View source for Silverlock

{{Short description|1949 novel by John Myers Myers}}
{{about| the novel by John Myers Myers|other uses|Silverlock (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = Silverlock
| image         = JohnMyersMyers Silverlock.jpg
| caption = First edition cover
| author        = [[John Myers Myers]]
| cover_artist  = 
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        = 
| genre         = [[Fantasy novel]]
| publisher     = [[E. P. Dutton]]
| release_date  = 1949
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]])
| pages         = 349
| isbn          = <!-- published before ISBNs -->
}}

'''''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 [[anhedonia|anhedonic]] passenger, A. Clarence Shandon ([[M.B.A.]], [[University of Wisconsin–Madison|Wisconsin]]), is washed ashore in a fictional land known as "The Commonwealth of [[Literature|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 [[Goliards#Etymology|that of a mythical patron saint of wandering bards]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/golias1.html |title= The Archpoet: The Confession Of Golias |accessdate=2008-08-10 |work=Medieval Sourcebook |publisher=Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies |date=December 2006 }}</ref> He is also identified as [[Orpheus]], [[Taliesin]], [[Amergin Glúingel|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 (Bible)|Job]], character from the Bible
*[[Faust]], from [[Goethe's Faust|Goethe's play]]
*[[Natty Bumppo|Pathfinder]] from [[James Fenimore Cooper]]'s 1826 novel ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]''
*[[Alonso Quijano|Don Quixote]] and his squire, [[Sancho Panza]]
*[[Daniel Boone]], American explorer
*[[Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Puck]], character from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''
*[[Beowulf (hero)|Beowulf]], mythical hero
*[[Manon Lescaut]], from the novel ''[[Manon Lescaut|L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut]]'' and the opera ''[[Manon Lescaut (Puccini)|Manon Lescaut]]''
*[[Becky Sharp (character)|Becky Sharp]] (Becky Crawley) from [[William Makepeace Thackeray|Thackeray]]'s ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)|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 (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland character)|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
*[[Prince Hamlet|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 [[Greek underworld|Hades]] in Greek mythology.

==Literary significance and criticism==

<blockquote>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 &ndash; 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<ref>{{cite book | title=The Encyclopedia of Fantasy | year=1997 | last=Clute | first=Grant }}</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>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<ref>{{cite book | title=Fantasy Literature | year=1990 | last=Barron }}</ref>
</blockquote>

<blockquote>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<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://thegreenmanreview.com/gmr/book/book_myers_silverlock.html
|title=John Myers Myers, Silverlock (Ace Books, 2005)
|accessdate=2008-08-10
|author=Eller, Eric
|date=2006-05-05 <!-- [http://www.greenmanreview.com/archives/2005/old060505.html http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_myers_silverlock.html] -->
|publisher=Green Man Review
|url-status=dead
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202032858/http://thegreenmanreview.com/gmr/book/book_myers_silverlock.html
|archivedate=2017-02-02
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

==Release details==

*1949, US, E. P. Dutton, 1949, hardback (first edition)<ref>[http://lccn.loc.gov/49005070 LCCN 49-5070]. Library of Congress.</ref>
*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}}.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
* [http://www.anitra.net/commonwealth/ Visit the Commonwealth of Letters]
* [https://archive.today/20030627130028/http://abraxis.com/lverner/fantasy/silverlock.htm Lee's Silverlock Reading Journal] (Dead link as of 9/30/12)
* {{isfdb series|613|Silverlock}}
** {{ISFDB title|1211|Silverlock}}
** {{ISFDB title|6356|The Moon's Fire-Eating Daughter}}
* [http://www.nesfa.org/press/Books/Myers.html ''Silverlock'', including ''The Silverlock Companion''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612123000/http://www.nesfa.org/press/Books/Myers.html |date=2008-06-12 }}: NESFA Press edition with annotations and further information

{{Book of Job}}
{{The Golden Ass}}

[[Category:1949 American novels]]
[[Category:1949 fantasy novels]]
[[Category:Novels based on Beowulf]]
[[Category:Novels based on Don Quixote]]
[[Category:Metafictional novels]]
[[Category:Books based on Alice in Wonderland]]
[[Category:Novels based on Hamlet]]
[[Category:Works based on literary characters]]
[[Category:Novels based on works by Jane Austen]]
[[Category:Works based on Goethe's Faust]]
[[Category:Robin Hood books]]
[[Category:Novels based on A Midsummer Night's Dream]]
[[Category:Novels based on the Bible]]
[[Category:Job (biblical figure)]]
[[Category:Classical mythology in popular culture]]
[[Category:E. P. Dutton books]]
[[Category:Novels based on works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]