Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome tells the story of three friends and their dog after they decide to take a boating trip along the Thames River. Taking a boat along the river was a popular way to spend a few days at the time, but most people who indulged in the activity probably didn't have as adventurous a time as J, George, Harris, and Montmorency the fox terrier when they came upon the perfect way (at least, it seems like this at the time) to spend their summer holidays.

Suffering from a severe case of overwork, even though each of them avoid the activity as much as possible, they hire a boat and travel along the river between Kingston and Oxford. As they travel along, past picturesque little towns and villages, they marvel at the loveliness of the English countryside in the summer. Their journey is not without incident, however, and it soon becomes clear that these four are as adept at boating as they are at any other type of manual labor, and when the weather takes a turn for the worse they decide that their days of strange food concoctions, poor banjo playing, and swan fighting must come to an end.

The book was published in 1889 and was originally meant to be a travel guide for that particular part of the Thames, but it soon took on a more comedic tone and to this day it regularly appears in top 100 lists of the funniest books of all time.