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Transcriber’s Notes
The Asbestos Society of Sinners
CHAPTER I. The Summons from Satan.
CHAPTER II. Shady Sinners of the Styx.
CHAPTER III. John Brown’s Body and the Bones of John Paul Jones.
CHAPTER IV. Henry VIII. and His Harem in Hades.
CHAPTER V. What Methuselah Thinks of Dr. Osler.
CHAPTER VI. The Virgin Throned in the West: A Tabloid Tangle of Love and History.
CHAPTER VII. “Boss” Tweed on Tainted Money, with Some Nonsense Definitions of Fads and Finance.
CHAPTER VIII. How the Creation Centered about a Petticoat: A Revised Version of the First Chapter of Darwin and the Ascent of Man.
A mischievous reporter decides to treat the underworld like any other newsroom, filing dispatches from the banks of the Styx and the smoky lounges of Pluto. With a wink to classic satire, he invites readers to watch historical figures—kings, saints, and scientists—re‑imagined as residents of a bureaucratic Hell. The opening chapters set the stage for a playful pilgrimage, where absurdity and erudition collide in a carnival of after‑life anecdotes.
The narrative rolls through a series of witty “chapters,” each a tongue‑in‑cheek vignette that pairs famous personalities with outlandish underworld duties, from a Mormon’s marital misadventures to a petticoat‑centric retelling of evolution. The prose is peppered with faux‑academic footnotes, mock‑serious commentary, and clever wordplay that keeps the listener both amused and intrigued. Expect a lively, irreverent tour that treats Hades as a bustling newsroom, offering a fresh, humorous perspective on history and myth alike.
Full title
The Asbestos Society of Sinners detailing the diversions of Dives and others on the playground of Pluto, with some broken threads of drop-stitch history, picked up by a newspaper man in Hades and woven into a Stygian nights' entertainment detailing the diversions of Dives and others on the playground of Pluto, with some broken threads of drop-stitch history, picked up by a newspaper man in Hades and woven into a Stygian nights' entertainment
Language
en
Duration
~3 hours (172K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
United States: Mayhew Publishing Company, 1906.
Credits
Charlene Taylor, Les Galloway and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Release date
2022-01-17
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Best known today for the strange, vividly titled The Asbestos Society of Sinners, this little-known early 20th-century writer left behind work that still catches the eye of curious readers. His surviving public profile is sparse, which only adds to the mystery around his books.
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