I decided to read this book as an eBook. The University of Adelaide has a great archive of books which are out of print or out of copyright.
This was the last in the Challenge for me to read, and I was disappointed with it. It is an account of a two week boating holiday from port of Kingston to Oxford and back to Kingston. It was published in 1889, and authored by Jerome K Jerome. This was the main book of Jerome which was greatly popular. The royalties from it kept Jerome comfortable financially indefinitely. The book has inspired film versions over decades. Notwithstanding this, for me the characterisations, including of Montmorency the dog were shallow and two-dimensional; for me, the humour was stilted, repetitious of theme, and mild.
On the positive side, there were some travel descriptions of villages as they navigated the Thames.
I think that the version which I read had only a few of A. Frederics illustrations. I see there were 67 in the copy available on Amazon.
This book has really stood the test of time, and many reviewers have enjoyed it. Seems it just wasn’t for me; and joins the only other book this Challenge that I did not like, The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer.
