.
4 Whenever a player can make a matching pair,
the two cards are put down face up on the
table, in front of the player.
5 The winner is the player who puts down four
pairs first and has no cards left.
he had all the symptoms of a bad heart’ and ‘J’ form
the first pair of cards. This is also the first pair to
appear chronologically in the story.
All the cards are combined and shuffled in a pack,
and one of the games can be played. The games are
best played in groups of four students, so each group
will need a full pack of cards. Once they have got the
idea, students often enjoy making their own sets of
cards.
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STAGE
Three Men in a Boat
4 After reading activity

A game of Snap!

Cards

HE was certain he When they asked him

Harris loved visiting THESE
had all the symptoms
of a bad heart.
The three friends
agreed that they all
needed THIS.
Harris said you do not
enjoy living in THESE
when it rains.
When old ladies and
gentlemen look at HIM,
tears come into their eyes.
Seven people had to help
HIM when he put a
picture up on the wall.
While they were packing,
George stepped on THIS
and Harris sat on it.
Montmorency got into the
food basket and killed
THREE OF THESE.
When they were waiting
for a taxi, a crowd came
to watch because they had
so much of THIS.
HE had got lost once in
Hampton Court maze.
but ‘J’ wouldn’t let him.
HE did not want to tow
the boat because he’d had
a bad day at the bank.
On the first night it took
them a long time to fix
THIS over the boat.
When the branch of a tree
broke on the first morning,
‘J’ DID THIS.
Because ‘J’ was laughing
so much, he dropped
THIS in the river again.
Harris said he was very
good at cooking THESE.
When they stopped for
lunch near Monkey Island,
they found that they had
not got ONE OF THESE.
They got very angry with
THIS and finally threw
it in the river.
One morning Montmorency
tried to argue with ONE
OF THESE.
for water, the lock-keeper
said they could drink
SOME OF THIS.
When they were cooking
supper at Shiplake,
Montmorency brought them
THIS to put in the pan.
Harris said that he had had
a terrible battle with
eighteen of THESE.
‘J’ likes THIS very much;
he can sit and look at it
for hours.
They discovered that the
fish in the glass case was
not real when it DID THIS.
THIS came down without
stopping and the three
friends decided to go home.
In Oxford Montmorency
had twenty-five of THESE
in two days.
The three friends went
back to London by THIS.

J Luggage Eggs Work

A change and a rest Harris A tin-opener

Broke into a thousand
pieces
Tents Churches The tin of fruit

Montmorency George A cat Fights

Uncle Podger The cover The river The rain

The butter Fell in the river A dead rat Train

Oranges George’s shirt Swans

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