To Say Nothing of the Dog: Connie Willis (S.F. MASTERWORKS)

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This is one of my all-time favorite books. From the clever phrases and deep PTSD exasperation to the total eventual collapse of the space-time continuum because of a freaking cat to THE BISHOP'S BIRD-STUMP, I find myself chortling nearly twenty years after the first read and again on the re-read. Most of this book was four stars for me but then it went and got clever. It ended up being completely brilliant and I got some excellent laughs out of it, especially the end. Original review: First, know that I am deeply biased when it comes to this book: it's got time travel, which I love with a love that is more than love, and it's got Cyril, who I love with a love that makes my time travel love look like a Tuesday afternoon romance. Plus, it's inspired by - and references, oh my god, REFERENCES! - one of my favorite books, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat. The cats. The dog. The goldfish. The chaos theory. The Alice-in-Wonderland conversations. The Bishop’s bloody bird-stump! Oh yes, please! More? Ned, who only knows 20th century history, and still suffering from time lag, is given a crash course on Victorian times while simultaneously being told his mission and destination. The combination of muddled lessons, imprecise instructions, and the jump to 1888 worsening the time lag leaves him confused about where he is supposed to be, who he should meet, where he should go, and no idea at all about the out-of-time object he is carrying.

Finally, in 2057, just in time for the celebration of the cathedral reconstruction, the location of the Bishop's bird stump proves to the historians and scientists that, in certain scenarios, objects can be brought forward in time which heralds a renaissance in recovery of historically lost, destroyed, or extinct objects. A sculpture of a stylised boat was created in 1999 to commemorate Three Men in a Boat on the Millennium Green in New Southgate, London, where the author lived as a child. In 2012 a mosaic of a dog's head was put onto the same Green to commemorate Montmorency. Lady Schrapnell, a rich American with a will of iron and a voice that can overcome any opposition. She has married into the Shrapnell title and is obsessed with rebuilding Coventry Cathedral exactly as it was the day before it was destroyed, in honour of her ancestor Tocelyn Mering. Everything must be completely correct, as "God is in the details". This includes the "bishop's bird stump", which was thought to be completely indestructible yet disappeared the night of the air raid.P.S. The best review you will ever read for this book is here. You are quiet welcome, Comely Decapods Mine. to know anything about history beyond what they learn after they leap into the past. The historical

Elizabeth Bittner, widow of the last Bishop of Coventry. Old and infirm in the 2050s, she was one of the pioneers of time travel in the early 21st century. She was also a great beauty who entranced men, including Dunworthy. Ned compares her to the fictional Zuleika Dobson for her effect on her fellow Oxonians.

The book's title is inspired by the subtitle of an 1889 classic work, as explained by the author in the dedication: Once for Yes, Twice for No: In the seance scene. Since Ned and Verity are trying to make the "spirit" give totally different answers than the "spiritualists" who are the reason for the seance in the first place, Hilarity Ensues. Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Lady Schrapnell's attitude toward the laws of time travel physics/causality, and a whole lot of abuse in general. The only reason the researchers put up with her at all is that they badly need her money to fund the department.

Oh, it's definitely hardcore SF, but it's also a tribute to Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat and the spirit is very much alive and well. Many people know that Three Men in a Boat: to Say Nothing of the Dog! is probably my favorite book. What many people don't necessarily know is that I first read it because I bought a very old copy of it at a book sale, and the reason I bought it was because I had read Have Space Suit-Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein, (to whom To Say Nothing of the Dogis dedicated) in which the main character, Kip, interrupts his father as he is reading HIS favorite book, Three Men in a Boat, in which, he claims, all of life's lessons can be found. Principally, to Jerome K. Jerome's still-hilarious Victorian travelogue Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog). While boating down the Thames (with two other men and a dog). The principle characters of that story make an appearance as they pass Ned Henry going upstream.

CHAPTER XIX.

Three Men in a Boat, a 1920 silent British film with Lionelle Howard as J., H. Manning Haynes as Harris and Johnny Butt as George. [13] The call sets off a fast-paced, tension-filled story punctuated with reactions any father and mother faced with a similar situation might experience: fear of loss, emotional outbursts, unusual physical reactions, moments of panic, bitter recriminations, as well as blame assessment. The story unfolds from the first-person, past-tense viewpoint of protagonist Scott, with occasional glimpses of the captive children, held in a house in an unknown location by two young men with “beards and foreign accents” that may be Turkish, presented in sections written in the third-person. During these sections the reader learns that the kidnappers are merely thuggish agents acting on behalf of at least two other people, one of whom is a woman. Connie Willis obviously loves Jerome K. Jerome's book Three Men in a Boat and has therefore incorporated the style as well as many plot elements of that book. She combines them with the style of other works, such as Agatha Christie’s and Arthur Conan Doyle’s crime novels or Shakespeare’s romantic comedies. However, she cleverly intertwines all of that with the time travel element and impresses once again with the amount of details, in this case mostly about the Victorian era. As the novel begins, Henry is on a mission to find the bishop’s bird stump in Coventry Cathedral, shortly after it was destroyed in an air raid. Lady Schrapnell, who is funding the cathedral’s reconstruction, wants every detail to be perfect; thus, she wants to verify whether the bird stump was present during the air raid. Ned is pulled out of the mission because he suffers from time lag as a result of too many trips to the past, and he is sent to 1888 to recuperate—as well as to perform one more mission. In his muddled, time-lagged state, however, he does not comprehend what this mission is.

The BBC has broadcast on radio a number of dramatisations of the story, including a musical version in 1962 starring Kenneth Horne, Leslie Phillips and Hubert Gregg, a three-episode version in 1984 with Jeremy Nicholas playing all of the characters and a two-part adaptation for Classic Serial in 2013 with Hugh Dennis, Steve Punt and Julian Rhind-Tutt.In Have Space Suit—Will Travel, by Robert A. Heinlein (1958), the main character's father is an obsessive fan of the book, and spends much of his spare time repeatedly re-reading it. [25] Ned Henry, 21st-century historian, assigned by Lady Schrapnell to search for the "bishop's bird stump" by all possible means. This includes attending every jumble sale held in Coventry in 1940. MacEwen, Constance (1891). Three Women in One Boat: A River Sketch. London: F. V. White. OCLC 156765043. Peter Lovesey's Victorian detective novel Swing, Swing Together (1976), partly based on the book, featured as the second episode of the television series Cribb (1980). Belligerent Sexual Tension: Baine and Tossie seem to be completely at odds until the very end, when they get together.