[.ca] The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (ISBN 0375760075)

So you want to go out to the sea?:
This is the dark narrative of the misadventures of a young man from New England. Pym has a big illusion of going to the sea, and so, secretly, he embarks in a ship. But the ship suffers a mutiny on board, led by ruthless and cruel men. After several days of storms and hunger, there is a shipwreck. The three survivors are rescued by another ship, whose crew is in search for the South Pole. Many adventures follow, and the end of the book is really horrifying. Beyond the plot, the importance of this novel is in the anguished and hair-rising mood it conveys. The relatively realistic beginning becomes a sort of magical horror gradually. It's like some Verne novel told in a hallucinated tone, feverish, tense, absolutely Poe. It will keep you constantly in tension, without pauses nor calm episodes, crossing the border of sanity.

An American Classic. A Horror Classic.:
Poe's only novel reminded me of Gogol's "Dead Souls," in that, in both, the story seems to take a weird turn toward the end and shuts down rather oddly. Gogol's excuse is that he became a fire-breathing convert to Christianity midway through writing his book, and so had no use for the book's initial cynical tone (instead we get a character rant on in socio-religious mode for awhile). I don't know what Poe's excuse is, but the effect of his end-of-story turn is remarkable, and I won't spoil it for you (unlike other reviewers below - warning!). There is a vivid, dreamlike, unsettling quality to the whole book, and (with the exception of a few dull pages of sailing life detail - not unlike "Moby Dick," but with nowhere near as much page-filling excess) there is rip-roaring action from start to finish. Poe's yarn is full of incident, and every bit of it counts. So at midnight, lock the door, sit back, put your feet up, and soak up this book in the dim light of your hurricane lamp. It's, after all, one of many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore!

A short read that is definitely worth your time:
I am a relative newcomer to Poe, having only read a few short stories. I gave this a try because I love old fashioned adventure stories. I was not disappointed. It is hard to believe that this book was written almost 170 years ago. Other than his use of obscure words every now and then, Poe has a style of writing that is not difficult for the modern reader. The subject matter was fascinating and altough there are a few slow passages, Poe does a good job of moving the story along. You can tell that other writers were influenced by this book, and I think one who was so influenced was H.G. Wells in ,"The Island of Dr. Moreau." One who I am sure was influenced was Yann Martel in, "The Life of Pi." That plot shares some similarites with Pym, and it cannot be a coincidence that one of the important characters in Pym is named Richard Parker, the name that Martel gives to the tiger in Life of Pi. It is interesting to compare the fate of the respective Parkers in both books and to reflect on the symbolic similarity. A recommended read. I would have given it 4 and 1/2 stars if possible.

A Wonderful Sailor's Tale:
Arthur Gordon Pym was a young man who had dreams of great adventure. He defied his family and stowed away on board a whaling ship. Doing this lead him into all sorts of exciting adventures. He confronted things like mutiny, near starvation, and altercations with different cultures. I'd have to say that this story is "classic Poe". If you are a fan of Poe's short stories, you'll definitely like this book. I only had a few problems with the story. There were times that the story dragged, but this is far outweighed by the times that the story was very exciting, and I couldn't put the book down. I won't go into the ending, but it left me unsettled. I found that the explanatory notes were very helpful. I'm not a great scholar on any level, nor will I ever claim to be. The explanatory notes were very simple to understand, and it helped me understand portions of the story that caused confusion, particularly the end.

A Rare and Fantastic Adventure:
From the beginning when our hero finds himself in the dark coffin like hiding place in the hold of a ship sailing to Antartica to the bizzare ending ,Poes genius takes us on an incredible and horrific adventure.Even if you are not a horror fan you should give this excellent novel a try.