Books with title Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow Illustrated

Jerome K. Jerome's classic collection of comedic essays is presented here for the absorption and enjoyment of the reader. It was this book of essays which put Jerome on the map as a humorist. The subjects of each are mainly subjected to witty contemplation, with serious subjects such as love, infant children, depression and sustenance receiving this treatment in Jerome's keynote amusing style. Each subject is dealt with plainly and frankly, with the author making no claim to serious insight or as a sort of oracle for solutions. The frankness of tone was refreshing for a late Victorian audience - in the decades preceding its publication, prose writing of all forms had tended towards being wordy or flowery. Jerome largely goes against the grain in this book, which to this day reads more like a barbed yet incisive newspaper commentary than a book aspiring toward ideals of romantic, aesthetic and descriptive beauty. For its tone, the book itself attained influence over many columnists and publicists of the day. It directly inspired the title of The Idler magazine, which was a popular periodical for decades to follow. Jerome himself experienced a surge of interest in his literary efforts, and this enthusiasm led to his writing his most famous work - Three Men in a Boat.

This early work by Jerome K. Jerome was originally published in 1898 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow' is a collection of humorous essays with a philosophical tone about the value of things and the decisions we make. Jerome Klapka Jerome was born in Walsall, England in 1859. Both his parents died while he was in his early teens, and he was forced to quit school to support himself. In 1889, Jerome published his most successful and best-remembered work, 'Three Men in a Boat'. Featuring himself and two of his friends encountering humorous situations while floating down the Thames in a small boat, the book was an instant success, and has never been out of print. In fact, its popularity was such that the number of registered Thames boats went up fifty percent in the year following its publication.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.