House Boat on the Styx

After reading Mrs. Raffles a few day back, I was so fascinated by the works of John Kendrick Bangs that I took up some of his other books for reading, and the experience was really rewarding. Despite being one of the most prolific and popular humorists in the late 1800s John Kendrick Bangs is a larg......more

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature. John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922) was an American humorist who edited some popular American magazines such as Harper’s Weekly and Puck. His satirical novella A House-Boat on the Styx is responsible for the term Bangsian Fantasy, which refers to stories about fam......more

A witty, entertaining, and wryly humorous book. A quick read, great for a weekend or roadtrip, and not hard or slow to get through at all. I also listened to it via free audiobook on Librivox, and it was definitely a book well-suited to audio adaptation, as almost all of it is dramatic dialogue betw......more

Moderately humourous and satirical tales about a private gentlemens club. Said club just happening to be in Hades and the various members being famous dead people from history. Regular appearances by Raleigh, Dr.Johnson, Shakespeare, Diogenes, Napolean, Barnum, Homer, Confucius, Burns etc. Baron Munch......more

Because I've finished term for Easter and because I am hungover, I allowed myself a treat, and this was it. I love this book. It created a genre - Bangsian fiction - which is a story set almost or entirely in the afterlife. Its short and hilarious and avaialable on Gutenberg, what more can one ask f......more