John Kendrick Bangs published his book A House-Boat on the Styx in 1895. In it, Charon, the main character, learns that he has been selected to serve as the Styx, the river that circles the underworld, cleaner. The advent of a houseboat on the River Styx startles and irritates Charon at the start of the novel.The next eleven stories (for a total of twelve) are all set on the house boat. There is no central theme, and the reason the book has all the earmarks of being a scholarly psychological study. Each chapter is a brief story about a different soul from mythology and history. The Pursuit of the House-Boat, the sequel, begins when the house boat vanishes.There don't seem to be any original fictitious characters in A House-Boat on the Styx. All have been borrowed, in varying degrees, from mythology or history.Throughout the book, there is a running joke that claims Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, and others ghostwrote Shakespeare's plays instead of him.