Reviews for Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

The average rating for Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-01-27 00:00:00 John Ashhurst Dear The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, I love you. I hate you. You confuse me because you evoke within me such conflicting emotions. The truth? I really got into a relationship with you because I thought that you would be a straight-up maritime adventure novel a la "Master and Commander." I heard you inspired Herman Melville when he was writing Moby Dick. That's what I was looking for. What I got was... well, what are you, Arthur? Here's the thing, Gordy: you were always good as an adventure novel. That was your strength and I always liked that about you. I liked your gruesome tales of cannibalism, the ship of dead people, the mutiny, the shark attacks, killing a polar bear with a knife and the sprays of blood, etc. But then, oh God, there were the parts where you devolved into long passages about nautical terminology. For pages and pages you rattled off longitudes and latitudes and the way the sea currents were running. I almost left you then. You were elegant as hell, but I was bored off my ass. "Stick to the action, Arthur," I wanted to say, "If I wanted a travelogue I'd read 'The Voyage of the Beagle.' If I wanted a treatise about the nesting habits of frigate birds I'd pick up a Time-Life book or check out Wikipedia." I feel like you are trying to be all things to all people, Arthur. I think this has to do with your origins, how you were published episodically in a newspaper and had to appeal a variety of readers. And while I admire your versatility, I think you should just stick to who you really are, deep down: an adventure novel. Or maybe, again, that's just who I wanted you to be and I'm projecting my expectations on you. If you feel smothered by me, that's fine. And you are a racist son of a bitch, too. All the black guys are either mutineers or knuckle-dragging savages? Come on! Arthur, I'm sorry it didn't work out. I wanted to love you so bad. I want to compare you other lovers: your lost civilizations reminded me of Borges, your castaways reminded me of Robert Louis Stevenson, you seem at times like you could've been a pulp novel penned in the early twentieth century---all swashbuckle and edge-of-your-seat adventure. But I just can't look past your flaws. And maybe that's my fault. I think our age difference is a chasm between us. You come from different generation. I can't help but judge you by my modern standards of tolerance (and post-Hemingway appreciation for strong, brief sentences) and that's not fair to either of us. I'm sure there's a better reader out there for you, somewhere, Arthur. We had some good times this past week and a half, but I'm glad to move on. I'm eager to start a relationship with another book. Me and Raymond Chandler have been seeing each other lately, and I think I might pursue that a little. I'm eager to start a new chapter in my reading life (sorry for the pun). Don't take any of this personally. Again: it's not you, Arthur. It's me. Sincerely, Richard Porter P.S. Bad-ass cover, BTW.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-06-13 00:00:00 Ilene Mcfarland Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is not your average 19th-century adventure tale like those of Jules Verne or Robert Louis Stevenson. Instead, it's a type of tale which acts as a forefather for many tales to come and it's a hell of a weird ride. The narrative introduces Augustus and our narrator, Arthur Gordon Pym. The first chapter tells a drunken adventure of these two boys. Not sure why that chapter is there, but it's there. The next couple of chapters tells one of the best sea adventures I've read in a long time! As Augustus and his father decided to set sail for open ocean, Pym decides to join them anonymously with help of his friend. Well, things went south quickly on that ship. Filled with scenes of macabre, bloodletting and survival, those initial chapters were beautifully crafted by Poe. I especially loved the scene with the ghost ship. They were daunting and my imagination went wild there! But then the story changes direction. Instead of sticking with the crazy atmosphere the story created in the initial chapters, Poe switches to an exploration and speculative narrative which reminded me of Jules Verne stories. It seems like Jules Verne was really influenced by this style. Verne was a lifelong fan of Poe and he even wrote a sequel to this novel in later years. Anyways, we are now chilling with Pym and his gang in a new ship and they decide to explore the unexplored Antarctic region. They find a mysterious Island populated by a tribe of black (Even their teeth are black). The Island itself is a wonder as it is filled with undiscovered flora and fauna. This part reads like Arthur Conan Doyle's novel, the lost world. The previously undiscovered land with strange natives and bizarre environments? That's Doyle right there. Now, this is a work that clearly inspired many writers. Even HP Lovecraft connects this story with his own novella, At the Mountains of Madness. But as a novel, the narrative suffers from inconsistent story and styles. To be honest, after the 13th chapter, the story sacrificed its momentum and failed to gain it back. So I'm thinking 5 stars for the first half and 2 stars for the rest. Also, the ending was ... What was the ending? It felt like one of those weird deaths we hear about in news: The ones where people die abruptly as they were typing a senta