Associated Shades Quartet by John Kendrick Bangs

Title: Associated Shades Quartet:

-A House-Boat on the Styx (1895) - 70 pages

-The Pursuit of the House-Boat (1897) - 80 pages

-The Enchanted Type-Writer (1899) - 69 pages

-Mr. Munchausen: Being a True Account of Some of the Recent Adventures Beyond the Styx of the Late Hieronymous Carl Friedrich, Sometimes Baron Munchausen of Bodenwerder (1901) -  76 pages

Author: John Kendrick Bangs 

(American, 1862-1922)

Page count: 295 total

Dates read: 2/1/23-2/7/23; 2/9/23-2/19/23; 3/1/22-3/6/22

2023 book goal progress: 4 out of 23

From my TBR shelf

Read my other book reviews for my 2023 goals HERE.

Description on back of book:
This volume contains the four humorous and witty novels by John Kendrick Bangs about "The Associated Shades" a group of famous dead people who become a sort of corporation or exclusive club. Members include Confucius, Socrates, William Shakespeare, Napolean Bonaparte, Dr. Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Charles Darwin, George Washington, and Walter Raleigh.

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 7.3/10 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Characters      - 9
Atmosphere   - 9
Writing Style - 8
Plot                - 5
Intrigue          - 6
Logic             - 6
Enjoyment     - 8
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Note: The above rating is for the first 2 novellas and doesn't include the last 2.

A HOUSE-BOAT ON THE STYX

First sentence:
"Charon, the Ferryman of renown, was cruising slowly along the Styx one pleasant Friday morning not long ago, and as he paddled idly on he chuckled mildly to himself as he thought of the monopoly in the ferriage which in the course of years he had managed to build up."

Favorite quotes:

" 'Hamlet was a good play, just the same,' said Cicero.

'Very,' put in Doctor Johnson. 'It cured me of insomnia.'

'Well, if you don't talk in your sleep, the play did a Christian service to the word,' retorted Shakespeare."

" 'I the germ of an idea have got!'

'Well, go quarantine yourself,' said Doctor Johnson. 'I'd hate to have one of your idea microbes get hold of me.' "

"That isn't the point, as the man said to the assassin who tried to stab him with the hilt of his dagger."

" 'A magnificent old maid was lost to the word when you married,' said Queen Elizabeth. 'Feeling as you do, my dear Xanthippe, I don't see why you ever took a husband.'

'Humph!' retorted Xanthippe. 'Of course, you don't. You didn't need a husband. You were born with something to govern. I wasn't.'

'How about your temper?' suggested Ophelia, meekly."

Review:

It's a men-only club, which is a bit annoying. A lot of the book is about the actual authorship of Shaekspeare's plays, which is quite comical. At the very end, when the men all leave the houseboat to see a prize fight between Samson and Goliath, a bunch of women take over the boat. It is very humorous and I enjoyed the addition of women in the end. 

THE PURSUIT OF THE HOUSE-BOAT
First sentence:
"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 ruffian inhabitants of Hades."

Favorite quotes:
" 'Up to a certain point, notoriety is like a woman, and a man is apt to love it,' said Xanthippe. 'When it becomes exacting, demanding instead of permitting itself to be courted, it loses its charm.'

'That is Socratic in its wisdom,' smiled Portia.

'But Xanthippe in its origin,' returned Xanthippe. 'No man ever gave me my ideas.' "

"The study of women is more difficult than that of astronomy; there may be two stars alike, but all women are unique. Women have views now - they are no longer content to be looked at merely; they must see for themselves; and the more they see, the more they wish to domesticate man and emancipate woman."

" 'I think if Columbus would go up into the mizzentop and look about him, he might discover something either in confirmation or refutation of the theory,' said Sherlock Holmes.

'He couldn't discover anything,' put in Pinzon. 'He never did.'

"The ladies become eligible for membership, and, availing themselves of the privilege, began to think less and less of the advantages of being men and to rejoice that, after all, they were women."

Review:

This was humorous, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one. Sherlock Holmes is an annoying character. My favorite parts were with the women, which include Queen Elizabeth, Cleopatra, Xanthippe, Delilah, Mrs. Noah, Ophelia, Calpurnia, Portia, Madame Recamier, and Lucretia Borgia.

THE ENCHANTED TYPE-WRITER
First sentence:
"It is a strange fact, for which I do not expect ever satisfactorily to account, and which will receive little credence even though those who know that I am not given to romancing - it is a strange fact, I say, that the substance of the following pages has evolved itself during a period of six months, more or less, between the hours of midnight and four o'clock in the morning, proceeding directly from a type-writing machine standing in the corner of my library, manipulated by unseen hands."

Favorite quotes:
"A man does not like to hear a click which he cannot comprehend. To hear a mysterious click, and from a dark corner, at an hour when the world is at rest, is not pleasing."

"I had a story of Alexander Dumas about his Musketeers that he wanted translated from French into American, which is the language we speak below, in preference to German, French, Volapuk, or English."

" 'I've got a very gloomy prospect ahead of me.'

'Well, why not? Where do you expect to have your gloomy prospects? They can't very well be behind you.' "

"At this point, she returned to my office, and I of course reported progress. That is one of the most valuable things I learned while on earth - when you have done nothing, report progress."

Review:

This was dialogue and stories told from one shade (usually Boswell, though sometime Xanthippe or others) to the living narrator. Due to this, you missed out on the humorous banter back and forth between shades. It was very political. It couldn't tell if it was sexist or feminist. It was meh overall.

MR. MUNCHAUSEN
First sentence:
"There are moments of supreme embarrassment in the lives of persons given to velocity, indeed it has been my own unusual experience in life that the truth well stuck to is twice as hard a proposition as a lie so obvious that no one is deceived by it at the outset."

Review:

I really liked the first two stories because they were about famous fictional and historical figures meeting each other and having witty conversations. This one was just an interview between a reporter and Munchausen, both shades. So you don't have the great dialogue and you're just left with the over-the-top stories of Munchausen, which are just too outlandish to even really appreciate. All that to say that I didn't finish this novella. The previous one was a disappointment and this one just didn't hold my interest.

I recommend reading the first 2 novellas, but don't bother with the last 2.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let John Kendrick Bangs have the last words. The below is a longer bit from the beginning of the first novella.

" 'Hullo, William,' said Doctor Johnson. ' How's our little Swanlet of Avon this afternoon?'

'Worn out,' Shakespeare replied. 'I've been hard at work on a play this morning, and I'm tired.'

'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,' said Nero, grinning broadly.

'You are a bright spirit,' said Shakespeare, with a sigh. 'I wish I had thought to work you up into a tragedy.'

'I’ve often wondered why you didn’t,' said Doctor Johnson. 'He’d have made a superb tragedy, Nero would. I don’t believe there was any kind of a crime he left uncommitted. Was there, Emperor?'

'Yes. I never wrote an English dictionary,' returned the Emperor, dryly. 'I’ve murdered everything but English, though.'

'I could have made a fine tragedy out of you,' said Shakespeare. 'Just think what a dreadful climax for a tragedy it would be, Johnson, to have Nero, as the curtain fell, playing a violin solo.'

'That’s all right,' said Nero, with a significant shake of his head. 'As my friend Bacon makes Ingo say, "Beware, my lord, of jealousy." You never could play a garden hose, much less a fiddle.'

'What do you mean by attributing those words to Bacon?' demanded Shakespeare, getting red in the face.

'Oh, come now, William,' remonstrated Nero. 'It’s all right to pull the wool over the eyes of the mortals. That’s what they’re there for, but as for us—we’re all in the secret here. What’s the use of putting on nonsense with us?'

'We’ll see in a minute what the use is,' retorted the Avonian. 'We’ll have Bacon down here. I’m getting tired of this idiotic talk about not having written my own works. There’s one thing about Nero’s music that I’ve never said, because I haven’t wanted to hurt his feelings, but since he has chosen to cast aspersions upon my honesty I haven’t any hesitation in saying it now. I believe it was one of his fiddlings that sent Nature into convulsions and caused the destruction of Pompeii—so there! Put that on your music rack and fiddle it, my little Emperor.'

Nero’s face grew purple with anger. 'You can’t kill me,' said Shakespeare, shrugging his shoulders. 'I know seven dozen actors in the United States who are trying to do it, but they can’t. I wish they’d try to kill a critic once in a while instead of me, though,' he added."