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Reading lists

8 literary mazes to explore

Stop What You’re Doing and Read…To Make You Laugh: The Diary of a Nobody & Three Men in a Boat

THE DIARY OF A NOBODY &amp; THREE MEN IN A BOAT: Two charming tales of foolish folk, guaranteed to make you hoot, chuckle, giggle or guffaw. Complete with illustrations.

THE DIARY OF A NOBODY -  There's a universality about Pooter that touches everybody...fits into the tradition of absurd humour that the British do well, which started with Jonathan Swift and runs through Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear to Monty Python

THREE MEN IN A BOAT - One of the funniest books I've ever read. I laughed out loud and that doesn't happen often

George and Weedon Grossmith were born in London in 1847 and 1852 respectively to a theatrical family who were friends with Henry Irving and Ellen Terry. George became a popular composer and performer of comic songs as well as a successful actor. Weedon trained as a painter at the Slade and the Royal Academy, but soon turned to acting like his brother. The Diary of a Nobody began life as a series of columns the brothers wrote together for Punch which they later expanded into a novel. It was published in 1892, with Weedon's illustrations, to instant acclaim and has remained in print ever since. George died in 1912, followed by his brother in 1919. 
 
Jerome Klapka Jerome was born in Walsall on 2 May 1859 and brought up in East London. After his father died, Jerome left school at fourteen and worked as a railway clerk, actor, journalist and teacher. In 1885 he published On the Stage - and Off which was followed in 1886 by Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. In 1888 Jerome married Georgina Stanley and a year later he published his most famous work, Three Men in a Boat. The sequel, Three Men on the Bummel, appeared in 1900. Jerome also wrote several other novels, plays, stories and autobiographical writings, edited The Idler and Today magazines and, during the First World War, worked for the French ambulance service. Jerome K. Jerome died on 14 June 1927.

To mark the publication of Stop What You're Doing and Read This!, a collection of essays celebrating reading, Vintage Classics are releasing 12 limited edition themed ebook 'bundles', to tempt readers to discover and rediscover great books. 
 
THE DIARY OF A NOBODY 
Mr Charles Pooter is a respectable man. He has just moved into a very desirable home in Holloway with his dear wife Carrie, from where he commutes to his job of valued clerk at a reputable bank in the City. Unfortunately neither his dear friends Mr Cummings and Mr Gowing, nor the butcher, the greengrocer's boy, nor the Lord Mayor seem to recognise Mr Pooter's innate gentility, and his disappointing son Lupin has gone and got himself involved with a most unsuitable fiancee... 
George and Weedon Grossmith's comic novel, perfectly illustrated by Weedon, is a glorious, affectionate caricature of the English middle-class at the end of nineteenth century. 
 
 
THREE MEN IN A BOAT 
ILLUSTRATED BY VIC REEVES 
What could be more relaxing than a refreshing holiday on the river with your two best friends and faithful canine companion, Montmorency? However, as J. discovers, there is more to life on the waves than meets the eye - including navigational challenges, culinary disasters, and heroic battles with swans, kettles and tins of pineapple. Jerome K. Jerome's delightful novel has kept readers smiling for years and his prose has found a perfect partner in Vic Reeves's glorious and witty illustrations.

Three Men in a Boat

'I fell out of bed laughing at Three Men in a Boat' Guardian

Wonderfully fresh and funny, and among examples of Victorian humour I would place it high in the pantheon, right up there with The Importance of Being Earnest and The Diary of a Nobody...Jerome's writing...triumphantly stands the test of time, with its comic flights of exaggeration, its occasional archness, and its entirely innocent hint of the camp

A charming comedy of friendship and human nature

One of the funniest books I've ever read. I laughed out loud and that doesn't happen often

Brought laughter to a country in the throes of Victorian gloom

As well as being very funny, it captures the innocence of a time before adventure became synonymous with bungee jumping into ravines in faraway places

Reading it is like spending time with a favourite uncle whose anecdotes you'd happily listen to over and over again because...it makes you laugh

Having made it to number two in Esquire's funniest books list, Jerome K Jerome's comic tale of boat-bound idlers is reissued this month, with 30 charming illustrations by a certain Vic Reeves

A lovely jacketed hardback... Reeves captures absolutely Jerome's droll, gentle and thoroughly English sense of the absurd... perfect alfresco spring reading.

Go on a journey without leaving your chair.

One of the 'classics' of English humorous literature

Jerome Klapka Jerome was born in Walsall on 2 May 1859 and brought up in East London. After his father died, Jerome left school at fourteen and worked as a railway clerk, actor, journalist and teacher. In 1885 he published On the Stage - and Off which was followed in 1886 by Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. In 1888 Jerome married Georgina Stanley and a year later he published his most famous work, Three Men in a Boat. The sequel, Three Men on the Bummel, appeared in 1900. Jerome also wrote several other novels, plays, stories and autobiographical writings, edited The Idler and Today magazines and, during the First World War, worked for the French ambulance service. Jerome K. Jerome died on 14 June 1927.

'I fell out of bed laughing at Three Men in a Boat' Guardian 
 
 What could be more relaxing than a refreshing holiday on the river with your two best friends and faithful canine companion, Montmorency? However, as J. discovers, there is more to life on the waves than meets the eye - including navigational challenges, culinary disasters, and heroic battles with swans, kettles and tins of pineapple. Jerome K. Jerome's delightful novel has kept readers smiling for years and his prose has found a perfect partner in Vic Reeves's glorious and witty illustrations.

Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel

The two novels published together for the first time in Penguin Classics

Jerome K Jerome (1859-1927) became an actor and published a couple of volumes of humorous pieces and light essays about the theatre. He achieved lasting fame with THREE MEN IN A BOAT. He later went on to become one of the founders of the humorous magazine, The Idler, and continued to write articles and plays. 
Jeremy Lewis has recently written a biography of Cyril Connolly and has edited the Raffles books.

Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a 'T'. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather-forecasts and tins of pineapple chunks - not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.'s small fox-terrier Montmorency. Three Men in a Boat was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and proved so popular that Jerome reunited his now older - but not necessarily wiser - heroes in Three Men on the Bummel, for a picaresque bicycle tour of Germany. With their benign escapism, authorial discursions and wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian 'clerking classes', both novels hilariously capture the spirit of their age.

Penguin Classics

Has been chosen as the novel for the 2004 'Get Reading' campaign in the Thames Valley, supported by an advertising campaign and a variety of local events

A comic masterpiece that has never been out of print since it was first published in 1889, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat includes an introduction and notes by Jeremy Lewis in Penguin Classics. 
 
Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a 'T'. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather forecasts and tins of pineapple chunks - not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.'s small fox-terrier Montmorency. Three Men in a Boat was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and, with its benign escapism, authorial discursions and wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian 'clerking classes', it hilariously captured the spirit of its age. 
 
In his introduction, Jeremy Lewis examines Jerome K. Jerome's life and times, and the changing world of Victorian England he depicts - from the rise of a new mass-culture of tabloids and bestselling novels to crazes for daytripping and bicycling. 
 
Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) was born in Walstall, Staffordshire, and educated at Marylebone Grammar School. He left school at fourteen to become a railway clerk, the first in a long line of jobs that included actor, teacher and journalist. His first book, On Stage and Off, a collection of humorous pieces about the theatre, was published in 1885, and was followed the year after with the more commercially-successful The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; but it was with Three Men in a Boat (1889) that Jerome achieved lasting fame. He later went on to become one of the founders of the humorous magazine, The Idler, and continued to write articles and plays. 
 
If you enjoyed Three Men in a Boat, you might like Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm, also available in Penguin Classics.

Jerome K Jerome (1859-1927) became an actor and published a couple of volumes of humorous pieces and light essays about the theatre. He achieved lasting fame with THREE MEN IN A BOAT. He later went on to become one of the founders of the humorous magazine, The Idler, and continued to write articles and plays. Jeremy Lewis has recently written a biography of Cyril Connolly and has edited the Raffles books.

Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a 'T'. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather-forecasts and tins of pineapple chunks - not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.'s small fox-terrier Montmorency. Three Men in a Boat was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and, with its benign escapism, authorial discursions and wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian 'clerking classes', it hilariously captured the spirit of its age.

Charlotte Brontë

Robert Louis Stevenson

Jane Austen

Thomas Hardy

Henry James

Jerome K. Jerome

James Joyce

Virginia Woolf

Ford Madox Ford

F.M. Mayor

Juliet Stevenson

Samuel West

Anne-Marie Duff

Alan Cumming

Amanda Hale

Hugh Laurie

Stephen Rea

Douglas Hodge

Toby Stephens

10 Unmissable Classics

A bumper collection of accessible classics from the perennially popular BBC Radio 4 series 
 
This diverse, wide-ranging anthology features readings of 10 of the greatest books in the English language, taken from the BBC's Book at Bedtime and performed by a stellar cast of narrators. Here are nearly 27 hours of sensational stories, from iconic romances and humorous travelogues to pioneering Modernist masterpieces and compelling explorations of the human heart. Comprising much-loved favourites as well as neglected classics, this genre-spanning selection has something for everyone. 
 
This collection includes abridged readings of: 
 
Persuasion by Jane Austen: Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth get a second chance at love following their broken engagement seven years earlier. Read by Juliet Stevenson. 
 
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: An orphaned young woman discovers romance when she meets the charming Mr Rochester. Read by Anne-Marie Duff. 
 
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: Independent Bathsheba Everdene must contend with three very different suitors all vying for her affections. Read by Douglas Hodge. 
 
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson: Stephenson's travelogue from his 12-day hike, taken to distance himself from his love affair with a married woman. Read by Alan Cumming. 
 
The Aspern Papers by Henry James: A nameless narrator goes to Venice to persuade American poet Jeffrey Aspern's lover to let him read Aspern's letters. Read by Samuel West. 
 
Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome: The Three Men in a Boat return for a bicycle tour through the German Black Forest. Read by Hugh Laurie. 
 
Dubliners by James Joyce: Form-defining stories about life in Dublin at the start of the 20th century. Read by Stephen Rea. 
 
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford: Two couples, two marriages; both seemingly perfect. But beneath the surface lies deception and betrayal. Read by Toby Stephens. 
 
The Rector's Daughter by F.M. Mayor: Mary has spent thirty-five years taking care of others, but with the arrival Robert Herbert her quiet, ordered existence is changed forever. Read by Juliet Stevenson. 
 
Orlando by Virginia Woolf: A playful mock biography of a chameleonic historical figure, immortal and ageless, who changes sex and identity on a whim. Read by Amanda Hale. 
 
First published 1817 (Persuasion), 1847 (Jane Eyre), 1874 (Far from the Madding Crowd), 1879 (Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes), 1888 (The Aspern Papers), 1900 (Three Men on the Bummel), 1914 (Dubliners), 1915 (The Good Soldier), 1924 (The Rector's Daughter), 1928 (Orlando) 
 
© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Book at Bedtime: A BBC Radio Collection

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