Average customer rating:
- Not Free SF Reader
- She is a great writer
- A huge pleasure, and a delicate little masterpiece.
- Don't miss this book
- This novel will tickle your funny bone
|
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Connie Willis
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
 Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Action & Adventure
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Willis, Connie
| ( W )
| Authors, A-Z
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Action & Adventure
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
( W )
| Authors, A-Z
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
| Weber, David
| Weis, Margaret
| Wells, H.G.
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Doomsday Book
-
Full Dark House (Bryant & May Mysteries)
-
Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog (Tor Classics)
-
Bellwether
-
Lincoln's Dreams
ASIN: 0553575384
Release Date: 1998-12-01 |
Amazon.com
To Say Nothing of the Dog is a science-fiction fantasy in the guise of an old-fashioned Victorian novel, complete with epigraphs, brief outlines, and a rather ugly boxer in three-quarters profile at the start of each chapter. Or is it a Victorian novel in the guise of a time-traveling tale, or a highly comic romp, or a great, allusive literary game, complete with spry references to Dorothy L. Sayers, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Conan Doyle? Its title is the subtitle of Jerome K. Jerome's singular, and hilarious, Three Men in a Boat. In one scene the hero, Ned Henry, and his friends come upon Jerome, two men, and the dog Montmorency in--you guessed it--a boat. Jerome will later immortalize Ned's fumbling. (Or, more accurately, Jerome will earlier immortalize Ned's fumbling, because Ned is from the 21st century and Jerome from the 19th.)
What Connie Willis soon makes clear is that genre can go to the dogs. To Say Nothing of the Dog is a fine, and fun, romance--an amused examination of conceptions and misconceptions about other eras, other people. When we first meet Ned, in 1940, he and five other time jumpers are searching bombed-out Coventry Cathedral for the bishop's bird stump, an object about which neither he nor the reader will be clear for hundreds of pages. All he knows is that if they don't find it, the powerful Lady Schrapnell will keep sending them back in time, again and again and again. Once he's been whisked through the rather quaint Net back to the Oxford future, Ned is in a state of super time-lag. (Willis is happily unconcerned with futuristic vraisemblance, though Ned makes some obligatory references to "vids," "interactives," and "headrigs.") The only way Ned can get the necessary two weeks' R and R is to perform one more drop and recuperate in the past, away from Lady Schrapnell. Once he returns something to someone (he's too exhausted to understand what or to whom) on June 7, 1888, he's free.
Willis is concerned, however, as is her confused character, with getting Victoriana right, and Ned makes a good amateur anthropologist--entering one crowded room, he realizes that "the reason Victorian society was so restricted and repressed was that it was impossible to move without knocking something over." Though he's still not sure what he's supposed to bring back, various of his confederates keep popping back to set him to rights. To Say Nothing of the Dog is a shaggy-dog tale complete with a preternaturally quiet, time-traveling cat, Princess Arjumand, who might well be the cause of some serious temporal incongruities--for even a mouser might change the course of European history. In the end, readers might well be more interested in Ned's romance with a fellow historian than in the bishop's bird stump, and who will not rejoice in their first Net kiss, which lasts 169 years!
Book Description
From Connie Willis, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, comes a comedic romp through an unpredictable world of mystery, love, and time travel...
Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He's been shuttling between the 21st century and the 1940s searching for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop's bird stump. It's part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid over a hundred years earlier.
But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump back to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right--not only to save the project but to prevent altering history itself.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
Another book by Connie Willis that didn't really interest me, I didn't
really find it either engaging or amusing enough to bother too much
with.
The bishop's bird stump is something I have forgotten about
completely, and didn't really care whether this motley crew ever found
it at all in the first place.
She is a great writer.......2007-08-09
How did I get this far in life without reading Connie Willis? She is amazing. I never thought I'd get to read a book that combines my love of PG Wodehouse and science fiction. Original, well-crafted, well-written, wonderful! One of my favorite books ever.
A huge pleasure, and a delicate little masterpiece........2007-07-28
Full disclosure: Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat" is one of my favourite books, and Coventry's Cathedral has always spoken to me more than any other religious structure ever can. Any book that dares to work those two themes together is going to have an easy time getting my attention and a tough time justifying such "Lèse majesté". This one just blew my socks off. It's got a deliberately slow and confusing start (to reflect our hero's own confusion), but you must stick with it. Such loyalty will reward you with a gripping story, fine characterisation (both human and animal), rich historical and literary allusions, and a great "whodunnit" plot all wrapped up in a clever time-travel conceit. A delicate masterpiece from Connie Willis, and a huge pleasure.
Don't miss this book.......2007-06-19
What can I say that others have not said? Connie Willis is a genius. You run the risk of seriously hurting yourself laughing through this marvelous story!
This novel will tickle your funny bone.......2007-06-13
Connie Willis may be known for her science fiction, but as far as I'm concerned her true calling is comedy. This novel is hysterical! This was the first Willis I've read, but I've now added her other books to my must-read list. If you enjoy either light mystery, romantic comedy, historical romances, or books about time travel, you will find something to satisfy you in this story that includes all of the above.
I had read the very droll "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome before this, so I felt like I got some of Willis's inside jokes, but that book's not really a prerequisite to this one. My husband read "To Say Nothing of the Dog" upon my recommendation, and he absolutely loved it, even though he had not read the Jerome book.
A couple details my husband and I both really enjoyed: We loved how there's a cat who doesn't just say "meow," but instead says things like, "Me," or "Now," depending on the situation. (As owners of some outspoken felines, we found this extremely amusing.) Another clever bit of verbiage is the word "screamlet," generally something attributed to a Victorian young lady---a much-needed addition to the English language, don't you think?
In a nutshell: Good writing plus loads of silliness.
Average customer rating:
- three men in a boat from the oxford bookworms library
- Didn't age well
- Good reading of delightful novel
- Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog
- A comedic classic
|
Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog (Tor Classics)
Jerome K. Jerome
Manufacturer: Tor Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Comic
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Historical
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Comic
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Historical
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
To Say Nothing of the Dog
-
Doomsday Book
-
Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel
-
Bellwether
-
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
ASIN: 0765341611 |
Book Description
"I had the general symptoms, the chief among them being a disinclination to work of any kind."So begin the hilarious misadventures of a merry, but scandalously lazy band of well-to-do young men-and a plucky and rather world-weary fox terrier named Montmorency-on an idyllic cruise along the River Thames. Feeling seedy, muses one of them dreamily, "What we want is rest." What they find instead is one hapless catastrophe after another. Soggy weather, humiliating dunkings, the irritating behavior of small boats and the "contrariness of teakettles" are just a few of the barbarisms our genteel heroes are forced to endure. But which a delighted reader can only sing, Hooray!First published in 1889, Three Men in a Boat was an instant success, and Jerome has been compared to comic master P.G. Wodehouse.
Download Description
A marvel of British comedy, this story of a simple boating trip follows in the tradition of Oscar Wilde. In the late 19th century, three men pack food, clothes, and dog into a small boat built with character and charm (read: disaster in the making), then traverse the English countryside along the Thames, armed with their wits and a certain genteel ruthlessness.
Customer Reviews:
three men in a boat from the oxford bookworms library.......2007-05-04
I read this book about 10 years ago......and today I'm still laughing.
Jerome possessed very good comic timing, the story flowed naturally, the emotions and reaction of the 3 men were so real that I wish I was on the river and met them at that time! Somehow this book can teach us the importance of taking a break from our daily life.
I recently bought a copy from Amazon which was initialy meant as a gift for someone, but having a second thought, I decided to keep it as a precious reading companion for myself when I'm travelling.
Didn't age well.......2007-03-26
Jerome K. Jerome might have been a riot 100 years ago but this book will provoke only a rare smirk. The best bits belong to the dog who only seems to appear at the end of every third or fourth chapter to drop a one-liner. Other than that, it is aged, slow moving slapstick with some oddly out-of-place moments of reflection.
How anyone can call this a laugh riot boggles my mind.
Good reading of delightful novel.......2006-11-10
This is a very nice reading of one of my favorite humorous novels.
Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog.......2006-11-10
So very refreshing!!!!! Lots of laughs.
A comedic classic.......2006-09-25
I had put off reading this book for many years, and finally got to it.
The writing in this novel is simply superb. Jerome possesses a comic timing that most authors don't have and can simply never hope to have. He is able to weave in a history of the River Thames in with the bumblings of the three main characters and their dog, without hurting either major premise of the book.
The main reason to read this is because it will make you laugh. If it doesn't, you are not understanding it correctly.
Book Description
Jerome's comic masterpiece — and one of the best-known classics of English humor — follows the misadventures of 3 bungling, Victorian-era bachelors who take off on a rowing excursion up the Thames. Their disastrous struggles with camping equipment, meal preparation, and rampant hypochondria trumpet simple truths that still resonate today.
Customer Reviews:
To say nothing of the dog!.......2006-07-05
Imagine Bertie Wooster and two of his idiot friends out on a boat... with no Jeeves. That about describes "Three Men in a Boat : To Say Nothing of the Dog," Jerome K. Jerome's enchanting comic novel about three young men (to say nothing of the dog) who discover the "joys" of roughing it.
The three men are George, Harris and the narrator, who are all massive hypochiandriacs -- they find that they have symptoms of every disease in existance (except housemaid's knee). To prop up their failing health, they decide to take a cruise down the Thames in a rented boat, camping and enjoying nature's bounty.
Along with Monty -- an angelic-looking, devilish terrier -- the three friends set off down the river. But they find that not everything is as easy as they expected. They get lost in hedge mazes, end up going downstream without a paddle, encounter monstrous cats and vicious swans, have picnics navigate locks, offend German professors, and generally get into every kind of trouble they possibly can...
Even though it was published more than a century ago, "Three Men in a Boat" remains as freshly humorous as when it was first published. While editor/playwright/author Jerome K. Jerome wrote a lot of other books, this book remains his most famous. And once you've read it, you'll see why.
Jerome's real talent is in finding humor in everyday things, like trying to erect a tent in the woods, getting seasick, or questioning whether it's safe to drink river water. Written in Jerome's dry, goofy prose, these little occurrances become immensely funny. One of the funniest parts of the book is when the boys listen to a fishermen telling of his prowess, only to accidently knock down his record-breaking stuffed fish.... and discover it's made out of plaster. Oops.
But Jerome takes a break from the humor near the end, when the boys find a drowned woman floating in the river. And here he becomes solemn and quietly compassionate: "She had sinned - some of us do now and then - and her family and friends, naturally shocked and indignant, had closed their doors against her."
But back on the funny stuff. The capstone on all this humor is the "three men." These guys are basically pampered Victorian aristocrats, who have a romantic yearning for the great outdoors. You'll be laughing at them and with them, as they struggle through the basics of boating and camping.
It's worth noting that the Digireads edition of this book is very good, with a flexible cover, extremely strong binding, and a nice reproduction with rather small print. Think "Dover Thrift," but of higher quality.
Funny, wacky and creepily true to life, "Three Men in a Boat" is an enduring comic classic in the vein of PG Wodehouse. Not to mention the dog!
Product Description
This comic classic, first published in 1889, is one of the most widely read and beloved works of British fiction. It has been translated into many languages. Ordinary circumstances turn hilarious as three friends journey up the Thames river with Montmorency, a small, naughty fox terrier.
Average customer rating:
|
Three Men in a Boat (to Say Nothing of the Dog)
Jerome Klapka Jerome
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Cats, Dogs & Animals
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Comic
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0543745775
Release Date: 2001-12-18 |
Book Description
With illustrations by A. Frederics. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1889 edition by J. W. Arrowsmith; Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Bristol, London.
Amazon.com
The three best things about Margaret Maron's series of mysteries starring Judge Deborah Knott are the setting (a small North Carolina town threatened by prosperity), the plots (lots of big and little stories that usually got all twisted together), and Judge Knott herself -- a realistic blend of toughness and compassion. In her new outing, Maron brings the action very close to home: a handsome drifter who was briefly Deborah's husband during her flaming youth is the chief suspect in a murder, and the land which her father amassed from his profits as a bootlegger is in danger of being sold for tract housing. (To catch up with previous Knott adventures, try Bootlegger's Daughter and Shooting at Loons.
Book Description
The three best things about Margaret Maron's series of mysteries starring Judge Deborah Knott are the setting (a small North Carolina town threatened by prosperity), the plots (lots of big and little stories that usually got all twisted together), and Judge Knott herself -- a realistic blend of toughness and compassion. In her new outing, Maron brings the action very close to home: a handsome drifter who was briefly Deborah's husband during her flaming youth is the chief suspect in a murder, and the land which her father amassed from his profits as a bootlegger is in danger of being sold for tract housing. (To catch up with previous Knott adventures, try Bootlegger's Daughter and Shooting at Loons.
Customer Reviews:
Great Reading!.......2007-05-09
I am new to this series and I just don't know how I missed it. It is a wonderful book and series and I love how Ms. Maron brings all the characters together, gives each of them such personality, and still brings us a great mystery. I am now obtaining all the books in this series so I can read it from start to finish. I would recommend it to all.
Still having fun with this series........2001-12-12
In this fourth book of this series, we finally find out how many brothers Deborah has (11). Her large family of older brothers has been mentioned in previous books, but until now we were never told exactly how many. As for the mystery plot in this book, it is tenuous at best. If you are not paying close attention, you could be left with a lot of questions regarding motive. The main story with this book is that a developer is looking to get his hands on the property that Deborah, her father, and her brothers own (collectively approximately 2500 acres) as well as the surrounding properties owned by neighbors. One of Deborah's brothers (who lives in California) has lost his job and is condering selling his small parcel (3 acres) to the developer. The major difference with this book is that is doesn't have the 'light' humor that Maron has put into her previous books. Still, the author is maintaining a steady pace with the series.
Agatha winner - entertaining tales but not much mystery.......2001-07-15
The key to enjoying this, the fourth book in the Deborah Knott series, is come in with the right expectations. It won an Agatha so you're exepecting lots of sluething. Think again. The mystery component is, at best, about one-fourth of the book. And then, just to be really annoying, Maron never really tells you why or how the killer killed. Normally this would totally sour me on the book but I enjoyed the other three-fourths of the book enough to forgive her.
What this book (and series) is really about is life in contemporary rural North Carolina as seen through the eyes of Deborah Knott. Deborah (don't even think of calling her Deb or Debbie) is the youngest of twelve children (you need a scorecard to keep the brothers straight) and is a district court judge. Between family and litigants, the book is filled with tales of small town life - paternity suit shananigans, stock car racing history, feuds over old family burial plots, and church goers who will gamble on any day but Sunday. Hunters wives (like me) will laugh out loud over the "buck fever" story towards the end of the book.
This particular book dwells on the effect of growth on the community. Land prices are skyrocketing and tract homes are replacing fields. When an elderly landowner (and former stock car builder) is killed without direct descendents, the possible heirs are all looking to grab his land and make a killing. But did they kill to make a killing? One of the possible heirs is Deborah's ex-husband from a annulled marriage - just to make things interesting.
Bottom-line: A good book for people who want to read a book in a southern setting that finds the middle ground between the angst of literary fiction and the buffoons of Jeff Foxworthy. Folks who need non-stop mystery action may want to look elsewhere.
"WHICH ONE IS THE DEVIL???????".......2001-05-08
I think there was at least two or three devils that jumped up in this book. Allen Stancil was one as indicated on the fly page of the book. Then there was one named _______. Have to read to find out who did the murders. Not one but two. The book had its ups and downs. I agree with another reviewer, I get tired of all the brothers and sister in laws and their kids. I get them all mixed up. To many for me to keep straight. But then I guess I don't have to buy the book if I don't think I will like it. If you like down South folks and small town living where everybody knows everything about everybody else, then you will like this book. But for me to many people, I skipped several pages to read about the mystery part, rest was just filler.
A fine addition to a good series.......1998-04-27
This is a good book. Woth reading if you like mysteries and/or a writer who knows how to put together believable characters and wonderful sense of location.
Product Description
Best-selling author Margaret Marons colorful Deborah Knott mysteries crackle with sassy Southern dialogue and rural wisdom. In Up Jumps the Devil, fast-moving progress is threatening to forever destroy the leisurely, heart-warming pace of Colleton County, North Carolina. District court judge Deborah Knott sees trouble brewing when plans for a new interstate highway start pushing up property values. As her own relatives battle lifelong neighbors over selling farmland or holding out, Deborah finds herself calming the combatants with down-home witand sometimes, judicial decisions. But when the squabbles escalate to murder, Deborah is forced to search for the killer uncomfortably close to home. Margaret Maron skillfully draws on her North Carolina roots to pen her well-crafted, suspenseful mysteries. Her creative talents have earned her the coveted Edgar, Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony Awards. Salt-of-the-earth characters, vivid with lilting, down-home humor and unwavering opinions, step from the pages when narrator C.J. Critt breathes life into them.
Product Description
3 hardbacks
Books:
- Treasures of Art Nouveau: Painting, Sculpture, Decorative Arts in the Gillion Crowet Collection
- Turn Back Time
- When God Was a Woman
- When Love Calls, You Better Answer
- Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, Book 4)
- Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking
- A Book of Surrealist Games
- A Covington Christmas (Ladies of Covington)
- A Day No Pigs Would Die
- A Rumor of War
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Brand Gap: Expanded Edition
- Planning Using Primavera Project Planner P3 Ver 3.0
- Data Evaluation in Light Scattering of Polymers
- I Served the King of England
- History: Fiction or Science
- Living in the Labyrinth: A Personal Journey Through the Maze of Alzheimer's
- How's My Kid Doing
- Miniaturia;: The world of tiny things
- Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin of Representation
- Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of South-east Australia
