Three Men in a Boat describes a comic expedition up the Thames to Oxford, depicted with irresistibly genial humour by 'J'. As the fashionable late-1880s steam-launches of river swells encounter the hired skiffs of city clerks, ￯﾿ﾽJ' presents a medley of social vignettes, farcical incidents, descriptions of river fashions, and reflections on the river's history. His gently skewed vision of a world in which things continually turn out rather differently than expected is continued in Three Men on the Bummel. The now middle-aged friends embark on a cycling tour in the Black Forest, and the new bicycling craze affords Jerome the opportunity for a light-hearted scrutiny of German social customs at a time of increasing preoccupation with a country he loved. This double-volume edition places two of the most popular works in English literature in the light of Jerome's varied career, illuminating their social context and enduring appeal.