The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym - Edgar Allan Poe (1838)

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From the book: On my return to the United States a few months ago, after the extraordinary series of adventures in the South Seas and other places, of which are given an account in the following pages, an accident threw me into the society of several gentlemen in Richmond, Virginia, who felt a deep interest in all matters connected with the regions I had visited, and who constantly urged me, as a duty, to give my narrative to the public. However, I had several reasons for refusing to do so, some of which were entirely private in nature and concerned no one but myself, others not so much. One consideration that deterred me was that, not having kept a diary during most of the time I was absent, I feared that I could not write, from mere memory, a statement so minute and connected as to have the appearance of truth which it would really possess, save the natural and inevitable exaggeration to which we are all prone in detailing events which have had a powerful influence in exciting the imaginative faculties. Another reason was that the incidents to be narrated were of such a positively marvelous nature that, although my assertions were not necessarily supported (except by the evidence of a single individual, and he was a half-caste Indian), I could only hope that my family and those of my friends who throughout their lives had had reason to trust in my veracity would believe it, the probability being that the general public would regard what I would relate as simply a clever and shameless fiction. Distrust in my own abilities as a writer was, however, one of the main causes that prevented me from complying with my advisors' suggestion.
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Fiction, young men, stowaways, whaling, whaling ships, mutiny, seafaring life, classical literature, historical fiction, American fiction (fictional works by a single author), fiction, marine stories, Nantucket Island (mass.), fiction, American literature, juvenile fiction, fiction, short stories (single author), Massachusetts, fiction, Limited Editions Club, whaling ships - fiction, young men - fiction, stowaways - fiction, Mutiny--Fiction, Nantucket Island (Massachusetts)--Fiction, American Fiction, General Fiction, Children's Fiction, Whaling Ships -- Fiction, Young People -- Fiction, Stowaways -- Fiction, Mutiny -- Fiction, Nantucket Island (Massachusetts) -- Fiction, Fiction, horrorPlaces
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