Text: Anonymous, [Review of A. G. Pym], Alexander's Weekly Messenger (Philadelphia, PA), vol. II, no. 33, August 22, 1838, p. 2, col. 3

[page 2, column 3, continued:]

THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM of Nantucket; comprising 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 survivors; their shipwreck and subsequent horrible sufferings from famine; their deliverance by means of the British schooner Jane Grey [[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. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838.

Think of that, Master Brook! What say you, reader to that for a title page? We assure you the book, if possible, is more marvellous still. Captain Riley's narrative was a tame affair, compared with it. “Incredible[[“]] forsooth! The author should have said impossible. What will our nautical friends say to the feat of running a sloop with a jib, when her mast has been carried away in a gale of wind? What will the government say to the discoveries near the south pole? Will they not recall the southern exploring expedition, which is rendered wholly unnecessary by Pym's discoveries? What will the Nantucket folks say to the miracle of a vessel being fitted out from that port, which had never been heard of there, by a mercantile house that never had an existence any where?

To be serious, this is a very clever extravaganza, after the manner of De Foe, understood to be written by Mr. Poe, of Virginia. It indicates great talent and vivacity, and will be perused with amusement by every class of readers.