About the Story

A Fishy Story is an amusing story, excerpted from Jerome K Jerome's novel Three Men in a Boat. The novel charts the adventurous journeysof three friends and their dog as they go from one strange place to another. A Fishy Story narrates the incidents of one evening when three friends who go to a pub in the course of their travels and are taken for a ride by the local people. There is no malice here. There is no serious matter at stake. The centre of all activity and attention is a huge fish that the three friends marvel at. During this time a number of local people come in one after the other and as they see the amazed friends admiring the fish, they each claim to have caught it! It is only at the end of the story that the truth of the matter is revealed.

Source and publication of the story:

A Fishy Story is taken out from Jerome K Jeromes famous comic novel Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) (1889). It can be read as a separate episode. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), published in 1889, is a humorous account by Jerome K. Jerome of a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford. The three men are based on Jerome himself (the narrator J.) and two real-life friends, George Wingrave (who went on to become a senior manager in Barclays Bank) and Carl Hentschel (the founder of a London printing business, called Harris in the book), with whom he often took boating trips. The dog, Montmorency, is entirely fictional but, "as Jerome admits, developed out of that area of inner consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an element of the dog." The trip is a typical boating holiday of the time.

Summary
The writer and his friend George went into the parlour and sat down. There was an old man in the parlour. He was smoking a long clay pipe. They started chatting. They made conversation about the weather and concluded that the next day would be a fine day. Somehow it was revealed that the narrator and his friend were visitors and they were going away the next day. Suddenly a pause ensued in the conversation. They were eying the room and saw a trout, a monstrous fish, in a dusty glass case which was fixed on the chimney piece. The old man described it as fine fellow and as being Quite uncommon. The trout was of eighteen pounds and six ounces. Many persons claimed to have caught the fish. The old man told that he had caught the fish about sixteen years ago. It was a remarkably a fine fish. They could not take their eyes off the fish. The local carrier arrived with a pot of beer in his hands. The carrier told them that he had caught the trout about five years ago. He caught the fish with a fly on one Friday. A third man arrived there after five minutes. He told them that he caught the fish with bleak and departed.

After his departure a middle aged man came in. He did not speak. George told the person that they would be grateful to him if he would tell them how he had caught the trout up there. He said that it was the most remarkable thing. He had taken half an hour to land the fish. He also told them that while landing it he had broken his rod. He left the place and then the landlord arrived. He informed him that Faney Jim Bates, Joe Maggles, Mr. Jones and old Billy Manders might tell them that they had caught the fish. But he told the real story. He had caught the fish luckily when he played the wag from school and went out fishing on a sunny afternoon with a bit of string tied on to the end of a tree. The man was called out at that point. The narrator and George turned their gaze upon the trout. George was so exited that he climbed up on the back of a chair in order to get a better view of the fish. Suddenly the chair slipped and George fell down. The trout broke into pieces. They were surprised to see the broken fish. Actually it was made of plaster of Paris.

Critical Comments
Treatment of Humour in A Fishy Story: Jerome K. Jerome was a uniquely humorous writer whose main aim was to entertain the readers. A Fishy Story is an entertaining piece on how some local people think they can take advantage of the visitors ignorance. In this story the writer presents some very short but humorous characters that produce humour when each of them says that he has caught the fish, though the fish was made of plaster of Paris as is finally revealed! The story is a pure entertainment with no pretension to any serious moral or social message. The story is a hilarious account of how each one of them had caught the trout that was displayed in a glass case on the wall of the inn where the narrator and his friends were staying. The different account of the weight of the trout and how it was caught shows that the villagers are lying. Thus the narrator and his friends have fun at this. The master stroke comes when the glass case falls down accidently and they all realize that the trout was made of plaster of Paris. The narrator is indulgent of his characters. Though the old man blatantly lies and depicts how he has caught the fish, the narrator addresses him as the honest old fellow. Thus with the help of humorous characters and humorous situations Jerome K. Jerome, with his great penmanship, makes A Fishy Story a gem from a master of funny story. A Note on the Title: The title A Fishy Story, puns on the word "fishy". The word fishy means "suspicious". Here the stories presented by the different people are indeed suspicious. Again, the word fishy can be used as fish-y, i.e. related to a fish. Used in this way too the title will be appropriate. The whole story revolves around a trout (a fresh water fish).The incidents and the happenings of the story are linked to the fish which is the centre of interest of the story. All other characters are because of it. The title of the story indicates the theme of the story. The fish i.e.

the trout is present from the very beginning to the end of the story. At the beginning of the story The Narrator and George see the trout in a dusty old glass-case, fixed very high up above the chimney-piece. Since then every person who comes in the parlour says them their imaginary story of how the trout was caught. Everybody demands that he has caught the trout. But at the end, with great surprise to all, it is found that the trout is made of plaster of Paris and it is broken into pieces! The story ends with the destruction of the fish. It is evident that a fish is the central figure of all the fishy stories in the story. Thus the story has been appropriately titled as A Fishy Story.

Solved Questions- Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow:
Extract1: They finally rested upon a dusty old glass-case, fixed very high up above the chimney-piece, and containing a trout. It rather fascinated me, that trout; it was such a monstrous fish. In fact, at first glance, I thought it was a cod. "Ah!" said the old gentleman, following the direction of my gaze, "fine fellow that, ain't he?" "Quite uncommon," I murmured; and George asked the old man how much he thought it weighed. "Eighteen pounds six ounces," said our friend, rising and taking down his coat. "Yes," he continued, "it were sixteen year ago, come the third o' next month, that I landed him. I caught him just below the bridge with a minnow. Q. 1. Who were they referred to in the first line of the given extract? Where did they finally rest upon? Ans.: The eyes of the persons (the narrator, George and the old man) who were chatting in the parlour are they referred to in the first line of the given extract. Their eyes finally rested upon a dusty old glass case. Q. 2. What did they find in the glass case? Where did it fix up? Ans.: They i.e. the eyes of the persons (the narrator, George and the old man) found a trout in a dusty old glass case. The glass case was fixed high up above the chimney-piece. Q. 3. What, according to the narrator, is Quite uncommon? What did he think the trout at first glance? Ans.: According to the narrator the trout that they saw in a dusty glass case is Quite uncommon. At first glance, the narrator thought the trout was a cod. Q. 4. When did the old man land the trout and how? Ans.: the old man landed i.e. caught the trout sixteen years ago. He caught the trout just below the bridge with a minnow. Q. 5. Who arrived in the parlour after the old man left the place? What did he bring? Ans.: After the old mans departure the local carrier arrived in the parlour. He brought a pot of beer in his hand. Extract 2: It excited George so much that he climbed up on the back of a chair to get a better view of it. And then the chair slipped, and George clutched wildly at the trout-case to save himself, and down it came with a crash, George and the chair on top of it.

You havent injured the fish, have you? I cried in alarm, rushing up. I hope not, said George, rising cautiously and looking about. But he had. Q. 1. Who is George? What excited him? Ans.: George is the narrators (Jerome K Jeromes) friend. The astonishing trout excited him. Q. 2. Why did George climb up on the back of a chair? What happened then?Ans.: George climbed up on the back of a chair to get a better view of the trout. George was too much excited. So he climbed up on the back of a chair to get a better view of the trout. Just then the chair slipped. He, then, clutched wildly at the trout-case to save himself. But he could not save himself and George and the chair fell on the top of the glass case. Q. 3. I hope not. Who said this and to whom? When did he say so?Ans.: George said this to the narrator. When the narrator asked George if he had injured the fish, George said this. Q. 4. Why did George rise cautiously? Was the trout injured? Ans.: George rose cautiously so that the trout might not injure. He did not want to injure the trout.The trout broke up into little pieces.Q. 5. We thought it strange. Why? Ans.: When George fell down from the back of the chair on the glass case, the trout had broken into pieces. So, the narrator and George thought it strange that a stuffed trout should break up into little pieces like that. Actually the trout was made of plaster of Paris and so it was broken into pieces.

Assignment Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: Extract 1 [16] "Fancy Jim Bates and Joe Muggles and Mr Jones and old Billy Maunders all telling you that they had caught it. Ha! ha! ha! Well that is good," said the honest old fellow, laughing heartily. "Yes, they are the sort to give it me, to put up in my parlour, if they had caught it, they are! Ha! ha! ha!" And then he told us the real story of the fish. i) Who is the speaker? To whom is he speaking? [2] ii) Who are Jim Bates and Joe Muggles and Mr Jones and old Billy Maunders? [4] iii) What "real story" did he tell? [3] iv) Was this "real story" really real? How can you say so? [3] v) What is the chief element of humour in the story? [2] v) Comment on the title of the story. [2] Extract 2 [14] "Ah!" said the old gentleman, following the direction of my gaze, "fine fellow that, ain't he?"

"Quite uncommon I murmured; and George asked the old man how much he thought it weighs." i) Who was the old gentleman? Who was George? What were they all doing in the parlour of the inn? [4] ii) What is described as a "fine fellow" and why? [2] iii) What did the old gentleman tell them about the fish and how it had been caught? [4] iv) Who came into the parlour after the old man left? What did that person have to say about the fish? [4]