J. and his two friends, George and Harris, decide to take a short holiday to escape the stress of their everyday lives, and so the three companions-along with a fox terrier named Montmorency-embark on a leisure tour up the Thames River, travelling from Kingston to Oxford, and musing about their lives and their trip. Three Men in a Boat is generally accepted as a work of humour due to the amusing anecdotes the three men relate during their trip up the Thames. However, author Jerome K. Jerome originally intended the book to be a travel guide for tourists participating in the then-popular activity of leisure boating. Though the book did serve as a useful travel guide-and, in fact, still does, as many of the inns and pubs named in the work are still open-the timeless humour of Jerome's writing and the extreme popularity of the book in Great Britain transformed it into an important piece of popular culture as well. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.