But since the end of the 19th century so many things have changed that it is difficult to grasp the same atmosphere nowadays as it was back then.Īs regards railways, I have myself enjoyed a lot the train journeys when in my childhood and youth. I guess that by the time JKJ wrote his little book things were as such as described hereinafter. I have some information based on what I read myself or what others have experienced, including members of my family, that travelled to Germany and had connections in a deeper sense with the Germans. I am sorry to say but I have not experience in meeting Germans (or, if I had had so far, I have totally forgotten about it.), just a very brief encounter at work, but this doesn’t count because it is very limited, and not engaging with regard to life, personal experiences, etc. The narrator – Jerome K Jerome himself – speaks a lot about Germany, German people, about their customs and behaviours, about German cities, all kinds of details regarding trains, beds, musical bands, restaurants, food stuff, etc. The whole trip to and back home was as a matter of fact an experience similar to a “passion play” but this time the characters are not Jesus and his disciples, and all the other historical figures, but two men friends, young and eager to enjoy an adventure in the spirit of cultural instruction.

It is lots of fun the way he talks about this train travelling experience to Germany, to assist to a Passion Play at a theater, in a village somewhere in Ober-Ammergau.

The Diary of a Pilgrimage gave me waves of laughter, uncontrolled and freely expressed. He seemed to have acted as an actor, a playwriter, a newspaper man, a teacher, public clerk. Well, it left me saddened that on the year of his death, retired from public life, he died almost in aloneness or loneliness… For a man who wrote so much about laughable works, this sounds very strange, paradoxical. I found it very airy, unsophisticated and unhappy. Before I started reading this little book, I read a bit of his biography, it was short enough, just 3 pages, and even with big spaces between the lines. He seems quite an agreeable Englishman, from this distance perspective. I have posted quotes almost from the entire book.

Writer jerome k jerome