This essay deals with the novel Three Men in a Boat, written by Jerome K. Jerome. It discusses the conflict between the modern age and history, and the modern world/civilisation and nature within the narrator J. The romantic dreamer J. Is constantly reminded of reality and how his daydreams about idealized history and nature are nothing but mere dreams. The character J. wants to return to nature and go back through the years, back to the ancient days of medieval times, but he cannot. I have used a deconstructive method, as explained in Lois Tyson’s Critical Theory Today in order to “reveal the complex operations of the ideologies of which the text is constructed” (252). I will do this by discussing some contrasting items in the novel. I will first look at the differences between the author and the narrator of the novel. I will then discuss how J., the main protagonist and narrator, sees idealized nature and real nature. In the next section, I will go on to how J. sees the relation between civilization and nature, both idealized and real. In the following section, I will look at how J. sees past and present. Next, I will investigate how J. sees night and day, and how it effects his ideas about civilization. Finally, I will look at J.’s problem of staying in his daydreams before summing up the essay.