Following his infallible nose for unlikely situations, Jerome K. Jerome sets himself a Herculean task, as main character in his own novel to fictionally compose another novel, in collaboration with a trio of his pipe-party bachelor friends Jephson, Brown, and MacShaughnassy. pJerome, in what he presents as a semi-autobiographical account, turns the sordid business of novel-writing into a delightful parade of human foibles, providing an unending showcase of wit along the way. In the tradition of his iThree Men in a Boati, this might well have been entitled iFour Men in a Picklei.