Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”
- Date
- 1889
- Local voice
- Fictional narrator · J. (first-person narrator)
Meaning of “I like work: it fascinates me. I can…”
The sentence reverses the usual praise of work by making passive observation the narrator’s preferred relationship to labor, creating a durable joke about procrastination.
Where does it come from?
Three Men in a Boat, Chapter XV; the narrator defends himself while arguing about how the rowing work should be divided.
Why the local voice matters
Three Men in a Boat, Chapter XV; the narrator defends himself while arguing about how the rowing work should be divided.
