After reading an 1836 newspaper account of a shipwreck and its two survivorsEdgar Allan Poe penned his only novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym ofNantucket... » 

After reading an 1836 newspaper account of a shipwreck and its two survivorsEdgar Allan Poe penned his only novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym ofNantucket the story of a stowaway on a Nantucket whaleship who finds himselfenmeshed in the dark side of life at sea mutiny cannibalism savageryevendeath. As Jeffrey Meyers writes in his Introduction Poe remainscontemporary because he appeals to basic human feelings and expresses universalthemes common to all men in all languages dreams love loss grief mourningalienation terror revenge murder insanity disease and death. Within thepages of this novel we encounter nearly all of them. This Modern LibraryPaperback Classic reprints the text of the original 1838 American edition. «