Customer Reviews

The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

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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.

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.

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.

Jerome K Jerome is a treasure from the past. This ranging monologue keeps surprising the listener with entertaining insights that can still zing one with the ring of truth, and boggle one with bawdy attitudes that reflect an altogether different age. Warning: some chapters may "scandalize" an uptight PC prude. LOL!

In English literature,humour is always a tame but sharp instrument to get at things which otherwise be poisons to be consumed by a body. over the depths of time,writers have forever employed the various designs of humour and subtle sarcasms to dart their disdain at the numerous worrying sides of the socirty. In "Pride and Prejudice" for instance,Jane Austen pokes at the gentry stratum in an overtone of hilarisity and witty ironies. a compatible mechanism is employed by Mark Twain in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and by Charles Dickens in "nicholas Nickleby" and co by Monsieur Jerome.

At the heart of Lerome Klapka Jerome's compilation of humorous essays titled "The Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow" rsides a vociferous thrill of fun and joviality that often gets moulded into criticism of the eternal absurdities of human nature. In fourteen intricate essays,the author of "Three Men in a Boat(To say nothing of the Dog!),itself a marvellous and classic novel,explores thevarious dimensions of life and provides a perfect reflection of life in his essays. indeed the quinessential theme of art is to mirror life in imaginary colours,to speak about life through the illusory characters. Jerome K. Jerome's essays are direct and invoke a conversational beat and as the reader jumps from one topic to another,he actually does so in terms of the myriad facets of society.

"On Being Idle" is a great way to start the journey. Excerpts from the author's personal life tingled by meanderings away from the theme takes the reader on a voyage that finds parallel ideas in other essays. The next offering "On Being in Love" is one daring foray into the realm of womanhood and the next,"On Being in the Blues" is deeply soaked in pathos and invokes lofty diction. It perceives agony and sorrow both through the personal and the general perspectives. "On Memory" is an exemplar of marvellous nostalgia as the author takes on a ride back into the dark corridors of time. In this,Jerome K. Jerome encaptures memories and yearns for those bittersweey bygone days. "Even the sadness that is past seems sweet",he writes and goes on to relive the past in words. the philosophical touch here is at its acme,a gradual uphill climb that had been gradually gathering force.

In "On Vanity and Vanities" and "On Furnished Apartments",the writer applies cunning euphemisms birdered on sly allegories,transmutating into pride and furniture respectively in each case to higher terms. "On Babies" is more like a disconcern from Jerome K. Jeome towards the fuss that people make over babies and is replete with an undertone of life's inevitable end---death. The other esays in the book---"On Being Hard Up","On Getting on in the World","On the Weather","On Cats and Dogs","On Being Shy","On Eating and Drinking" and "On Dres and Deportment"---all are sketches on common,explained yet undefined attributes of life. in them,as well as in others,the abilit to tell stories so refinely and in so unique a fashion keeps the reader engaged in his work and keeps on wondering how the writer moces astray from the chosen topic,explores the bigger landscape and then springs back to the original theme in a manner that is astonishing in a vast degree.

"The Idle Thoughts of an Idle fellow" is no doubt a great work of literature but on a number of occasions it does fall short of the level of humour and fun that Jerome K. Jerome had reached in "Three Men in a Boat" and "Three Men in a Bummel". Sometimes you're left irritated by the writer going off-track and sometimes the comedy becomes tpoo ordinary. but even so,the essays never go deep into social scars and restrain themselves on the fringes of emotions and sentimentality. the book's not dark,it's not dramatic and it's not tragic but it's a vivid display of the common and unconventional things in life in an uncommon and unconventional style.

Just what it promised! Completely happy. Would definitely buy from this seller again. Thanks!

This book is funny but slightly mysoginistic. Jerome has a unique skill at human observations but not all of the essays are evenly readable. There were two or three that were very uncomfortable and bitter. Still overall its a great read.

Length:: 1:09 Mins