Text: Anonymous, [Review of Narrative of A. G. Pym], Snowden's Ladies’ Companion, vol. IX, no. 5, September 1838, p. 250

[page 250:]

LITERARY REVIEW.

NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR JORDON [[GORDON]] PYM: Harper & Brothers. — There seems to be some diversity of opinion as to the real authorship of this work. It should be a matter of perfect indifference to the public, who the author is; the book has been written and is published, and that, certainly, is knowledge enough. It shows but poor taste that the writer of a book must be known before it can be appreciated. Pym's narrative is peculiarly amusing, although it borders on the marvellous. The work comprises the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, with no account of the re-capture of the vessel by the survivors — their shipwreck and subsequent horrible sufferings from famine — their deliverance by means of a British schooner — the brief cruise of the latter vessel in the Antarctic ocean — her capture and the massacre of her crew among a group of islands, together with the increditable adventures and discoveries to which that distressing calamity gave rise. From the above synopsis it will be perceived that the work bears somewhat of a questionable character, but notwithstanding it is most interesting.