Three Men in a Boat

The classic comic travelogue about an ill-fated boating holiday on the River Thames


Three Men in a Boat is the irreverent tale of a group of friends who, along with a fox terrier named Montmorency, embark on a two-week boating journey up the Thames. Passing by famous landmarks on their way from Kingston to Oxford, the three gloriously underprepared travelers—George, William, and J.—confront the humor in everything from assembling a tent to fending off hostile swans. Originally conceived as a travel guide, the narrative instead evolved into a sharply witty tale replete with historical anecdotes, raucous digressions, and unforgettable misadventures.


As funny and relatable today as it was more than a century ago, Three Men in a Boat was recently ranked by the Guardian as one of the twenty-five best novels of all time and by Esquire UK as one of the top twenty funniest books ever written.