The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Written by Edgar Allan Poe
Narrated by Christopher Plummer
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809. His parents, both touring actors, died before he was three. He was raised by John Allan, a prosperous Virginian merchant. Poe published his first volume of poetry while still a teenager. He worked as an editor for magazines in Philadelphia, Richmond and New York, and achieved respect as a literary critic. In 1836, he married his thirteen year-old cousin. It was only with the publication of The Raven and other Poems in 1845 that he achieved national fame as a writer. Poe died in mysterious circumstances in 1849.
More audiobooks from Edgar Allan Poe
The Predictably Irrational Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Irrationally Yours: On Missing Socks, Pickup Lines, and Other Existential Puzzles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Related audiobooks
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5MS. Found In A Bottle Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Island of Doctor Moreau - Unabridged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gold-Bug Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Other Tales: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClassic Tales of Horror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dracula's Guest and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Unabridged) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stories From Wagner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Beast with Five Fingers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Descent Into the Maelstrom Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales of Mystery and Imagination Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Complete Tales and Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The String of Pearls: The Original Story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The New Catacomb Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Moonlit Road Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Turn of the Screw: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ligeia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pit and the Pendulum Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heart of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Turn of the Screw Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Black Cat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Frankenstein & The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War & Peace - Volume I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perks of Being a Wallflower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Old Man and the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Multi-Voice, A: The Bad Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fountainhead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Clockwork Orange Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crucible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Schindler's List Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Atlas Shrugged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gone With The Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tale of Two Cities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pride and Prejudice: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Gatsby Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Ships: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/520,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Around the World in 80 Days: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers in the Attic: 40th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
22 ratings16 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Although too rough, inconsistent, and episodic to really work as a novel, there are some truly chilling images and fascinating scenarios.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting book. A narrative on an expedition to the southern seas. Despite being the work of E.A Poe and a potentially good story, the book is childish at times and has got too many loose ends. Hope the continuation by Jules Verne is better.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In the only full length novel that Edgar Allan Poe ever wrote, he tells a tale set at sea of Arthur Gordon Pym. He sails around the globe, and during his misadventures at sea, he experiences a mutiny on board, a terrible storm resulting in a shipwreck, and a run-in with a tribe of cannibals. In order words, all sorts of madcap mayhem fun. As far as the novel itself goes, I wasn't wildly impressed. It seemed to ramble at times and most of it wasn't terribly compelling. I'm not the biggest fan of Poe's writing other than some of his classic stories and poems.On the other hand, there were many familiar elements in the story that other writers emulated in their stories. On that basis, I will give Poe credit for coming up with some innovative story lines that stood the test of time. Certain aspects of the novel stood out in that regards. One is the uncharted land with a savage tribe. Another is drawing the shortest straw to face one's death. There is a whole pirate element to it and some macabre aspects that I appreciated. Overall, although I wasn't overwhelmed by the novel, I can at least appreciate it.Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ich hätte mir mehr erhoftt, ist E. A. Poes einziger längerer Roman und das Thema an sich hat mich immer schon gefesselt... Das Buch war zwar spannend, aber letztlich derart mit Seefahrtsausdrücken durchsetzt, dass man es ohne erläuternde Fussnoten (die Diogenes in der vorliegenden Ausgabe blöderweise nicht dazuliefert), nur bedingt versteht. Last but not least ärgert mich das (offene und nicht im Kontext der Resterzählung zu verstehende) Ende... Dem diesem vorangegangene "phantastischen" Teil fehlt es mE an Hintergründigem, sodass letztlich vieles der Story rätselhaft bleibt...Hinsichtlich des "phantastischen Teils" (warme Strömungen in antarktischen Gewässern) sollte man meiner Ansicht nicht außer Acht lassen, dass Poe lediglich die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts außerordentlich populäre Theorie vom eisfreien Nordpolarmeer auf die Südsee umlegt...
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I'm not really sure what to write about this, the only novel by Edgar Allen Poe - mostly famous for his imaginative short stories of the grotesque. This novel starts out as a real boy-adventure story at sea - mutiny, shipwreck etc. but it quickly turns very brutal and horrific. Most of the story the narrator is dazed and confused - either from lack of sleep or lack of food and water - and it gives the tale a dreamlike quality - his turmoils seems never ending and I must admit too much for my stomach. It's also very detailed in its description of various things the main character encounters - which slows down the action considerable. I didn't understand the ending either - which made me a little irritated. Well, I have read some of his short stories and they are much better. This novel was a disappointment.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Growing up, Poe was an athor I really liked--while I can't say that I have read ALL of his works, I am happy to report reading most of his short stories, and of course some of his poetry. Throughout school, whenever we studied Poe, those two genres were mentioned: poetry and short stories. It wasn't until a few weeks ago when I was told Poe had written a novel--this one. I was shocked! How had I never learned of this?!
Better late than never and I am happy to report my local library had a copy.
The plot of this novel is pretty interesting: a boy hides out on a boat becuase his family won't let him leave, but then the boy suffers from a mutany (maybe his family was right?) and eventually only 4 people remain on the boat...next problem, food and water. It gets so bad that the four draw straws to see who will make the ultimate sacrifice so others may eat him. After barely hanging on for weeks, they are finally seen and rescued by a boat. Only to be taken on another adventure to find the south pole...where savages await them.
Poor Pym...I think he really might have been better off listening to his grandpa. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Claimed to be Edgar Alan Poe’s only novel, but it reads to me like a collection of three, possibly four, short stories. It was published in 1838 before he had achieved significant sales as an author, he was making a living as a critic, reviewer and writer of articles and stories. A year later he published a two volume collection of his short stories: ‘Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque’ and the stories in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym would not have been out off place had they been included.The frontispiece to the “novel” gives the game away almost at once:COMPRISING THE DETAILS OF A MUTINY AND ATROCIOUS BUTCHERY ON BOARD THE AMERICAN BRIG GRAMPUS, ON HER WAY TO THE SOUTH SEAS, IN THE MONTH OF JUNE, 1827WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE RECAPTURE OF THE VESSEL BY THE SURVIVORS; THEIR SHIPWRECK AND SUBSEQUENT HORRIBLE SUFFERINGS FROM FAMINE; THEIT DELIVERANCE BY MEANS OF THE BRITISH SCHOONER JANE GUY; THE BRIEF CRUISE OF THIS LATTER VESSEL IN THE ANTARCTIC OCEAN; HER CAPTURE AND THE MASSACRE OF HER CREW AMONG A GROUP OF ISLANDS IN THE EIGHTY-FOURTH PARALLEL OF SOUTHERN LATTITUDE;TOGETHER WITH THE INCREDIBLE ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERIES STILL FURTHER SOUTH TO WHICH THAT DISTRESSING CALAMITY GAVE RISE. If this all sounds like a blurb to suck in readers to an adventure story which will titillate and excite then it would not be far wrong from my reading of the book. The titillation is provided by the reference to horrible sufferings and atrocious butchery, while the excitement is the fantasy of what lies beyond the eighty-fourth parallel which remained uncharted at the time. It would be another 60 years before Robert Falcon Scott in the ship Discovery got passed 82 degrees South and discovered the Polar plateau.The continuity between the three stories is provided by Arthur Gordon Pym who in each of the tales is in danger of death by starvation; first on board the American Brig the Grampus where he is a stowaway locked in the hold and must survive a mutiny taking place above him and his reliance on a friend who can no longer get to him with food and water, then on the hull of the brig where he and three companions are marooned following the retaking of the vessel and its near destruction through violent storms, finally on an island in the warmer waters beyond the 84th parallel where he is trapped by hostile savages. Poe is at his best when describing the sufferings and and vicissitudes of people in a desperate situation and where there appears little hope of survival. He has a way of communicating the desperation of his characters plight that is both macabre and exciting. The Cruise on the British Schooner the Jane Guy in little known waters and which visits some of the remotest known islands like The Kerguelen Islands and Tristan D’acuna reads like a travelogue, something that might appear in the National Geographical magazine and has given rise to some people thinking it could have been inspiration for Herman Melville’s style of writing in Moby-Dick. The final section/story in the novel is the discovery of a mysterious group of islands in the warmer waters that Poe tells us lie beyond the ice towards the South Pole. We are now reading a fantasy, a story that has led to this book being heralded as early science fiction. Poe provides us with a surprise ending that takes into consideration the events of the final section, but bears little relation to what has gone before. This is a collection of nautical adventure stories that are well written and very readable. Poe is able to provide plenty of atmosphere in stories that kept me wanting to turn the pages (can you say that when reading on a Kindle?). I just don’t see it as a novel and so as a collection of short stories it is rated as 3.5 stars and as a novel 2 stars.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poe never ceases to fascinate. His only novel starts like a realistic narrative of life at sea, then turns into a horrific story of survival, and then morphs into a fantasy about aboriginal island tribes and an imaginary trip to a completely-divorced-from-reality version of the south pole. Quite different from the short stories and poems by which he is known, but still an intriguing read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was Poe's only full length novel, and its episodic nature and very abrupt ending seems to indicate he was probably right to focus on short stories, of which he is in my view one of the prime exponents. This is a long-winded story of shipwrecks, storms, cannibalism, burial alive (of course), and exploring new lands at the southern extremity of the world. The book's abrupt end seems to come when the narrator and his sole surviving shipmate are about to discover a mystery near the south pole, that is held to be a vindication of the "hollow Earth" theory, which still had some traction in the early 19th century when exploration of the polar regions was still in its relative infancy. This story is a curiosity rather than anything else.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Okay, 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 inevitably there are multiple scenes all about rigging the jib sail and something the mizzen deck and I have no reference for any of these things and can't be bothered and it makes me batty. My strategy for this book was basically just to cross my eyes and skim through all those sections, which was pretty okay for getting me the background I need in order to appreciate Pym.
This is a strange book. Of that tradition of adventure books filled with peril after peril and a few unlikely escapes. Rather different from Poe's horror, but there are some bits of dread that do feel more familiar. Then there is the frighteningly racist depiction of the "natives" discovered in the Antarctic region. I am so incredibly curious to see Pym's updated version.
Glad I read it, but not my fave. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What a cliffhanger! Overall, the book is pretty interesting - there are some long and dry digressions but also some moments of pants-crapping intensity to liven it up.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5echt hallucinant, zeer gedetailleerd, pseudorealisme, versterkt door wetenschappelijk aandoende beschrijvingen.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5echt hallucinant, zeer gedetailleerd, pseudorealisme, versterkt door wetenschappelijk aandoende beschrijvingen.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is "Moby-Dick" decades before "Moby-Dick." What begins as a jaunty sea adventure tale takes a turn for a somewhat more frightening struggle at sea. Interspersed are descriptions of maritime history, the geography of islands, flora and fauna, and other over-the-top detailed "true" accounts which are not always accurate. As the novel progresses, it gets less and less realistic despite these pseudo-realistic, pseudo-scientific soliloquies. Eventually, the novel descends to a point of senselessness, fantastic beyond reason, symbolically deep beyond comprehension, and confusing beyond serious analysis. And that's the point, folks. Sometimes life doesn't have a happy ending, nor does it end successfully wrapped up with a cute bow tied on top. "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" is a fun, confusing, hectic, strange book of unrecognized genius.One comment on here notes it wasn't very scary. I'd note that this book was not meant to be in the horror genre.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A peculiar book, much of it feels derivative (although, admittedly, a somewhat unfair charge because some of it is derivative of more familiar books that were written later and themselves may have derived from this), much of it fails to hang together and the ending is completely abrupt. It features many of the standard nautical devices, a stowaway, a mutiny, a storm at sea, cannibalism, a shipwreck, a previously unknown island--all that plus a mysterious large white humanoid creature that is introduced but not explained in the final sentence of the book.The book begins with Arthur Gordon Pym's boyhood sailing trip gone awry, followed by his stowing away on an adult voyage that goes wrong in just about every way. Much of the novel is in the form of a journal and it provides minimal descriptions of a few characters and just about no description of anyone else. It is part bildingsroman, part adventure, part science fiction, and depicts equal parts fear and wonder, horror and delight. OK, maybe not equal parts--it is certainly weighted towards the fear and horror side.I have not read any of Poe's short stories in a long time, but my memory is that the best of them come much closer to perfection than this, his only novel.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I must say--this one is a strange one. When I first started reading it, I was thinking how beautiful Edgar Allan Poe's writing style was. But, the story is a slog at times. Sorry. It took me a month to read this short tale. The middle drags with too many longitude and latitude references and descriptions of bizarre animals. And Edgar Allan Poe--don't you just feel sorry for the guy? He had to be weird beyond measure. He is preoccupied with the human body, birds eating dead humans and people murdering and eating people. What is it with him and human flesh? (I'm thinking of the Telltale Heart, too, murdering and cutting up a body in small pieces and stuffing it under the floorboards.) Yuck.He also has this decided paranoia. You always wonder if he is just freaking out or if he's really in danger. (I'm thinking of The Raven, too.) Paranoia abounds in this work too. He has a preoccupation with being buried alive. He has a preoccupation with black and white. I really should read it again and look for all the references of black and white--they abound. One really needs to look at race relations through this novella, since it was written in 1838.So, why did I read it? I'm reading a series of 5 novellas from American authors to get a feel for the American writer and the development of American Literature. I've read Benito Cereno by Melville, Parnassus on Wheels by Morley and now The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Poe. Next up, Cather and Fitzgerald. Apparently, this little novel influenced American literature in a great way, including Melville and Lovecraft, and Jules Verne even wrote a sequel.This is a story of a young boy who runs away to the sea, and it is a classic shipwreck story with mutiny, deaths, storms, islands, animals, and longitude. Essentially it is a survival story multiple times over--but the ending is abrupt and very strange. I'm still trying to figure it out. Why is the water hot in the antarctic? There were a lot of loose ends in this story--where did that come from? How is that possible? Is he paranoid or is something really freaky here?