Books with title A house-boat on the Styx

The book begins with Charon, ferryman of the Styx startled--and annoyed--by the arrival of a house boat on his mystical river. At first afraid that the boat will put him out of business, he later finds out that he is to be appointed the boat's janitor. What follows are eleven stories set on the house boat. There is no central theme; each chapter features various souls from history and mythology, and in the twelfth chapter the house boat disappears, seguing into the sequel, Pursuit of the House-Boat.

Complete digitally restored reprint (facsimile handmade reproduction) of the original edition of 1895 with excellent resolution and outstanding readability. Illustrated with 8 pictures. Converted to eBook by Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. This automated conversion process results in limited functionality of eBooks. We don´t guarantee for optimal reading and presentation quality. The converted file is designed for the same printed book. Therefore, we would like to point out that the typeface on most readers can´t be adjusted, in particular, the font size can´t be changed. However, we want you not withhold this eBook. We recommend the print edition. Thank you for your understanding. 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

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...been intentionally concealed behind some low cedars that grew along the shore. Instantly the yacht started toward the place, but the sight of four or five men on the deck of the house-boat threatened to complicate matters, and present a new and unwelcome aspect to the problem. CHAPTER XVII. THE NARRATIVE. "WHAT ye doin' with our house-boat? called Jed, excitedly, as the yacht drew near the place they were seeking. "Your house-boat?" responded one of the men, glumly. "How do we know it's your's any more than it's ours? Just prove your right to it, will you? " "It's just as I told you," remarked Jed in a lower tone to the boys. " Ye see they don't mean to give it up at all." A brief conference, however, convinced the men that the party was indeed the one to whom the house-boat rightfully belonged; and despite the words of the boatman, it was at once evident that they were not planning to make any claim to ownership. They told how they had seen the strange craft swept toward them while they were fishing near the shore, and its peculiar antics, as well as the apparent absence of any one on board, had induced them to make investigations of their own. When they had discovered that to all appearances it had been abandoned by its owners, and was being borne onward to certain destruc-tion, they had not hesitated to take it in charge, and had towed it into the sheltered place where it had been discovered by its rightful owners. They now were very willing to turn it over, and in response to Jock's invitation, decided to remain on board and share the evening meal with the party. A bill which Jock slipped into the hands of the one who appeared to be the...

Charon, the Ferryman of renown, was cruising slowly along the Styx one pleasant Friday morning not long ago, and as he paddled idly on he chuckled mildly to himself as he thought of the monopoly in ferriage which in the course of years he had managed to build up. “It’s a great thing,” he said, with a smirk of satisfaction—“it’s a great thing to be the go-between between two states of being; to have the exclusive franchise to export and import shades from one state to the other, and withal to have had as clean a record as mine has been. Valuable as is my franchise, I never corrupted a public official in my life, and—” Here Charon stopped his soliloquy and his boat simultaneously. As he rounded one of the many turns in the river a singular object met his gaze, and one, too, that filled him with misgiving. It was another craft, and that was a thing not to be tolerated.

The souls of the dead must cross the Styx, to pass into a Hades-like afterworld. In the first of the twelve stories compiled in A House-Boat on the Styx, the man who ferries the souls across sees a houseboat floating downriver and fears for his livelihood. He is appointed janitor on the boat, where the remaining stories take place between characters from history and mythology.