Point of View

Three Men in a Boat is told from the point of view a young man called "J." J is a comfortable young man living in London working as a clerk. He is familiar with boating as a pastime activity, and assumes a similar acquaintance in his reader. The book is fictional, but the evident similarity between J. and the author, Jerome, suggests that the episodes within are based on his own real friends, his life and experiences.

J's point of view is of a middle class young British man who usually enjoys dining out in restaurants and having his cleaning done for him. Much of the humor in the book derives from J. and his friends of similar backgrounds coping with their excursion into the less comfortable lifestyle of living out of a boat for two weeks. He enjoys history and provides short, often humorous sketches...