John Kendrick Bangs

A House-Boat on the Styx John Kendrick Bangs

Complete digitally restored reprint (facsimile handmade reproduction) of the original edition of 1895 with excellent resolution and outstanding readability. Illustrated with 8 pictures. A House-Boat on the Styx is a book written by John Kendrick Bangs and published in 1895. The premise of the book is that everyone who has ever died (up to the time in which the book is set, which seems to be about the time of its publication) has gone to Styx, the river that circles the underworld. The book begins with Charon, ferryman of the Styx being startled-and annoyed-by the arrival of a houseboat on the Styx. At first afraid that the boat will put him out of business, he later finds out that he is actually to be appointed the boat's janitor. What follows are eleven more stories (for a total of twelve) which are set on the house boat. There is no central theme, and the purpose of the book appears to be as a literary thought experiment to see what would happen if various famous dead people were put in the same room with each other. Each chapter is a short story featuring various souls from history and mythology. In the twelfth chapter the house boat disappears, leading into the sequel, Pursuit of the House-Boat. The book was among the best selling books in the United States in 1896. Chapter: (1) Charon makes a discovery, (2) A disputed Authorship, (3) Washington gives a dinner, (4) Hamlet makes a suggestion, (5) The House committee discuss the Poets, (6) Some theories, Darwinian and otherwise, (7) A discussion as to Ladies' Day, (8) A discontented shade, (9) As to cookery and sculpture, (10) Story-Tellers' Night, (11) As to Saurians and other, (12) The House-Boat disappears