Audiobook · read by volunteers
Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow
Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927)
Read by Czechchris · 15 chapters · 5 h 01
About the book
What is the point of doing nothing? Jerome K. Jerome explains it at length in these essays, published when he was still a young man. He writes about being idle, about being in love, about babies, about cats and dogs, about furnished lodgings, memory, and getting on in the world.
The tone is chatty and comic, with the gentle exaggeration that would later make Three Men in a Boat so popular. Each essay is a short piece of humorous musing, in which the writer takes an everyday subject and turns it over until it yields a joke, or sometimes a small truth.
Fifteen chapters, about five hours. A light and cheerful listen, to be taken a bit at a time, like a box of good chocolates.
Introduction
Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) was an English writer and humorist. Born in the Midlands and brought up in London, he worked as a clerk, a teacher and an actor before turning to writing. His comic novel Three Men in a Boat, published in 1889, made him one of the most popular authors in Britain, and it remains a classic of English humour. Before that he had published Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow in 1886, his second book, which helped to establish his name as a leading humorist.
The book is a collection of essays, originally written for magazines. It consists of fourteen independent articles, arranged in a loose sequence, with a topic for each: idleness, love, clothes, being hard up, weather, and other subjects of general interest. Jerome writes in a confidential, sometimes self-mocking style, as though addressing a friend across a table. His humour is based on exaggeration, understatement and observation of everyday foibles.
The essays are valuable today for their glimpse of London life in the late Victorian period, and for their relaxed, conversational tone, which anticipates later forms of comic writing. They reflect the attitudes of their time, and some passages may feel dated, but the wit remains fresh.
This recording lasts about five hours and is divided into fifteen chapters, read by a LibriVox volunteer. It suits listeners who enjoy gentle comedy, and it is especially pleasant in short doses. Those who already know Three Men in a Boat will find here the early flavour of the author’s voice.
Public domain
Jerome K. Jerome died in 1927: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text