Text: George P. Morris (?), [Review of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym], New-York Mirror (New York, NY), vol. 16, no. 7, August 11, 1838, p. 55, col. 1

[page 55, column 1, continued:]

“Pym's Adventures and Discoveries.” — A volume from the press of the Harpers, professing to give the “details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the south seas, in the month of June, 1827. with an account of the recapture of the vessel by the survivers; their shipwreck and subsequent horrible sufferings from famine; their deliverance by means of the British schooner Jane Guy; the brief cruise of this latter vessel in the Antarctic Ocean; her capture, and the massacre of her crew among a group of islands in the eighty-fourth parallel of southern latitude; together with the incredible adventures and discoveries still farther south to which that distressing calamity gave rise.”

The author would have shown his ingenuity to more purpose, if he had preserved the vraisemblance of his narrative. As it is, the gross improbabilites [[improbabilities]] and preternatural adventures through which his hero passes, soon destroy the interest of the reader, and revolt the imagination. We are constantly tempted to exclaim: “Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude!” At the same time we must concede to the author, the merit of a fine mastery over language, and powers of description rarely excelled.