Ship of Fools

1962

Central PS3531 O752 S5

Boston: Little, Brown

In her author’s note, Katherine Anne Porter mentions the medieval source for her title: Sebastian Brant’s Das Narrenschiff, a satirical poem, especially critical of corruption in the Church. She was taken with ‘this simple almost universal image of the ship of this world on its voyage to eternity.’ She assembles a party of disparate characters, who sail from Mexico to Europe on the Vera, a German passenger-ship. In this microcosm of life, Porter treats contemporary political events and human weaknesses and vices.