The Pursuit of the House-Boat is an 1897 novel by John Kendrick Bangs, and the second one to feature his Associated Shades take on the afterlife.
The original full title was The Pursuit of the House-Boat: Being
Some Further Account of the Divers Doings of the Associated Shades,
Under the Leadership of Sherlock Holmes, Esq. and it has also been titled In Pursuit of the House-Boat and Pursuit of the House-Boat.
There are 12 chapters in the book. They were first published as a
serial, under the full-title and including the Newell illustrations, in Harper’s Weekly from February 6 to April 24, 1897.
After the House-Boat was hijacked by Captain Kidd at the end of A House-Boat on the Styx, the various members of its club decided that in order to track it down, a detective would have to be called in. So they hired Sherlock Holmes, who, at the time of the book’s publication, had indeed been declared dead by his creator.
The premise of the book is that everyone who has ever died (up until the time in which the book is set, which seems to be about the time of its publication) has gone to Styx. This does not appear to be the conventional Hell described by Dante in The Inferno, but rather the Hades described in Greek myth (both of which had Styxes): a universal collecting pot for dead souls, regardless of their deeds in life.
(Excerpt:) CHAPTER I: THE ASSOCIATED SHADES TAKE ACTION
The
House-boat of the Associated Shades, formerly located upon the River
Styx, as the reader may possibly remember, had been torn from its
moorings and navigated out into unknown seas by that vengeful pirate
Captain Kidd, aided and abetted by some of the most ruffianly
inhabitants of Hades. Like a thief in the night had they come, and
for no better reason than that the Captain had been unanimously voted
a shade too shady to associate with self-respecting spirits had they
made off with the happy floating club-house of their betters; and
worst of all, with them, by force of circumstances over which they
had no control, had sailed also the fair Queen Elizabeth, the
spirited Xanthippe, and every other strong-minded and beautiful woman
of Erebean society, whereby the men thereof were rendered desolate.
‘I
can’t stand it!’ cried Raleigh, desperately, as with his
accustomed grace he presided over a special meeting of the club,
called on the bank of the inky Stygian stream, at the point where the
missing boat had been moored. ‘Think of it, gentlemen, Elizabeth
of England, Calpurnia of Rome, Ophelia of Denmark, and every precious
jewel in our social diadem gone, vanished completely; and with whom?
Kidd, of all men in the universe! Kidd, the pirate, the ruffian—’
‘Don’t
take on so, my dear Sir Walter, ‘ said Socrates, cheerfully.
‘What’s the use of going into hysterics? You are not a woman,
and should eschew that luxury. Xanthippe is with them, and I’ll
warrant you that when that cherished spouse of mine has recovered
from the effects of the sea, say the third day out, Kidd and his crew
will be walking the plank, and voluntarily at that.’
‘But
the House-boat itself, ‘ murmured Noah, sadly. ‘That was my
delight. It reminded me in some respects of the Ark.’
‘The
law of compensation enters in there, my dear Commodore, ‘
retorted Socrates. ‘For me, with Xanthippe abroad I do not need
a club to go to; I can stay at home and take my hemlock in peace and
straight. Xanthippe always compelled me to dilute it at the rate of
one quart of water to the finger.’…
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