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I was cleaning out my bookcase earlier and came across A House-Boat on the Styx, by John Kendrick Bangs, which was published in 1895. It's a very interesting book. The book starts off with Charon paddling down the river Styx, smugly thinking to himself about how he has a monopoly on boats there, when he suddenly spots the houseboat for the first time. At first he's upset, thinking that it's a competitor, but it turns out to be a clubhouse. The characters in the book are all famous figures from history, literature and mythology - Sir Walter Raleigh, Cassius, Shakespeare, Homer, Demosthenes, Moses and Confucius are just some of the people who appear. The conversations between them are my favorite part of the books. Some chapter titles are "Washington Gives a Dinner," "Hamlet Makes a Suggestion," and "A Disputed Authorship," which should give you an idea. The house boat soon becomes the most exclusive clique in the Underworld. In the sequel, Pursuit of the House-Boat, Captain Kidd is denied membership and decides to steal the boat for himself. He isn't the only one unhappy with the boat's exclusionary policies, since it doesn't allow women to join, either. Kidd happens to pick a day when several curious women, including Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth and Mrs. Noah, snuck onboard earlier. Some of the men are distraught at the loss of the women, others are visibly relieved. They enlist the help of a certain fictional detective in tracking the boat down, but the women are more than a match for their captors.

2022-11-14 17:07