Poe

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe (1838)

Arthur Gordon Pym runs away from home and stows away on the whaling ship captained by his friend’s father. Only the friend knows the teenager is there. A week out to sea, the plan takes a turn, thrusting Pym into a desperate struggle for survival, and will lead to numerous adventures before the story ends.

Dramatic tales of the sea were popular during Poe’s time. The ocean is a vast, uncontrollable unknown. Back in the day, wind-powered ships were at the mercy of the weather and waves. Its mysteries and dangers were attractive. Its wildlife were also a resource and Man ventured out further and stayed out longer to harvest them. Inevitably, tragedies resulted, such as the voyage of the whaler Essex in the 1820s and the Lost Franklin Expedition of the 1840s. These tragedies and their romantic themes of death, danger, mystery, the conflict of Man versus Nature, and the struggle to survive against all odds — some successful, some not — captured the imaginations of artists and writers. Both Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and Poe’s novel would be inspired by the Essex. The Franklin Expedition inspired a novel in 2007. (Read my thoughts about it here.) The Titanic still captures imaginations one-hundred-and-twelve years later.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is Poe’s only full-length novel. It’s presented as Pym’s personal account of his adventures, so we get eye-witness accounts of everything as well as the main character’s thoughts and emotions. The story starts off slowly and I found myself wondering when Poe would show up in all his Poe-ness. Then the plot hits its stride and it’s vintage Poe. He brings the reader into the story through his characteristic use of description and mood. These traits are what make his best stories instant classics and it’s no different here. Because this is a novel, he has a lot of room to build the story. For example, early in the book, Pym is hidden in a room on the ship and forgotten about. The reader watches as Pym slowly realizes this and begins to lose all sense of time and reason. He becomes paranoid and experiences the beginnings of starvation. Poe lays all this out in detail, constructing the scene piece by piece. I watched Pym’s descent into terror, panic and desperation. Poe uses pages and pages and pages to slowly unwind this young man’s mental state. I felt the psychological horror he was experiencing. It is a superb bit of writing.

While the first half of this book is excellent, the second half falls off. It begins with a lot of dry details about sailing and exploring during the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. It becomes almost tedious in its long recitation of coordinates, weather patterns, and the nesting habits of ocean birds. Where the first part was gritty realism, the last part is fantasy. It felt weird and out of place and was not as interesting.

I think a few people may have an issue with the ending. I should have but didn’t, and I’m surprised I didn’t. In my opinion, a novel must land the ending. It doesn’t matter how amazing the story is, if the author screws up the end — I mean really blows it — there can be little forgiveness. The ending of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is not great, but not terrible, either. I have read much, much worse. I think the ending works for me because of how weak I think the second half is. The ending feels like Poe didn’t know where the story was going (events just start to feel random and poorly thought out) and made a decision — but not soon enough, unfortunately. Of the weak chapters in the second half, the final one is the weakest. Ending the book one chapter sooner would have worked better for the whole and would have suited the epilogue better.

© May 11, 2024