I haven't yet ruled out the possibility that I'm simply an oddball,
but I assume every boy goes through a sort of Poe mania at some stage,
at least I did. In fact, I got so bad around 5th grade that, having
torn through the stories and poems, I was even reading biographies about
him. But somehow, even with all of that, I think I had missed this
longer work. I'm sorry I did, because while this wildly overstuffed
adventure is enjoyable now, I would have really loved it as a kid.
When Arthur Gordon Pym stows away on a whaling ship, he little dreams
that he'll encounter tyranny, mutiny, biblical storms, cannibalism, shipwreck...and
Poe's just getting warmed up.
I've read that he cobbled together this semi-novel from several shorter
pieces he'd written. It has a somewhat uneven feel to it; episodic,
even disjointed. And as the episodes are piled one on top of the
other it becomes a tad much. But it is always fun, often thrilling,
and the mayhem that lurks on the surface guards layer upon layer of allegory
and allusion. As you read you find yourself saying, "Hey, Melville
borrowed that scene and Jack London got that idea here and Lovecraft cadged
this plot..." If you have any doubts about how influential
a literary figure Edgar Allan Poe was, this melodramatic masterpiece will
put them to rest. More importantly, you'll thoroughly enjoy yourself.
(Reviewed:14-Jan-00)
Grade: (A-)
Websites:
See also:
Edgar Poe (
2 books reviewed)
Horror
Sea Stories
Edgar Poe Links:
-The Last Haunting of Edgar Allan Poe (The Beale Papers)
Book-related and General Links:
-Edgar Allan
Poe Museum (Richmond, VA)
-The Edgar Allan
Poe Society of Baltimore
-BIO:
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) (kirjasto)
-Qrisse's
Poe Page
-Poe Coder
-Index
to the Edgar A. Poe Biography
-Precisely
Poe
-Poe
Perceptions: Poe's Recurrent Motifs and Themes
-The
House of Usher: Edgar Allan Poe
-The
Work of Edgar Allan Poe
-A
Poe Webliography by Heyward Ehrlich
-PAL:
Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference Guide
Chapter 3: Early Nineteenth Century: Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
-The
Folio Club
-Edgar
Allan Poe (Keith Parkins Site)
-Edgar
Allan Poe Page (Free Markets)
-REVIEW:
of The Poetical Works of Edgar A. Poe (OCTOBER
1859, The Atlantic)
-REVIEW:
of The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (APRIL 1896, The Atlantic)
-ETEXT:
THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM OF NANTUCKET by Edgar Allan
Poe (1850)
-ETEXTS:
The Work of Edgar Allan Poe
-ESSAY:
BEYOND THE PALE WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE (Marilynne Robinson, NY Times
Book Review)
-ESSAY:
Poe & Lovecraft (Robert Bloch)
-ARTICLE:
Researcher Says Rabies, Not Alcoholism, May Have Killed Poe Reporter:
Christopher Shea, Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 1996
-REVIEW:
Edgar A. Poe Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance By Kenneth Silverman
(MICHIKO KAKUTANI, NY Times)
-REVIEW:
Edgar A. Poe Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance By Kenneth Silverman
(Daniel Hoffman, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
Harold Bloom: Inescapable Poe, NY Review of Books
Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry
and Tales edited by Patrick F. Quinn
Edgar Allan Poe: Essays
and Reviews edited by G.R. Thompson
-REVIEW:
Karl Miller: Poe in the Sky, NY Review of Books
Collected Works of Edgar
Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe by David
Sinclair
The Tell-Tale Heart: The
Life and Work of Edgar Allan Poe by Julian Symons
Building Poe Biography by
John Carl Miller
-REVIEW:
Richard Wilbur: The Poe Mystery Case, NY Review of Books
The Recognition of Edgar
Allan Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays edited by Eric W. Carlson
Poe: A Collection of Critical
Essays edited by Robert Regan
-REVIEW:
NEVERMORE By William Hjortsberg (Tom De Haven, NY Times Book Review)
-ESSAY:
MYSTERIES JOIN THE MAINSTREAM (Michiko Kakutani, NY Times Book Review)
Comments:
Orrin welcomes reader comments on his reviews.
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