The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym of Nantucket

De: Edgar Allan Poe

Narrado por: John L. Chatty

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is Edgar Allan Poe's only complete novel, published in 1838. Set in 1827, it is an exciting blend of science, romance, adventure, realism, and supernaturalism. It is based on the actual experiences of J.N. Reynolds, whose book Poe consulted. The narrative comprises the details of a mutiny on board the American brig Grampus on her way to the South Seas. The young hero, Pym, aided by Augustus, the captain's son, becomes a stowaway. Poe incorporates it all: butchery, shipwreck, famine, massacre, and deliverance. But it is Pym's friendship and friction with Augustus that form the major part of the book's aesthetic design.Public Domain (P)1983 Jimcin Recordings

Rather a Fanciful Tale

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, it made me scratch my head a lot, and say, but what about.....this & that.
And then there was the ending, just as you're thinking OMG what is going to happen next, it ends, and I'm saying What the .....!

Any additional comments?

I know it's POE, so don't everybody get up in arms, but the ending was such a let down :-(

Interesting

The narrator is dry as a bone; no sense of sentence structure, inflection, the art of storytelling. So the clinical/technical information on various aspects of seamanship is dead boring, and the overwrought dramatic passages come off as sort of bloodless mania. Interesting if you are a Poe aficionado, as it is his only novel.

Poe's only novel

i got interested in this because after Poe wrote it, a real life incident happened that that mirrored his book prophetically. kind of earie even for Poe. The book didn't have the usual supernatural horror of his short stories, but plenty of natural gore and horror, realistic of what many sailors have gone through. it's good, but the ending is disappointing and uneven. still, i do recommend it for Poe fans for the realism, his knowledge of seamanship and the real-life horror of what so many sailors have gone through.