| Montmorency | |
| |
| Jerome K. Jerome Character | |
| First Appearance: | Three Men in a Boat |
| Creator: | Jerome K. Jerome |
| Affiliations: | Jerome's traveling expedition |
| Turtledove Appearances: | |
| Three Men and...Stories Fantasy Pastiche | |
| Appearance(s): | "Three Men and a Vampire" |
| Type of Appearance: | Direct |
Montmorency is the narrator's fox terrier in the novel Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. He accompanies the three titular hypochondriacs in their jaunt down the Thames. While the Three Men are based on the author and his real life friends, the dog is fictional but was stated by Jerome to have "developed out of that area of inner consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an element of the dog."
Montmorency in Three Men and...Stories[]
After Jerome, George, and Harris agreed to help Professor Abraham van Helsing on his quest to destroy a vrkoslak, Jerome nonetheless volunteered to bring Montmorency, and van Helsing agreed, welcoming all the help he could get. When they arrived at Jerome's room, Montmorency was asleep in Jerome's favorite chair.[1]
The group went to Abney Park Cemetery.[2] Not long after they entered the cemetery, Montmorency slipped his leash with a snarl and ran off into the darkness. The group heard a terrifying screech and Montmorency returned to the group, licking his muzzle. Jerome assumed that Montmorency had killed a rat. However, under van Helsing's Döbereiner's lamp, the group found a dead man, naked, his throat torn out. Van Helsing explained that the man, whom he identified by the name Stivvings, had been in a rat form, a step on the path to vampirism, when Montmorency dispatched him. Van Helsing urged them on, congratulating Jerome for Montmorency's actions. Jerome was more disturbed.[3]
After running around the cemetery, the group finally came upon van Helsing's quarry, a particularly terrifying vampire. When it lunged at van Helsing, van Helsing shot it with a water pistol full of holy water. At van Helsing's urging the group tackled the vampire; the three men held the vampire, and even Montmorency grabbed its ankle. Van Helsing began to stab it with a stiletto until he finally pierced its heart and it vanished in a puff of ashes and dust.[4]
Montmorency was not part of the trio's encounter with a werewolf a year later, nor their American expedition some time after that.
References[]
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