Three Men in a Boat

IT may not, perhaps, be out of place in this new edition of Three Men in a Boat to place before its readers the enormous hold it has upon the reading public in Great Britain and her colonies. Originally published in August, 1889, it has been year after year reprinted, until there has been produced the large number of 202,000 copies. Adding to this the 5,000 of the present edition, a total is reached of 207,000 copies. It is remarkable that during this period there has been only one edition, and this published at the price of 3s. 6d.; the publisher ventures to believe this is unprecedented. It is not as though, as is too often the case with an ordinary novel, an enormous sale took place during a few months and then ceased, inasmuch as in the present case there has been, and still is, a constant and steady sale year after year. The present opportunity has been taken to re-set in new type the letterpress, and to re-engrave (from the originals) the whole of the drawings. The publisher trusts that Three Men in a Boat, appealing as it does so much to human nature both in its pathos and its humour, will still continue its pleasant voyage, and find new friends in every home in the land which gave it birth.