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The Narrative of Arthur Pym of Nantucket – Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe didn’t write many books in his short life – he was generally more about the short stories and poetry. This means that is a bit of a treasure for fans of Poe’s rather dark scribblings. The fact this is a book devoted entirely to sailing and the sea is a bit of an added bonus. Poe himself was never a sailor by profession, but garnered a good deal of knowledge through extended voyages aboard passenger ships (he sailed across the Atlantic twice as a child in packet ships). He also backed this up with extensive research and accounts of contemporary voyages. is an interesting tale as it introduces Pym as an unreliable narrator, who tells of his seemingly endless misfortunes after stowing away on whaling ship bound for the South Seas. In the course of the voyage, Poe narrates various privations is a gripping, disorientating read with some searingly memorable descriptions that seem to foreshadow all sorts of writers, from Herman Melville to Emily Bronte, and also provided inspiration for symbolist poets such as Rimbaud, and even wordsmiths like Bob Dylan in his mid 60s pomp.