Silverlock (1949)

Silverlock is a novel by John Myers Myers published in 1949. The novel's settings and characters, aside from the protagonist, are all drawn from history, mythology, and other works of literature.

In 1981, The Moon's Fire-Eating Daughter was published. Thematically related to Silverlock, it was billed as a "sequel to Silverlock" on the cover.

Plot summary

While on a sea voyage, a ship named Naglfar founders. One anhedonic passenger, A. Clarence Shandon (M.B.A., Wisconsin), is washed ashore in a fictional land known as "The Commonwealth of Letters". He is befriended by Golias, who nicknames him "Silverlock" and who becomes his guide. Silverlock and Golias encounter figures from history, literature and mythology.

Characters

This is a partial listing of the characters, settings, and events that are drawn from history, and from works of literature and mythology. Some of the characters go by names other than those given below, thus the reader is expected to identify them from their contexts.

Golias. His name is that of a mythical patron saint of wandering bards. He is also identified as Orpheus, Taliesin, Amergin, Virgil, and other wandering poets.

Lucius Gil Jones, a composite of Lucius in The Golden Ass by Apuleius, Gil Blas in Gil Blas by Alain-René Lesage, and Tom Jones in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Robin Hood, legendary figure

Job, character from the Bible

Faust, from Goethe's play

Pathfinder from James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans

Don Quixote and his squire, Sancho Panza

Daniel Boone, American explorer

Puck, character from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Beowulf, mythical hero

Manon Lescaut, from the novel L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut and the opera Manon Lescaut

Becky Sharp (Becky Crawley) from Thackeray's Vanity Fair

Emma Watson, from the novel fragment The Watsons, by Jane Austen

Izaak Walton, English novelist, as "Piscator"

The Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse from Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice in Wonderland

The Green Knight from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Ship of fools, a medieval European cultural phenomenon

Hamlet, from Shakespeare's play of the same name

Oedipus, the mythological Greek hero

Brian Boru, High King of Ireland

Aeacus, Minos, and Rhadamanthus were the judges of the dead in Hades in Greek mythology.

Literary significance and criticism

John Myers Myers is remembered [largely] for SILVERLOCK, a recursive fantasy that centres on a picaresque voyage by a shipwrecked protagonist through the 'Commonwealth' (of literature), where he encounters numerous characters and situations from world literature and mythology – the Ass of Apuleius, Beowulf, the Green Knight, Robin Hood, Dante's Hell, Friar John from RABELAIS, and many more. The novel is light and pleasant, rather in the manner of Christopher Morley...

— Grant

Gulliverian fantasy in which a castaway is washed up on the shore of the Commonwealth, where all the great characters of literature are to be found; the hapless hero wanders around, repeatedly getting himself into difficulties and finding famous rescuers, eventually cultivating a kind of heroism. An amusing exercise in literary game playing...

— Barron

Journeys of self-discovery appear in every genre, teaching us about the main character as well as ourselves. The journey takes many forms: Gilgamesh searching for immortality; Dante's trips to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory; and Wyatt and Billy's road trip in Easy Rider, among many others. These voyages speak to human beings' desire to answer fundamental questions about their place in the world. John Myers Myers takes a novel approach to this genre in Silverlock. His main character learns about himself by participating in the lives of other literary figures.

— Eller

Release details

1949, US, E. P. Dutton, 1949, hardback (first edition)

1966, US, Ace Books, mass market paperback

1979, US, Ace Books, ISBN 0-441-76671-4, second printing

1982, US, Ace Books, ISBN 0-441-76673-0,

1992, US, Buccaneer Books, ISBN 0-89968-409-2, hardback

1996, US, Ace Books, ISBN 0-441-76674-9, paperback

2004, US, NESFA Press, ISBN 1-886778-52-3 hardback, with "Silverlock Companion"

2005, US, Ace Books, ISBN 0-441-01247-7, trade paperback

A Silverlock Companion: the life and works of John Myers Myers, edited by Fred Lerner, is a 52-page pamphlet published 1988 OCLC 22760287 and reprinted as a book 1989 OCLC 19352130.