Ship of Fools

novel by Porter

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Article History

Ship of Fools, novel by Katherine Anne Porter, published in 1962. Porter used as a framework Das Narrenschiff (1494; The Ship of Fools), by Sebastian Brant, a satire in which the world is likened to a ship whose passengers, fools and deranged people all, are sailing toward eternity.

Porter’s novel is set in 1931 aboard a German passenger ship returning to Bremerhaven, Germany, from Veracruz, Mexico. The ship carries a microcosm of peoples whose behaviours are driven by jealousy, cruelty, and duplicity.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by J.E. Luebering.