Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

The charm of this book lies not so much in its literary style or in the completeness and usefulness of the information contained within it, but in its unfeigned truthfulness. On its pages are recorded events that truly
happened. I only slightly embellished them—for the same price. George, Harris, and Montmorency are not a poetic ideal, but quite tangible creatures, especially George, who weighs about twelve stone {Stone—about 6.35
kilograms}. Some works may differ by deeper thought and better knowledge of human nature; others books may, perhaps, be no less original and voluminous than mine, but in their hopeless, incurable faithfulness they surpass everything discovered so far. Precisely this quality, more than others, will make my book valuable for a serious reader and will give greater weight to the morals that can be drawn from it.