The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt
"The Ship of Ishtar" is a fantasy novel by A. Merritt that explores themes of nostalgia, conflict, and the duality of existence through its protagonist, John Kenton. A wealthy World War I veteran, Kenton is dissatisfied with modern civilization and yearns for a lost, untainted world. The narrative unfolds in his New York City apartment and transitions into a mystical ancient Mesopotamian realm when Kenton discovers a magical toy ship embedded in a stone block from an archaeological dig he financed. This ship serves as a conduit allowing him to traverse time, engaging with various fantastical beings and witnessing the eternal struggle between the forces of love, represented by the goddess Ishtar, and the forces of death, embodied by the god Nergal.
Kenton’s adventures are marked by the presence of intriguing characters, including the whimsical giant Gigi and the philosophically reflective King of the Two Deaths, who adds depth to the narrative. The story utilizes the "locked room" convention, culminating in a dramatic and perplexing conclusion where Kenton dies in his apartment under mysterious circumstances. Overall, "The Ship of Ishtar" weaves a rich tapestry of escapism, blending adventure with profound philosophical questions about life and death, making it a notable work in the fantasy genre.
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The Ship of Ishtar
First published: 1926 (serial form, Argosy All-Story, November 8-December 13, 1924)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy—magical world
Time of work: The early twentieth century and 4000 b.c.e.
Locale: Modern New York City and ancient Mesopotamia
The Plot
The Ship of Ishtar was published by Putnam’s after first appearing in serial form in Argosy All-Story; a few years later, it had the distinction of being voted the most popular story ever published by the magazine in its first fifty years. A. Merritt was in midcareer and at the peak of his powers.
The novel opens as the protagonist, John Kenton, a young and wealthy but deeply embittered World War I veteran, muses on his dissatisfaction with Western civilization and his romantic nostalgia to find a lost civilization uncorrupted by the mundane and unheroic modern world. All the action takes place in one night in Kenton’s New York City apartment and the ancient Mesopotamian world of adventure that he finds when he is transported in time to the magical Ship of Ishtar. Merritt’s use of the “locked room” convention invented by Edgar Allan Poe in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) is one of the novel’s most entertaining features.
An amateur scholar, Kenton has financed an archaeological dig in Egypt and, as the story opens, receives in his apartment a large block of stone from that expedition. The stone itself seems to compel him to examine it, and he chisels away its surface, releasing the magical power entombed for thousands of years within the granite. The block suddenly crumbles, revealing a wonderfully crafted toy ship, which acts as a bridge between the present that Kenton despises and the ancient past for which he so fervently longs. This device allows Merritt to send Kenton back and forth repeatedly over thousands of years without benefit of a scientific or technological rationale for the story’s time travel.
In the episodes that occur in the past, Kenton has a variety of entertaining physical adventures involving a number of fantasy fiction’s more interesting alien beings. The magical world of the ship is divided into two spheres of power and influence, presided over by two mythological deities. Half of the ship is ivory and houses Ishtar, goddess of love, and her priestess, Sharane; the other half is ebony and houses Nergal, god of death, and his evil priest, Klanath. Their war for dominance can never be decided: They represent the equally powerful and eternally warring cosmic forces of love and hate (of light and darkness, of life and death), and neither can dominate the other. Kenton gets the opportunity to witness this endless universal struggle while engaging in a num-ber of exciting and entertaining adventures, but he can never tip the balance for or against either of the cosmic combatants.
Two other characters are worth mentioning. One is a bald “dwarf-legged giant,” Gigi, an exceedingly well-conceived comic Pan-figure. The other is the enigmatic King of the Two Deaths, a jovially cynical drunk who dispenses death while reciting poetry and his own brand of nihilistic philosophy. His chapter is by far the most intriguing part of the novel and can be read as a self-contained story. It is one of the best short pieces of magical world fantasy writing.
Between these episodes, Kenton repeatedly and unexpectedly returns to his apartment in the present, where he dies from wounds sustained in combat in the ancient past. He dies in a brutal fashion inside his own room, which is locked and sealed from within. The conclusion, in which his servants and the authorities are left in a bewilderment that the reader does not share, is very effective.