ARTHUR GORDON PYM

My visions were of shipwreck and famine; of death or captivity among hordes of barbarians; of a period of life spent in pain and tears, on some gray and desolate rock, in an unapproachable and unknown ocean… After Machen, Chambers, and Stoker, here comes Edgar Allan Poe into the collection of gothic and fantastic classics, with his most famous novel. Written between 1837 and 1838 in the wake of the interest aroused by the great Antarctic expeditions, Arthur Gordon Pym is the story of a young adventure lover, son of a Nantucket maritime goods merchant, who clandestinely embarks on the whaler Grampus. Once at sea, he finds himself experiencing a thousand adventures, between storms, shipwrecks, and mutinies. The maritime exploits intertwine with spectral apparitions, such as the one that awaits the protagonist near the South Pole, towards the end of the story. A sort of descent into Hell and a precursor of psychological horror, Poe's novel has inspired authors such as Stevenson, Melville, Conrad, and Verne. Daniele Serra's illustrations today make its most secret strings vibrate, capturing the reader in a dizzying literary journey.