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| Author | Katherine Anne Porter |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Little, Brown |
Publication date | 1962 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Ship of Fools is a 1962 novel byKatherine Anne Porter, telling the tale of a group of disparate characters sailing fromMexico to Europe aboard a German passenger ship. The large cast of characters includes Germans, Mexicans, Americans, Spaniards, a group of Cuban medical students, a Swiss family, and a Swede. Insteerage is a large group of Spanish workers being returned to Spain from Cuba. It is anallegory tracing the rise ofNazism and looks metaphorically at the progress of the world on its "voyage to eternity".
Porter had been widely praised for hershort stories, mostly written between 1922 and 1940. She began work on the novel in 1940, intending it initially to be a novella (or "short novel", as Porter would put it, as she famously wrote about how she detested the word "novella"[1]). The story was based on a journal she kept in 1931 during a sea voyage fromVeracruz, Mexico, on her way to study inBremerhaven, Germany, on the German Passenger ShipSS Calabria (1922) (at the time named SS Werra), aGuggenheim Fellowship, and the characters in the novel were based on real people she met during the trip. The title was taken fromDas Narrenschiff ("The Fool-Ship"), a 15th-century German poem bySebastian Brant.[2]
For many years, the initial publisherHarcourt Brace would announce the forthcoming novel, but she remained unable to complete it for 22 years. As a result, it became eagerly expected by the literary world. In response to critics who complained about the long wait, Porter said, "Look here, this is my life and my work and you keep out of it. When I have a book I will be glad to have it published."[2]
Ship of Fools first appeared in the Autumn 1959 edition ofTexas Quarterly journal (54 pgs).
Ship of Fools outsold every other American novel published in 1962. It was aBook of the Month Club selection and immediately, thefilm rights were sold for $500,000 ($5,197,470 adjusted for inflation).[2][3]
Critical reception was mixed. WhileMark Schorer ofThe New York Times andGlenway Wescott inThe Atlantic Monthly were effusive in their praise,Stanley Kauffmann ofThe New Republic andGranville Hicks in theSaturday Review were disappointed. Porter herself was never satisfied with the novel, calling it "unwieldy" and "enormous".[2]
The criticElizabeth Hardwick had this to say aboutShip of Fools: "All is too static and the implied parable is never quite achieved. There is something a little musty, like old yellowing notes. The flawless execution of the single scenes impresses and yet the novel remains too snug and shipshape for the waters of history."[4]
The theme of the novel is the passengers' unavailing withdrawal from a life of disappointment, seeking a kind of utopia, and, "without knowing what to do next", setting out for a long voyage to pre–World War II Europe, a world of prejudice, racism and evil. Mrs. Treadwell, a nostalgic American divorcee, hopes to find happiness in Paris, where she once spent her youth. Elsa Lutz, the plain daughter of a Swiss hotelkeeper, thinks heaven might be in theIsle of Wight. Jenny, an artist, says the most dangerous and happiest moment in her life was when she was swimming alone in the Gulf of Mexico, confronted with a school of dolphins. And at the end of the novel, one of the ship's musicians, a gangly starving boy, feels overjoyed to finally be off the ship and back in his home country, as if Germany were a "human being, a good and dear trusted friend who had come a long way to welcome him". Thus Porter manages to convey that salvation is reality, and evil can be overcome.
The1965 film was adapted byAbby Mann from the novel and was directed byStanley Kramer. It wonAcademy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Robert Clatworthy, Joseph Kish) and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White. Porter's first reaction to the film adaptation was that Mann had omitted too much from the book, distorting its message.[2] It was also noteworthy for being the last film to feature the actressVivien Leigh.
