6.8 /10 1 Votes
3/5 ManyBooks Country United States Media type Print (hardcover) OCLC 859421539 Publisher Harper | 3.7/5 Goodreads Illustrator Peter Newell Publication date 1895 Pages 171 pp Originally published 1895 Series Associated Shades | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Followed by The Pursuit of the House-Boat Genres Fiction, Fantasy, Short story, Speculative fiction Similar John Kendrick Bangs books, Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A House-Boat on the Styx is a fantasy novel written by John Kendrick Bangs in 1895.
Contents
- A house boat on the styx by john kendrick bangs 1862 1922 by fantastic fiction audiobooks
- Plot summary
- References
The original full title was A House-Boat on the Styx: Being Some Account of the Divers Doings of the Associated Shades. The novel was first published by Harper Brothers in 1896 with illustrations by Peter Newell (24 plates).
A house boat on the styx by john kendrick bangs 1862 1922 by fantastic fiction audiobooks
Plot summary
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.