Schlobin Selections #1: A House-Boat on the Styx: Being Some Account of the Divers Doings of the Associated Shades by John Kendrick Bangs

Over the next several weeks, we will be highlighting a select number of titles and authors from the James H. and Virginia Schlobin Literature of the Fantastic Collection. Established in 2004 by East Carolina University English Professor Roger C. Schlobin, the James H. and Virginia Schlobin Literature of the Fantastic Collection provides materials for scholarly research to researchers and students interested in Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. The collection consists of over 3,700 individual books, mostly primary literature in the form of novels, and collected short narratives with some additional secondary literature and scholarly criticism related to the various genres represented. The James H. and Virginia Schlobin Literature of the Fantastic Collection also has a related manuscripts collection which consists of nearly 5 cubic feet of materials which can be accessed here.

A House-Boat on the Styx: Being Some Account of the Divers Doings of the Associated Shades by John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922).

Title: A House-Boat on the Styx: Being Some Account of the Divers Doings of the Associated Shades
Author: John Kendrick Bangs
Publisher: Harper & Brothers
Publication Date: 1896
Illustrator: Peter Newell
Page Count: 171
Call Number: PS1064.B3 H6 1896

Written in 1895 by John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922), A House-Boat on the Styx: Being Some Account of the Divers Doings of the Associated Shades is the first title in Bangs’s Associated Shades series. Written as a literary experiment to show what would happen if some of history’s most infamous and well-known individuals were placed together upon their death, A House-Boat on the Styx is comprised of 12 short stories set aboard a houseboat, called the Nancy Nox, which is anchored close to the shore of Hades along the river Styx, a body of water from Greek mythology that forms the border between Eart and the Underworld. Aboard the vessel are members of the Associated Shades, a club organized in Hades for “mutual improvement and social benefit.” Amongst the club’s members, readers will recognize Old Adam, Noah, Goliath, Sampson, Nero, Napoleon, George Washington, Charles Darwin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Shakespeare, Robert Burns, Homer, Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh, and many more of history’s most famous intellectuals, leaders, and significant figures. Throughout the book, these individuals participate in lively, animated discussions regarding subjects in which they were interested or involved during their past lives. Some of the most humorous conversations in the book center around the true authorship of Shakespeare’s works and the selection of animals that Old Noah took on the ark with P.T. Barnum expressing to everyone that he could have done it better.

“The Melancholy Dane Appeard” is one of Peter Newell’s twenty-three illustrations that can be found in Bangs’s A House-Boat on the Styx.

Despite A House-Boat on the Styx containing no original characters, Bangs’s effort is still recognized by fans and scholars of the fantasy genre as an enjoyable and entertaining work. Publishers Weekly named A House-Boat on the Styx one of the 10 best-selling novels in the United States in 1896. Author Philip José Farmer stated that Banks’s work directly influenced his award-winning Riverworld series.  Accompanying Bangs’s writings are twenty-three full-page illustrations drawn by famed American artist and writer Peter Newell. 

Read previous entries from Schlobin Selections here.

Sources:

• Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Styx.” Encyclopedia Britannica, December 23, 2022.
• “Book Review: A House-Boat on the Styx. Being Some Account of Divers Doings of the Associated Shades.” Journal of Education 43, no. 3 (January 1896).