Definition of "Argosy"

Roger chuckled. "I hope you don't think I'm a mere highbrow," he said. "As a customer said to me once, without meaning to be funny, `I like both the Iliad and the Argosy.' The only thing I can't stand is literature that is unfairly and intentionally flavoured with vanilla. Confectionery soon disgusts the palate, whether you find it in Marcus Aurelius or Doctor Crane.

1919, Christopher Morley, chapter 6, in The Haunted Bookshop‎, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers