A HOUSE-BOAT ON THE STYX

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1896. Very good in good plus jacket.. First edition - in the rare original dust jacket - of Bangs's comic fantasy on the afterlife of literary characters and their makers. These twelve collected episodes introduce Bangs's dead poets society, a floating fraternity of the dead encompassing historical and the fictional alike, from Shakespeare to Hamlet and Baron Munchausen to Beau Brummel. A HOUSEBOAT was followed by three more books in the same metaphysical universe, notably including THE PURSUIT OF THE HOUSEBOAT, which brought in new club member Sherlock Holmes. An attractive copy in the seldom-seen original jacket. 6.5'' x 4.25''. Original gilt-stamped green pictorial cloth. In original cream dust jacket. Illustrated with 24 black and white plates (including frontispiece) by Peter Newell. 171, [5] pages. Slight spine lean. Light spotting to rear board, sunning to spine. Light chipping and several closed tears to jacket spine. Tape reinforcements to jacket verso flaps, light dampstaining to rear jacket panel.