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The only novel completed by the master of the short-story form, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym relates the rollicking adventures of a boy from Nantucket as he boards a succession of ships and travels in the farthest regions of the southern hemisphere. On the way, he experiences the hardships and dangers of life at sea, surviving a violent storm, stowing away on a whaling ship and being reduced to the most extreme measures by hunger. The result is a yarn as thrilling as any of Poe''s horror stories.Alongside Pym''s exploits, this collection includes many celebrated tales, such as ''The Cask of Amontillado'', ''The Gold Bug'' and ''Hop-Frog'', as well as Poe''s second, unfinished novel, The Journal of Julius Rodman, all of which bear witness to the narrative genius of one of America''s greatest storytellers.>
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. Born Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809; he was informally adopted by the Allans of Richmond after his parents' death. He attended the University of Virginia and briefly attempted a military career, before embarking on a literary career. After publishing an anonymous collection of poems in 1827, Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals. He married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, in 1835, who died in 1842 not long after publishing his famous poem 'The Raven'. He began planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), but died in 1849 before being able to see it produced.
