History Literature / TheNarrativeOfArthurGordonPymOfNantucket

** The paper which Augustus writes a message on seemingly has three sides, ot to mention that the message written on it changes.

* PlotHole:
** One character would not tell Pym a certain fact until "many years elapsed." This character dies a few chapters later.

* AlienGeometries: Near the South Pole.
* AlienSea: Near the South Pole, the water is "of a milky consistency and hue", with violently flaring vapors and temperatures so high it's "almost unpleasant to the touch."

** One character would not tell Pym a certain fact until "many years elapsed." This character dies a few chapters later. [[spoiler: Considering the competence of Poe as a writer, and the general surreality of the story, it's most likely extremely deliberate]]

** One character would not tell Pym a certain fact until "many years elapsed." This character dies a few chapters later.

* AlienSea: Journeying towards the South Pole, the water is "of a milky consistency and hue", with vapors flaring violently and the heat is so extreme it's "almost unpleasant to the touch". [[IGotBetter It doesn't get better]].

* {{Continuation}}:** Charles Romeyn Dake's ''A Strange Discovery'' completes the story as a LostWorld yarn, throwing in exiled Roman explorers and the lost ship's log of Francis Drake.

* MysteriousAntarctica: TropeMaker.

* PlotHole: One character would not tell Pym a certain fact until "many years elapsed." This character dies a few chapters later. Also, if Verne's sequel is to be considered canon, there's the fact that [spoiler: Tiger's collar is found over at Tsalal, indicating the dog survived the sinking of the ''Jane Guy'' and was with Pym, Dirk, Augustus and Parker on the raft... when they decided to draw straws and cannibalize Parker for food rather than the animal.]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: Tiger, Pym's dog]] suddenly stops being mentioned altogether following the wrecking of the ''Jane Guy'', with no indication as to his fate.

* AlienSea: Journeying towards the South Pole, the sea turns "milky white" and "too hot to touch". [[IGotBetter It doesn't get better]].

* {{Continuation}}:
** Charles Romeyn Dake's ''A Strange Discovery'' completes the story as a LostWorld yarn, throwing in exiled Roman explorers and the lost ship's log of Francis Drake.

----

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [spoiler: Tiger, Pym's dog] suddenly stops being mentioned altogether following the wrecking of the ''Jane Guy'', with no indication as to his fate.

'''''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket''''' is the only {{novel}} by EdgarAllanPoe.

* [[spoiler: NoEnding: The bizarre last chapters build to a crescendo that breaks off in mid-story. No explanation. No conclusion. Only Pym and Dirkens drifting through water too hot to touch, a rain of white ash, and the sudden appearance of a shrouded, chalk-skinned giant.]]
* PlotHole: One character would not tell Pym a certain fact until "many years elapsed." This character dies a few chapters later.

** The CallOfCthulhu RPG adventure ''Beyond the Mountains of Madness'' includes the "lost" final chapter.

* ShoutOut: Overtly referenced in HPLovecraft's ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'' with the Shoggoths' cry of ''Tekeli-li!''.

** JulesVerne's ''The Sphinx of the Ice'' does its best to find [[DoingIntheWizard rational explanations for the ending's fantastical elements]].

** The CallOfCthulhu RPG adventure ''BeyondTheMountainsOfMadness'' includes the "lost" final chapter.

* AlienGeometries - Near the South Pole.
* ApocalypticLog - Semi-averted. The entire novel ''reads'' as one, but editorial asides suggest that certain characters not only lived, but returned to civilization. ''How'' this could have happened is left unanswered.
* AuthorAvatar - "Arthur Gordon Pym" and "Edgar Allan Poe" share the same number of letters, and nearly echo each other. Pym's backstory also largely mirrors Poe's, from his falling apart with his family, the encounter with his grandfather, and the fraternal relationship with Augustus, who is loosely based on Poe's older brother. Both Poe's brother and Augustus share [[spoiler: the date of their deaths]].
* CannibalTribe - [[spoiler: The natives of Tsalal.]]
* ChandlersLaw - The novel's preferred method of advancing the plot.

** [[JulesVerne Jules Verne]]'s ''The Sphinx of the Ice'' does its best to find [[DoingIntheWizard rational explanations for the ending's fantastical elements]].
* CosmicHorrorStory - One of the first.
* DeathByIrony - [[spoiler: Parker's death]]. He proposes that the shipwrecked party draw lots and see who gets cannibalized to save the other three. Irony ensues.
* DoorStopper - At 72,000 words, the novel is a major aversion.
* ForeignQueasine - The island cannibals consider the intestines a delicacy ... served complete with the original stuffing.
* GainaxEnding - [[spoiler: The events leading up to the big NoEnding, that is.]]
* GenreShift - The novel starts out as a fairly realistic traveling account and high-seas adventure. However, the farther south Pym goes, the more fantastical the story elements get.
* HeterosexualLifePartners - Pym and Augustus Barnard.
* ImAHumanitarian - An unsettling number of examples, both among major and minor characters.
* LongTitle - Everyone calls the book ''Arthur Gordon Pym'', which is more than half a mouthful itself.
* MindScrew - Back before screwing minds was cool.
* MysteriousAntarctica - TropeMaker
* [[spoiler: NoEnding - The bizarre last chapters build to a crescendo that breaks off in mid-story. No explanation. No conclusion. Only Pym and Dirkens drifting through water too hot to touch, a rain of white ash, and the sudden appearance of a shrouded, chalk-skinned giant.]]
* PlotHole - One character would not tell Pym a certain fact until "many years elapsed." This character dies a few chapters later.
* ShoutOut - Overtly referenced in [[HPLovecraft ''At the Mountains of Madness'']] with the Shoggoths' cry of ''Tekeli-li!''.
* StealthParody - Poe has a lot of fun with the then-popular genre of travel narratives.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath - [[spoiler: By the time he died, Augustus appears to have been held together with stamp glue.]]
* {{Troll}} - There is an interpretation that this novel was composed by Poe to troll all the fans of the then popular genre of travel narratives.
* UnreliableNarrator

'''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket''' was the only complete novel by EdgarAllanPoe.

Published in 1838, it chronicled the progressively incredible adventures of the titular character, from a stowaway berth to the South Pole. Pym's picaresque adventures are marked by ludicrously dark violence and gruesome deaths. The novel's events become increasingly bizarre and fantastical, moving from adventure tale to proto-CosmicHorrorStory.

!Tropes used in Arthur Gordon Pym include:

* FairForItsDay - Utterly averted in the chapters featuring the savage, black-skinned Tsalal: those passages are ugly stuff by nearly any century's standards.

* CannibalTribe - [[spoiler: The natives of Tsalal.]] The core party is also contextually cannibal on occasion, considering [[spoiler: the death of Richard Parker]].

* GenreShift - The novel starts out as a realistic traveling account following detailed exposition of Pym's actions and whereabouts. Things take a turn for the bizarre as the party reaches the South Pole. It "[[NoEnding ends]]" [[spoiler: with the skies turning purple and the water turning white, ashes raining from above, strange animals cawing strange sounds, and cataracts of mist and fog swirling up, only to part and reveal a bizarre giant, enshrouded and "of the perfect whiteness of the snow"]]. Oh, and there's the [[spoiler: maze they traverse before that, which is shaped like a cryptic engraving from some unknown language]]. Go figure.

* DoingInTheWizard - [[JulesVerne "The Sphinx of Ice"]] does its best to find rational explanations for the ending's fantastical elements.

* GainaxEnding - The events leading up to the big NoEnding, that is.

There have been atempts to finish off the novel, one by JulesVerne no less. His ''Sphinx of the Ice Fields'', however, seems to disown most of what happens in that novel and mostly focuses on getting to the Pole. There was one more direct continuation ''A Strange Discovery'' by Charles Romyn Dake, which actualy predates the Verne version (1889).

'''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket''' was the only complete novel by EdgarAllanPoe. Published in 1838, it chronicled the progressively incredible adventures of the titular character, from a stowaway berth to the South Pole.

Pym's picaresque adventures are marked by ludicrously dark violence and gruesome deaths. The novel's events become increasingly bizarre and fantastical, moving from adventure tale to proto-CosmicHorrorStory. The last chapters' strangeness builds to a disorienting peak ... [[NoEnding that ends in mid-story]]. No explanation. No conclusion. Only the image of Pym and Dirkens riding off into the distance in water too hot to hold a hand in, with strange white ash falling from the sky and "a shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of the perfect whiteness of the snow".

* NoEnding

* NauseaFuel - The island cannibals consider the intestines a delicacy. [[ForeignQueasine Served complete with the original stuffing]].

* AuthorAvatar - "Arthur Gordon Pym" and "Edgar Allan Poe" share the same number of letters, and nearly echo each other.
** Pym's backstory also largely mirrors Poe's, from his falling apart with his family, the encounter with his grandfather, and the fraternal relationship with Augustus, who is loosely based on Poe's older brother. Both Poe's brother and Augustus share [[spoiler: the date of their deaths]].

'''The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym Of Nantucket''' was the only complete novel by EdgarAllanPoe. Published in 1838, it chronicled the progressively incredible adventures of the titular character, from a stowaway berth to the South Pole.

* NauseaFuel - The island cannibals consider the intestines a delicacy. [[ForeignQueasine Served complete with the original stuffing]].