Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow [Paperback]

Jerome K. Jerome (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2005

Jerome Klapka Jerome (1859 - 1927), English author, known for his humorous essays. "What readers ask nowadays in a book is that it should improve, instruct, and elevate. This book wouldn't elevate a cow. I cannot conscientiously recommend it for any useful purposes whatever. All I can suggest is that when you get tired of reading 'the best hundred books,' you may take this up for half an hour. It will be a change." (from the Preface to "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow by Jerome Jerome)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Published in 1886, still relevant, still devilishly funny." --Tom Hodgkinson

"A little comic masterpiece." --The Independent --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927) is most famous for his comic travelog Three Men in a Boat.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Mondial (October 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595690247
• ISBN-13: 978-1595690241
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,581,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Written in 1892, an up-to-date humorous look at life., August 25, 1998

By 

Pat Blanchard ([e-mail] (Mason City, Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow: Assembled Stories (Audio Cassette)

Jerome has the uncanny knack of looking at life in the l800's and unknowingly applying it to our life of today , a hundred years later. It is uproariouly funny, tearfully sad, but always true. His chapter on dogs and cats is enough to make you roll down the hall. Also not to be overlooked, his dedication in the front is to his friend, his PIPE. Oh, to be able to look forward to more of his writtings, but, alas, only three items were printed, it seems. A must in anyone's library for pure joy and insight.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laughed out loud and forced my colleagues to read it., April 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Idle thoughts of an idle fellow (Everyman's library) (Hardcover)

I came across this first when it was being narrated on the BBC's Radio 4 and just *had* to find the text. Since the book's out of print, and thus difficult to find, note it's also available through Project Gutenberg, which publishes out-of-copyright books on the Internet.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Idle thoughts of a genius, September 18, 2008

By 

Mark Grindell "Mark Grindell" (Shipley,West Yorkshire) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (Paperback)

When most people say "God bless the clowns" they could hardly think of Jerome, and yet...

In this book are some of the funniest things I think that have ever been written at all, ever. I encountered this book in my Dad's collection when I was eleven and I am sure that I spent that summer long ago utterly entranced. There is nothing here that is an obscurity of a hundred years ago, it's all fresh and invigorating, though there are many strange things, almost forgotten; luminescent memories of aunties and uncles who were old fashioned and gracious, walks in the park and net curtains and butterfly cakes and all those things that have long since passed away.

I think that ... perhaps I modelled myself on Jerome. There was something splendid and sorrowful about a piece by Vaughan Williams that I heard recently in the Proms, and I thought of this book, and how perhaps time play tricks with us, not repeating those wonderful things of so ago, but the odd resonance still appears, apparitions of all our prehistories.

This book IS funny and very clever - but I must warn you, gentle reader, that it contains some of the most poignant and lovely imagery that I have ever encountered, you will never be the same afterwards, and nothing at all compares with his evocations of lost days, the gentle ghosts of boys he knew playing in the fields, saucers of milk for beloved pets, the haunted look of infants gazing into the infinite distance on house steps on villages whose names have been consigned to forgetfulnesss.

It is profoundly beautiful, quite ridiculous in parts, very moving, often quite melancholy, and shows evidence of a very lively, gentle and very compassionate man.

In these arid and dusty days? Oh, don't even ask!

Absolutely and totally recommended.