Initially intended to be a serious travel guide, Three Men in a Boat is a humorous account of a two-week boating holiday on the river Thames. Three men, complaining of “overwork” agree to go on a boating holiday together. After a rocky start involving the bribing of a railway driver, the three men (and a dog) cast off for adventure. Amusing anecdotes of camping and cooking mishaps are interspersed with descriptions of landmarks, pubs, and villages along the way. Hugely successful, the book spawned a sequel, about a cycling tour in Germany, titled Three Men on the Bummel (also known as Three Men on Wheels, 1900).
