December 27, 2006

A Houseboat on the Styx

Doesn't this book have an amazing cover?

52a.jpg

Plus:

The title is not metaphorical; the story is actually about a houseboat on the River Styx, a houseboat populated by all the great thinkers from Diogenes to Confucius to Doctor Johnson...

We wants it.

UPDATE: As Tim points out in the comments, the book can be read for free as "etext" from Project Gutenberg. First chapter: Charon Makes a Discovery...

Posted by Dr. Frank at December 27, 2006 07:01 AM | TrackBack
Comments

You can read it for free at Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2618

Posted by: Tim at December 27, 2006 08:24 AM

Very cool.

Here is a larger image of the cover:

http://www.library.rochester.edu/IN/RBSCP/Publishers%20Bindings/IMAGES/LargeBindings/00-3273.jpg

From this page:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:ABOChgpdLJoJ:www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm%3Fpage%3D3348+houseboat+on+the+styx+illustrations&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=10&client=firefox-a

The illustrator of the cover was probably one Peter Newell, who did the interior illustrations. Some of Newell's work here:

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/illustrators/newell.html

Book Illustrations in the era from about 1880 to about 1940 were so unbelievably good compared to what we have now.

Posted by: Lexington Green at December 27, 2006 08:42 PM

You can buy it for a little over 4 bucks plus shipping. Here's a link to one of over 500 such copies online:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetails?bi=514466294

Posted by: Don at December 28, 2006 03:33 AM