The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(4 stars; 73 reviews)

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is Edgar Allan Poe’s only complete novel, published in 1838.

The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym who stows away aboard a whaling ship called Grampus. Various adventures and mis-adventures befall Pym including shipwreck, mutiny and cannibalism. The story starts out as a fairly conventional adventure at sea, but it becomes increasingly strange and hard to classify in later chapters, involving religious symbolism and the Hollow Earth. (Summary from Wikipedia) (6 hr 22 min)

Chapters

Chapter 00 3:25 Read by Oscar Goff
Chapter 01 21:59 Read by Kevin McAsh
Chapter 02 13:58 Read by Joseph Loverti
Chapter 03 21:20 Read by Joseph Loverti
Chapter 04 13:28 Read by Joseph Loverti
Chapter 05 17:13 Read by J. M. Smallheer
Chapter 06 20:15 Read by J. M. Smallheer
Chapter 07 4:08 Read by J. M. Smallheer
Chapter 08 16:56 Read by Kirsten Ferreri
Chapter 09 18:36 Read by Michael Sirois
Chapter 10 11:39 Read by Michael Sirois
Chapter 11 15:45 Read by Michael Sirois
Chapter 12 23:28 Read by Julian Jamison
Chapter 13 22:00 Read by Julian Jamison
Chapter 14 21:01 Read by Silver
Chapter 15 11:34 Read by Silver
Chapter 16 4:34 Read by Kirsten Ferreri
Chapter 17 12:23 Read by Kirsten Ferreri
Chapter 18 15:12 Read by Kirsten Ferreri
Chapter 19 13:08 Read by audiotoshokan
Chapter 20 15:46 Read by audiotoshokan
Chapter 21 12:03 Read by LetzterDetektiv
Chapter 22 14:17 Read by mansoull2005
Chapter 23 10:40 Read by mansoull2005
Chapter 24 15:04 Read by mansoull2005
Chapter 25 12:20 Read by Oscar Goff
Endnote 6:20 Read by Esther

Reviews

good story


(4.5 stars)

very good book, I am glad Jules Verne wrote the sequel. readers were good, all except one :( I have never complained about a volunteer, but I feel I must warn others. if you can get past the 2 chapters she read then it is an awesome book! on that note I do want to say thank you very much for the time all volunteers took to read this great book.

Amazing


(5 stars)

One of the greatest writers to grace the earth. How fortunate I was to able to listen due to the volunteers, thank you. I apologize for all of the folks that forget they beauty of the literature and the kindness of the readers to only focus on their petty negativity.

Excellant Book !


(4 stars)

This was a great story to listen to, anytime I’m excited to get to work to listen to the next chapter you know its good (I listen while working) the adventure pulls you in, you really want to find out what happens next. BUT...even after reading the other reviews I still wanted to give the reader the benefit of the doubt & continue on with chapters 14 & 15. I have to say the bizarre reading style made it hard to listen to but the understanding of it gets lost as well. It reminded me of a "Town crier" making an announcement of each & every sentence! As I said, a very bizarre & distracting reading style that gets progressively worse to the point she almost sounds like she's singing the words! I truly hope someone can re-record these two chapters & give this excellent read the consistency it needs for others to enjoy

SILVA should not be reading books aloud


(3 stars)

Up until Chapter 15, the readers are halfway decent to good - intelligible, and a good reading cadence. Unfortunately, reaching Chapter 15 - we come to "Silva" - who has a very strange reading style that can only be described as sing-song-y, and at the same time, read in a steady monotone throughout (yes, it can be both - listen to Chapter 15 of the archive on this site) - that makes the *meaning* of the sentences she is reading, nearly unintelligible. I have no idea what Chapter 15 was about, and no way am I going back and listening to that again. I wanted to throw the MP3 player across the room, listening to her read. I understand she thought she was contributing something to the public, by reading audiobook(s) aloud - but really, she should find another outlet, if what she's reading, cannot be deciphered by the listener.


(2 stars)

Too many readers. And too many struggled to pronounce fairly common words correctly or read with feeling - one in particular (Silver) nearly drove me to abandon the attempt to listen through to the end. Furthermore, why does the summary talk about a hollow earth theory and greater outlandishness near the end of the novel, when nothing occurred except the one brief mention of a supernatural man (which might have been explained away subsequently, anyway)? Has it been abridged? I hope my words will be construed in the way I intended, as constructive criticism. I love being able to listen to your cornucopia of books without having to pay, and accept one shouldn’t really look a gift horse in the mouth…

interesting story for it's time


(4 stars)

considering this is one of the earliest examples of fantasy fiction it is still enjoyable today. it must have been nice to live in a world when there were still so many unanswered questions and unexplored places. my only complaint is with the variable quality of the readers, there was one reader in particular that I really struggled to listen to so I was thankful she only read 2 chapters.

Mostly well-read, spoiled by Sylva


(3 stars)

Could not agree more with the previous review. The readers in the LibriVox recording are mostly quite good but Sylva's deliver forced me to skip the two chapters she read -- her accent, which I could not pin down and wondered if it might be affected, was distracting but the sing-song delivery was just terrible. Here's hoping someone --anyone-- records another reading of those chapters.

LEAVRS YOU HANGING


(3.5 stars)

The first section until the rescue from the hulk is vintage Poe. His vivid descriptions of entrapment and physical deprivations are matched by no other author. After this, however, he is out of his element and seems to lose intetrst and cohesiveness. The abrupt endind gives lie to the assertion that this was his only COMPLETE novel. Verne's sequel will hopefully be more satisfying.