Paul Kelver is a 1902 autobiographical novel by Jerome K. Jerome (best known for Three Men in a Boat). From the novel, a passage which seems to refer to Jerome's coming of age: "Returning home on this particular day of days, I paused upon the bridge, and watched for a while the lazy barges maneuvering their way between the piers. It was one of those hushed summer evenings when the air even of grim cities is full of whispering voices; and as, turning away from the river, I passed through the white toll-gate, I had a sense of leaving myself behind me on the bridge. So vivid was the impression, that I looked back, half expecting to see myself still leaning over the iron parapet, looking down into the sunlit water." ( Wikipedia)
Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May 1859 – 14 June 1927) was an English writer and humorist, best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889). Other works include the essay collections Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) and Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; Three Men on the Bummel, a sequel to Three Men in a Boat, and several other novels. (Wikipedia)