This early fantasy novel by A. Merritt can be considered a shrunken woman tale. A young archaeologist is in his apartment in Manhattan examining an old Persian artifact. The artifact is a tiny ship. Through means unknown our hero is transported back in time to the ship. The passengers are the Goddess dedicated to Ishtar and her court of beautiful hand-maidens. Alo on board is a conniving human enemy of Ishtar who has shall we say "carnal' desires for the goddess. Between random returns to the present in New York, the villain and the hero struggle for the babe and the fate of her tiny universe.
Merritt was a master of sensuality and implied sexuality. Even though there is nothing graphic in this novel in the least it is incredibly sexy. You really see the raven-haired goddess and ache for her to be paired with our time displaced hero. They don't write them like that anymore and the world is worse off.
