Jerome K. Jerome's "Passing of the Third Floor Back" is a classic work read by book lovers, students and scholars.

Mr. Jerome, as you probably remember, once forgot he was a humorist and, giving way to an "idle fancy," wrote a serious allegorical drama which was presented in London as "The Passing of the Third Floor Back". In it he reduced the world to a shabby-genteel boarding house in Bloomsbury Place, and under its roof he assembled a dozen lodgers, each representing in his way a typical segment of humanity. Under various human names they stood for arrogance, greed, hypocrisy, cowardice, timidity, vanity, helplessness, selfishness, &c. They bickered, persecuted, lied, deceived, loved and cheated one another.

And then a Stranger came to the door—a sad-eyed, gentle, kindly man—and asked for lodgings. There was one vacant room, on the third floor back, and, accepting it, the Stranger sought indirectly to create a new spirit among his fellow lodgers …

Look inside

(Instructions: Click on the right edge - next page, click on the left edge  - previous page, click on the title top left  - table of contents, click on the aA top right  - change text size, click on the title of the chapter down left - slider that moves you throught the titles of the chapters, make the browser window smaller - see the full Cover.)