The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus. Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym, including shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism, before he is saved by the crew of the Jane Guy. Aboard this vessel, Pym and a sailor named Dirk Peters continue their adventures farther south. Docking on land, they encounter hostile black ...
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The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus. Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym, including shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism, before he is saved by the crew of the Jane Guy. Aboard this vessel, Pym and a sailor named Dirk Peters continue their adventures farther south. Docking on land, they encounter hostile black-skinned natives before escaping back to the ocean. The novel ends abruptly as Pym and Peters continue toward the South Pole. The story starts out as a fairly conventional adventure at sea, but it becomes increasingly strange and hard to classify. Poe, who intended to present a realistic story, was inspired by several real-life accounts of sea voyages, and drew heavily from Jeremiah N. Reynolds and referenced the Hollow Earth theory. He also drew from his own experiences at sea. Analyses of the novel often focus on the potential autobiographical elements as well as its portrayal of race and the symbolism in the final lines of the work. Difficulty in finding literary success early in his short story-writing career inspired Poe to pursue writing a longer work. A few serialized installments of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket were first published in the Southern Literary Messenger, though never completed. The full novel was published in July 1838 in two volumes. Some critics responded negatively to the work for being too gruesome and for cribbing heavily from other works, while others praised its exciting adventures. Poe himself later called it "a very silly book". In the years since its publication, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket became an influential work, notably for Herman Melville and Jules Verne. World's Classics Deluxe Edition This book and other World's Classics Deluxe Edition are frequently included among the great literature of the 20th century, including the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, The Observer's, BBC's and The Telegraph's "100 Greatest Novels of All Time", and The Guardian's "1000 novels everyone must read". iBoo Press House uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work. We preserve the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. All Deluxe Edition titles are unabridged (100% Original content), designed with a nice Jacketed Case Laminate, Digital Cloth Blue Cover with linen textured lamination underneath, quality paper and a large font that's easy to read. Visit our web page at iboo.com/novels to see all the Greatest Novels.
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The Narrative of Arthur Gorden Pym of Nantucket reads like it's title--very wordy. If it wasn't for all the terrible, grusome things that happen on the trip, the writing would be very boring. However, all the events that happen on the trip keep your interest. What will happen next? Young Pym (we don't know his exact age) stows away on a whaling ship, with the help of his friend Augustus, whose father is captain of the ship, and within ten days, the crew mutinies. All the crew is either killed or thrown overboard except Augustus, and of course, our writer Pym, who is still hiding in the storage area. From here it gets worse. There is extreme weather that ruins the ship; starvation; cannibalism by the four members left alive; rescue by another ship; a long voyage to Antartica, where they encounter savages bent on killing them, another escape, etc, etc. until you feel like the story is all fabrication. Read it an see what you think.
