Three Men on the Bummel (1890) - Jerome K. Jerome Audiobook

Written by Jerome K. Jerome
Read by David Case
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Three Men in a Boat Series, Book 2
Publisher: Tantor Media
Original release: Phoenix Recordings
Original Release date: 1991
Digital Release date: December 12, 2004
Duration: 06:55:29

Three Men in a Boat was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and proved so popular that Jerome reunited his now older - but not necessarily wiser - heroes in Three Men on the Bummel, When the three escape from the claustrophobia of suburban life to go on a cycling tour in the Black Forest of Germany, their trip turns into a comic expedition.

Many of their humorous adventures and mishaps relate to the nuances in language and customs; one attempts to board a train unconventionally to avoid German procedures; when riding the Bummel in Dresden one butts and rolls into German passengers who, being familiar with the route know how to brace themselves and don’t see the humor, “the dull lot”; another tries to buy his aunt a cushion and gets angry after he pays for it because he gets only a kiss from a young girl instead.

With their benign escapism, authorial discursions and wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian ‘clerking classes’, both novels hilariously capture the spirit of their age.

This is a very old recording, originally on tape and later digitalized I don’t know if it is the result of tape speed variance or to digitalizing or the reader but the late David Case (also Frederick Davidson) always seem to rush through a reading. I always think, “Slow down David, slow down”. He also had a pompous upper class style that suits the material.