Hi, Frank.
Mine is a hardcover by the same publishers as your 1955 edition - Foreign Languages Publishing House.
No 'dainties' though - no illustrations, no frontispiece photo, not even any Explanatory Notes at the end - just the text.
But still it appears to be a word-for-word twin of the 'canonical' text - I haven't spotted any differences so far.
180 pages.
Brief publishing information on the last page, 180.  Apparently, it's one of a batch of 25 000 copies published at that time.

Jerome was very popular in Russia <...> and there were editions of "Three Men in a Boat" in English, with English notes, published in 1955 and 1964.

I've got a 1948 Moscow edition. :-)
It's my favourite - I got it in a second-hand shop some 20 years ago, and it's been my very good companion ever since - it's been through thick and thin with me, literally, through all my highs and lows (more often lows than highs, regrettably - but understandably, I believe).
I liked its 'ancient' looks at once - it's almost as if it's from Jerome's age: darkened pages, quaint fonts :-) And, after all, 1948 IS another era, isn't it? :-)
Gosh, how many times must I have read and re-read it?!

Andreia B.
From what you've said about the Russian book, it most likely IS a school-oriented edition. I don't know about its virtues as a collector's item but, literarywise, I'm sorry to say that it's hardly of much value. Such titles have been produced in Russia by the dozen, and their only virtue is that they are supposed to help schoolchildren to learn the necessary vocabulary and promote their reading skills. Otherwise, they're written in an oversimplified and very shortened style - some titles I've seen are ten times as short as the original versions. :-( Just the bare plot, without any embellishments or flourishes, like those witty 'asides', so characteristic of Jerome's writing and which are almost as valuable to me as the main subject line in his books. :-)

Frank,
are you planning on a comprehensive, all-inclusive reference list of Jerome's works?
Because, you know, these popular titles are constantly re-printed and -published in Russia, year in, year out.
It would be very uphill work indeed to try and find all the Russia-published editions of Jerome's books, if you are going to have even such school aids as this included. Maybe, it would be easier to include only the unabridged versions - like the ones you cited in your first posting here?
Finding absolutely all the Jerome titles published in Russia does sound a bit unrealistic to me.

When I was a kid I laughed most at Harris singing comic songs. :-) I just couldn't stop myself laughing like crazy. :-) It's called fou-rire in French, I guess - this unstoppable kind of laughter.

I also liked the bit about Harris's adventures in the maze very much. :-)
Also the short episode when a cemetery watchman or someone of that ilk tried to convince J to visit some crypts and graves, and when J ran off in the end, he started yelling at him:
"Come and see the skulls! Do come and see the skulls!"
thinking he was doing a great favour to J., who wasn't at all inclined to see these gruesome things,  he just wanted to stand peacefully and enjoy the beauties of nature around.

I liked the Cheese Journey episode, too - especially when J's friend's wife came in, sniffed at the air and said:
"What's happened to my husband? Tell me the worst" or something to that effect. :-)

How brave!

I hardly deserve all this praise - you're making me blush so much. :oops:
It's just that, like the character in 'Told After Supper', "I ... have had a clear conscience now for over a month", so, like him, I'm not much worried about having to face the Other Place, at the moment. :-)

Btw, I don't know about eskimos, but Jerome's books have always been very popular in Russia. I wonder there aren't many compatriots of mine here.

[jesthepres]

I happened to see a kind of obituary on the BBC web site. It didn't mention his links to the Society, though - only his role as the inventor of 'Franglais' was much praised. :-)

Miles was born on 13 May 1941 ('of course', he wrote, 'I only have my mother's word for that')

:lol: Haven't we all, though. :-)

Thanks for this good piece, jesthepres.

RIP

[bad]

This sorry tale does not, on the face of it, cast Jerome in the best of lights

It does, to some of us. :-) At least, I don't see any 'bad light' on him in this case.

...his views would not have been substantially differed from those of the average member of the public at that time...

Nor are they, from mine, glad to say.

...one with very different attitudes to our own more tolerant and enlightened age.

Happy to say that my 'attitudes' are not different to those of the 'average member of the public at that time'.
We'll all have to pay for this kind of 'enlightenment' yet.

I am sorry for Jerome...

He'll be really touched by your generosity and compassion, I have no doubt of that.

...it was exactly a kind of senseless cant...

And you must be a writer of the same calibre as him, no less, to think yourself entitled to branding his writing as 'senseless cant' - my, my... May I have the honour of being allowed to make my humble self acquainted with your own 'works of art' or whatever, then? I'd just like to know what 'masterpieces' are considered to be examples of non-'senseless cant', these days - purely for self-educational purposes, you know - nothing personal whatever.

And yeah, of course - this unbeatable 'latent-homosexuality' trump. :roll:
OK, I capitulate.

I wonder why so many new members are reluctant to fill in a little more information on themselves?

Aren't they constantly being given an earful about how one should be 'web-savvy' while browsing - like not giving away too much personal detail - lest all kinds of perverts, maniacs, paedophiles, mafia, Al Qaeda, KGB, CIA or plain madmen lurking in the shadows and ever ready to pounce, come and 'do you in'? :-)
Well, let my eventual untimely death weigh heavily on your conscience then - I'm about to disclose some of my highly sensitive and strictly confidential data:
I'm a Russian male, in my mid-forties, living in Siberia, not very far from Lake Baikal, if you should ever have heard of it - it's a very beautiful pristine lake which I love with all my heart.
Jerome has been one of my fav writers since my early teens. The advent of the WWW has finally enabled me to read many of his books in their original form - some of them, for the first time - like Malvina of Brittany, which I liked heartily.
I hope to find good friends in this forum and to be able to discuss Jerome's books and personality.

[Chapter 1]

This 'magic' book did succeed in enchanting me - such a beautiful love story and fairy tale combined. It bristles with folklore, legends, historical etc allusions - a lot of them were new to me, so I had to do some research to learn what they were about. But I've failed to find any info on some of them.
Could anyone please kindly help me out?

Chapter 1:
1) What are the Korrigans (of Brittany)?
Are they real characters in Celtic lore, maybe, or a pure invention by the author?

2) Is/was there ever a river named d'Argent in Brittany?
I haven't been able to find it on maps, even though all the other geographical names - Morlaix, Callac etc. - do still exist.

Chapter 3:
3) There was a mention of Commander Raffleton seeing King Rufus hunting in New Forest - is it a popular English belief? That after his untimely death he haunts the place by hunting there? If you'll forgive the pun. :-)

4) Professor Littlecherry says Malvina's misdeed might have had to do with King Dancrat's daughter.
Who is Dancrat?
 There is a Dancrat in the German/Nordic saga Die Nibelungenlied - but it covers the Middle Ages, while Malvina's 'felony' was perpetrated in 2000BC.
Did the Professor make a mistake? Or did the author? :-)

Chapter 4
5) The twins' uncle had told them about the Uffington Spectre. What is it? I haven't been able to find anything about it on the web. Is there a story connected to it?

6) The twins were given Puck for their birthday.
What is/was it? A (children's) magazine? What's the purported link between it and their early-morning rambling adventure then?

7) A Sir 'Ulfias of the Isles' is mentioned along with a number of other Sir's - famous Table Round characters. Is he of the same ilk?
No info on him on the web - unlike such famous names as Launcelot, Le Fay and others.

Prologue ;-)
8 ) One of the artists bought a book in Paris called "Heptameron..." where a King Ryance of Brittany was mentioned. Is it a real personage? Or a folklore figure?

9) Is there a Palais des Beax Arts in Nantes? :-)
If there is, has anyone of you visited the Bretonne Room yet - to see Malvina's portrait? :-) Is it still hanging there? :-) Does her dress really look as wonderful as all that? :-)

10) It says near the very end that Malvina's sister Sighile was woken by a kiss from a Sir Gerylon. Are Sighile and the Sir the author's inventions or maybe real figures in folklore, legends or elsewhere?
Again, I haven't succeeded in finding their names on Google or elsewhere.

Many very low bows to those of a higher intellect than mine. :-)