The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

The protagonist, Arthur Gordon Pym, recounts his life and experiences leading to a harrowing sea voyage. Born in Nantucket to a respectable family, he becomes fascinated with the sea through tales from his friend Augustus Barnard, a sea captain's son. After a series of reckless adventures, Pym stows away on a whaling ship, the Grampus, intending to escape his mundane life. The voyage quickly turns disastrous. The ship encounters a violent storm, leading to a mutiny among the crew, instigated by the first mate. Pym and Augustus find themselves in a fight for survival as the crew descends into chaos, resulting in the captain being cast adrift and the crew engaging in brutal acts of violence against one another. Pym and Augustus, along with a few others, are forced to confront the grim reality of starvation and the moral dilemmas that arise from their dire situation. As supplies dwindle, the group faces the unthinkable choice of cannibalism. Augustus succumbs to his injuries, leaving Pym and the remaining crew members to grapple with their humanity amidst the horrors of survival. Pym's narrative explores themes of desperation, the struggle for power, and the thin veneer of civilization that can quickly erode in the face of extreme adversity. Eventually, Pym and the surviving crew manage to escape the wreck of the Grampus, but not without significant loss and trauma. They encounter another ship, only to discover it is filled with corpses, suggesting a mysterious and deadly fate that has befallen its crew. The story culminates in Pym's reflections on the nature of humanity, survival, and the unknown terrors that lie beyond the horizon, leaving readers with a sense of unease and contemplation about the limits of human endurance and morality.

By Edgar Allan Poe · First published 1838 · Genre: Adventure, Gothic Fiction, Sea Literature · 26 chapters · 79,239 words

First lines

My name is Arthur Gordon Pym. My father was a respectable trader in sea-stores at Nantucket, where I was born. My maternal grandfather was an attorney in good practice. He was fortunate in everything, and had speculated very successfully in stocks of the Edgarton New Bank, as it was formerly called. By these and other means he had managed to lay by a tolerable sum of money. He was more attached to myself, I believe, than to any other person in the world, and I expected to inherit the most of his property at his death. He sent me, at six years of age, to the school of old Mr. Ricketts, a gentleman with only one arm and of eccentric manners -- he is well known to almost every person who has visited New Bedford. I stayed at his school until I was sixteen, when I left him for Mr. E. Ronald's academy on the hill. Here I became intimate with the son of Mr. Barnard, a sea-captain, who generally sailed in the employ of Lloyd and Vredenburgh -- Mr. Barnard is also very well known in New Bedford, and has many relations, I am certain, in Edgarton. His son was named Augustus, and he was nearly two years older than myself. He had been on a whaling voyage with his father in the John Donaldson, and was always talking to me of his adventures in the South Pacific Ocean. I used frequently to go home with him, and remain all day, and sometimes all night. We occupied the same bed, and he would be sure to keep me awake until almost light, telling me stories of the natives of the Island of Tinian, and other places he had visited in his travels. At last I could not help being interested in what he said, and by degrees I felt the greatest desire to go to sea. I owned a sailboat called the Ariel, and worth about seventy-five dollars. She had a half-deck or cuddy, and was rigged sloop-fashion -- I forget her tonnage, but she would hold ten persons without much crowding. In this boat we were in the habit of going on some of the maddest freaks in the world; and, when I now think of them, it appears to me a thousand wonders that I am alive today.

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Adventure · American Literature · Coming-of-Age · Exploration · Fiction · Maritime · Novel · Picaresque · Sea Story · Survival · Thriller · Young Adult

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The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is listed on Textopian as a novel by Edgar Allan Poe, dated 1838 CE.

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