Three Men in a Boat is considered an important work of the Victorian comic texts, affording the reader a genuine insight into the morals and social mores of the period. It shares this status with George Grossmith's The Diary of a Nobody, though Three Men in a Boat is less targeted in its satire of class differences and social pretensions.

First edition, second printing with the number '11' present in the publisher's address; 8vo (190 x 140 mm); illustrations by A. Frederics; contemporary ink ownership to first page, dated '1903', a few random spots, a couple of mild instances of finger-soiling, otherwise very good; publisher's cloth boards, panelled in black to upper boards, gilt lettering to spine, lacking front free endpaper, binding worn, soiled but sound.