To Say Nothing of the Dog

by Connie Willis
read September 2007
reviewed Oct 17 2007
*****

An homage to Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, a comedy of Victorian manners, a time travel romp, a mystery and a romance.

Lady Schrapnell, a wealthy eccentric obsessed with rebuilding Coventry Cathedral, under the guise of an enormous donation to the Oxford History Department of the mid 21st century, co-opts the department’s entire staff of time traveling historians to go back in time to research the details of the construction of the Cathedral and its furnishings. On one such jaunt to the Victorian era an historian rescues from drowning Princess Arjumand, a little black and white cat, who plays a key role in a Temporal Crisis that our hero, a much put-upon and dreadfully time-lagged historian, must sort out.

There are several mysteries and several romances and a great many plot twists. And we actually meet Jerome K. Jerome boating down the Thames…

Utterly charming.

science fiction fantasy light comedy comedy of manners