After reading ‘A House-Boat on the Styx’ from John Kendrick Bangs last week, I was eager to read its sequel ‘The Pursuit of theMy actual Rating: 3.5/5
After reading ‘A House-Boat on the Styx’ from John Kendrick Bangs last week, I was eager to read its sequel ‘The Pursuit of the House-Boat’ and found it a satisfying fantasy novel written with the sharp wit, which is a signature of Bang’s works. Even though the level of humor was a tad bit lower than of the first novel in the series featuring the ‘Associated Shades’ and their clubhouse houseboat on the Styx in Hades, ‘The Pursuit of House-Boat’ written in 1897 is a definite candidate for lightweight reading.
The book carry’s on the tradition of the Bangsian Fantasy and brings together an assortment of heavyweights from the history and mythology together to create a satire that showcase the power of vocal humor, for which Bangs was largely renowned for during his time. Bangs seems to be performing an experiment with his musings on the theory of afterlife with these fantasies. ‘A House-Boat on the Styx’ ends with an unattended clubhouse houseboat – all the men where at that point watching a fight between Goliath and Samson - getting hijacked by Captain Kidd – as a revenge for his denied membership to the clubhouse - and his crew of pirates. At the moment of hijacking unknown to Captain Kidd and his crew there was a contingent of about two hundred of the cream of the womenfolk from the Hades like Queen Elizabeth, Mrs. Noah, Cleopatra, Xanthippe and Helen who where taking advantage of the absence of the male club members to satisfy their curiosity about the clubhouse by nosing around onboard. The pirates not knowing the cargo they are carrying sails to Europe with the houseboat in search of plunder.
At the beginning of the sequel the reader is introduced to a scene where the members of the 'Associated Shades' are deeply in a meeting about the mystery and the action to be taken in recovering their clubhouse and their womenfolk. And in to this heated and often hilarious meeting enters none other than the legendary detective figure Sherlock Holmes, a recent entry to the Hades - in 1897 at the time of writing of this novel Holmes was declared dead by Conan Doyle after his battle with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls – who soon gains the confidence of the club members in leading an expedition in pursuit of the hijacked houseboat. What follows is a hilarious nautical adventure in which the club members led by Sherlock Holmes goes after the pirates. Holmes making deductions from absurd clues and the pirates finding it difficult to control a mob of strong female characters adds to the pandemonium and merriment of the narration. Like the other Bangsian fantasies from the author, some background information on the historical figures, which he uses as characters, will help in fully enjoying the hilarious remarks he makes of them.
Instead of being a collection of short stories like the prequel, this volume is centered on a main plot and narrates a single tale of satire with Sherlock Holmes and the womenfolk equally adorning the central stage. This will be one of the oldest of the Holmes pastiches and written at the same time Conan Doyle was still operating. Since this is written as a piece of satire, true Holmes fans should have no problem in enjoying this parody without any malice over the way in which the pastiche is created out of silly plots. According to an interview that Kendrick Bangs gave in 1899, Conan Doyle himself, who was a personal friend of Bangs, found these parodies featuring Holmes written by Bangs highly original and amusing.
The more works I read from Bangs the more intrigued I become on why he is completely forgotten as a master of satire during modern times. This is a amusing book meant for some lighthearted reading…...more
‘Raffles Holmes & Company’ is a unique book as it is a pastiche based on two different legendary characters created by two equally legendary writers. ‘Raffles Holmes & Company’ is a unique book as it is a pastiche based on two different legendary characters created by two equally legendary writers. In this collection of short stories with traces of humor and mystery written in 1906, John Kendrick Bangs introduces to the reader the enigmatic character of ‘Raffles Holmes’ – the son of the great Sherlock Holmes and the grandson of the gentleman thief A.J. Raffles – and his escapades.
In the story titled ‘The Adventure of the Dorrington Ruby Seal’ the reader gets to know how Sherlock Holmes – created by Arthur Conan Doyle - tracing a crime gets acquainted with Marjorie, the daughter of A.J. Raffles – created by Doyle’s brother in law E.W. Hornung - and falls heads over heels in love with her resulting in their matrimony. John Kendrick Bangs adapts character traits from both these ancestors resulting in Raffles Holmes being a gentleman and a magnetic figure with mastery in disguise, deduction, scheming and talented as a cat burglar and thief. Following the style of Sherlock Holmes and A.J. Raffles tales, these stories are chronicled by an artistic assistant named Jenkins who also acts as a companion to Raffles Holmes.
The battle of conscience between the A.J Raffles and the Holmes traits in Raffles Holmes are the main feature of these stories. Even though Raffles Holmes is a morally inclined character at times it can be seen that the traits of A.J. Raffles is a tad powerful than the Holmes traits. Instead of solving crimes through deductive abilities like Holmes, Raffles Holmes often uses his logical deduction and mastery over breaking and entering to create cases and then solve them for monetary benefits. The author intent seems to be on making these stories more tending towards being humorous and fanciful than making them taut mysteries like the original Holmes stories.
‘Raffles Holmes & Company’ is one of the earliest of the Holmes & Raffles pastiches and is a fine sampler for the multitudes of parodies written by John Kendrick Bangs. These preposterous tales of mystery are easy to read and amusing and will be worthy to take up for Holmes & Raffles fans.
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