STILL AFLOAT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 86, 12 April 1941, Page 16 (Supplement)

STILL AFLOAT

THE other day the 8.8.C., turning as it does occasionally, from war to peace, announced in an overseas session the death of George Wingrave, the last survivor of tht trio who provided the characters in Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat.".

To many the announcement meant nothing; to some it must have been trifling; to others it recalled the most popular humorous book of the last 50 years. Whatever one may think of the literary merits of "Three Men in a Boat," that at such a time as this an English news bulletin should refer to it is proof of the hold it has taken on the Englishspeaking world. The Three Men It may surprise many of those who like the hook to learn that this record of a holiday on the Thames had so much of a foundation in fact. J., of course, was Jerome himself. George was George Wingrave, who became a bank manager. Harris was Carl Ilentschel, a Pole, whose father introduced photograph engraving into England, and by enabling newspapers to print pictures,

By Cyrano

changed the face of journalism. Carl became a prominent figure in city circles and in the play-going world. Jerome and his friends had done much boating on the upper Thames, from Sunday outings to trips lasting a week. He did not intend at first to write a humorous book. "I did not know I was a humourist. I never have been sure about it." The book was to "The Story of the Thames," its scenery and; history, with "humorous relief," but when Jerome began it he was just back from his honeymoon, and the "humorous relief" took charge. In the end he worked in "a dozen or so slabs of history," but the editor who published the book serially threw them out. This is not quite correct, for there is a fair amount of history in the book. There is also a good deal of sentiment.

"Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)" has had a wide and lasting vogue. When I was a. boy everybody read and quoted it. To-day you stand quite a fair cliance of being understood if you refer to Uncle Podger hanging a picture, or J.'s discovery from reading medical books that he had every disease except housemaid's knee. Writing 16 years ago, Jerome said a million copies had been sold in America. It was also very popular on the Continent, including Russia, so much so that when Jerome went to St. Petersburg he was embraced, much to his embarrassment., bv a crowd of enthusiastic admirers. One may wonder what Stalin's Russia thinks of it. The book still sells.

Everybody's Experience What, is the reason for this enormous popularity? Jn his book on English humour Mr. J. B. Priestley puts "Three Men in a lioat" far below "'Tin; Diary of a Xoboc!y," by the brothers Grossmith. "The Diary of a Xobodv" is a far more original work. Charles Pootcr is a real creation of character, Augustine Birrcil ranked him with Don Quixote. In "Three Men in a Boat" there is no such triumph of character drawing. The explanation of the book's success is that it sets down what happens to everybody or what is in everybody's thoughts. We have seen the same thing happen with some of Stephen Leacock's work. I have compared notes with many about that account of Lcacock's of the nervous man who goes into a bank to open an account, and I always find it has hit the mark. The thing is farce, but there is sufficient foundation in one's own experience to give it reality. "Three Men in a Boat" is like this. Everybody who has gone camping haf-

had experiences similar to those of J. and his friends on the Thames. We have all encountered the total depravity of inanimate objects. Everybody who has looked into medical dictionaries has feared for his own health. Everybody has seen a cat cow a dog as that cat cowed Montmorency. We all know the tendency, so well illustrated in the incident of the shirt jerked into the water, to laugh when it is the other fellow's misfortune, and to l>e angry when it is your own. And haven't we all felt at the end of a camping holiday just as those men did when they returned to London, and sat down to a full-length, wellcooked dinner? A French Tribute Jerome said he had no need to invent for the l>ook; it had all happened. A New Zealander who had lived in England told me he had gone camping on the Thames, and it was "Three Men in a Boat" over again. " 'Three Men in a Boat' is the only English novel that sells freely," said a Paris bookseller, "and that is because the incidents might equally well have happened on the Seine as on the Thames." It is noteworthy that intellectually the three men, or at any rate, George and Harris, are deliberately flattened. In real life all three were men with intellectual interests, but save for J.'s moralising?, there isn't a sign of this in the book. One is reminded of

Conccive me. If you c»n. An every-day young man; A commonplace type, With a stick and a pipe, And a haltbred black-and-tan: Who thinks suburban "hops," More fun than "Monday Pops," Who's lond of his dinner, And doesn't get thinner. On bottled beer and chops. "Three Men in a Boat" Is about three ordinary men, and if it wasn't, it wouldn't be half so popular. "Three Men in a Boat" and his other humorous books branded Jerome for life with the public as a funny man. who was not expected to be serious. Really ho was a sad man; "look where I will," lie said, "there seems to me always more sadness than joy in life." His favourite among his own books was ' Paul Kelver." And lie wrote "The Passing of the ThirdFloor Back." Despite his popularity, perhaps because- of it, he was severely criticised. He said himself that for his first twenty years he was the most abused writer in England. "Punch" pursued him with a contempt that was not creditable, and some people seemed to think he was a Public Enemy. It is a way many Britons have with humorists. In .a spirited defence of his friend, Jerome, Israel Zangwill referred to "a most bewildering habit in modern English letters" of "sneering down the humorist —that rarest of all literary phenomena." Men who had hysterically enjoyed Jerome's humour joined in the cry against him. Finally, let it be rernembeied that Jerome was not only a humorist. b-. u a cause of humour in . 'To ois. overed W. W. Jacobs.