From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

Edgar Allan Poe

Start date: August 12, 2015

Finish date: July 22, 2015

Discussion: Task Ideas/Resources/Discussions

Why we're reading this: Published 1838
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By Book Riot · 1 post · 5295 views

last updated Dec 16, 2014 09:22AM

Free copy of Proximity Factor this July, no reviews required. Just enjoy.
By S.S. · 1 post · 9 views

last updated Jul 18, 2024 06:08AM

What Members Thought

Oct 16, 2016 Jessica rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: serial-reader-app

Did you know Edgar Allan Poe wrote a novel? (Actually more than one, but only one that was completed.) I found my way to reading The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket after seeing Pym show up as a deal of the day in the Kindle store. I had recently read Loving Day and thought I might like reading something else from the same author, and it turns out Pym is based on this Poe novel. Reviewers insisted you didn't need to read the Poe novel before reading Pym, but it's short and I was just Did you know Edgar Allan Poe wrote a novel? (Actually more than one, but only one that was completed.) I found my way to reading The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket after seeing Pym show up as a deal of the day in the Kindle store. I had recently read Loving Day and thought I might like reading something else from the same author, and it turns out Pym is based on this Poe novel. Reviewers insisted you didn't need to read the Poe novel before reading Pym, but it's short and I was just about ready to have to pick a new public-domain book for my Serial Reader app anyway, so I decided to read Poe's novel before starting Pym.

So! This novel! I really liked the first half of it! Arthur Gordon Pym wants to be a sailor, but his family forbids it, so he and his friend decide it would be a great idea if he stows away on his friend's father's ship and waits to reveal himself until after the ship is far enough out at sea that they couldn't possibly turn around to take him home again. There is some questionable logic at work here to begin with, but the friends definitely didn't anticipate a mutiny taking place on the ship. The first half is all about trying to survive at sea. It didn't feel particularly Poe-like most of the time, but it was an engaging story (and does get into some of the ghastliness you expect from Poe further on into the voyage). I was feeling good about my book choice.

Then somewhere a bit past halfway the book gets very, very bogged down in telling you the history of attempted expeditions to the South Pole. It felt very much like the dullest stretches of Moby-Dick, and apparently there are theories that Poe's novel was the inspiration for Melville's. At least with Moby-Dick there is payoff for sticking out (or skipping over) the dull sections, but with The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, what you get for sticking it out is deeply racist and offensive to a modern reader.

In Poe's novel, written before the discovery of Antarctica, there is a temperate region past the ice floes in the southernmost latitudes, and this area is inhabited entirely by black people who are not given a very flattering treatment. Add to this that the novel gets increasingly confusing and nonsensical in this final section, and there really isn't much payoff for continuing to read the last few chapters. The ending feels like an entirely different (and unsatisfactory) short story tacked onto an unrelated novel. I could feel my Goodreads rating dropping from four to three to two as I made my way through those last few chapters, and the only reason it didn't sink all the way to a one was that I really did like the first half of the book quite a bit.

So there you have it! Now you know that Edgar Allan Poe wrote a novel, and you shouldn't feel any obligation to read it yourself! ...more

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Oct 10, 2016 Jennifer rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, owned, polar-fiction

Okay, I read this book for mostly two reasons: 1) I bought the book Pym by Mat Johnson, and figured I should read the book it is referencing first, and 2) Melville House published it in their novella series and you know I'm a sucker for Melville House.

Of course, in what should probably be embarrassing for someone in love with a publisher who has named themselves after Melville, I can't really stand nautical writing. I mean, there's nothing really wrong with books that take place at sea, but inev ...more

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Mar 08, 2009 Carla marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: own, portuguese

Oct 18, 2013 Deedee marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: n2, title-has-city-name, cover-green, 1830-1839, cover-green-70-percent, classics, horror-classic, title-has-boys-name, e3, added-090113-021414