Arvidland.com The online home of Arvid Nelson, writer of Rex Mundi & Zero Killer

Arthur’s Travels

My wife and I just finished reading Edgar Allan Poe's one and only novel, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket". It's really three short stories stuck together like lumps of Play-doh, and the ending leaves a lot to be desired. So it might not be a successful novel, but Poe on his worst day is better than just about anyone else on their best. There are so many tantalizing, wonderful, mysterious and amazing things Poe never elaborates on, but in a weird way it only adds to the story.

There are a lot – a lot – of dates and coordinates peppered throughout the text. I found it bewildering, so I took it upon myself to mark everything in Google Maps. It ended up a massive undertaking – two or three days of my life I'll never reclaim – but it's done. I daresay the below map is utterly exhaustive. Every single date and place mentioned in the story is included. If you ever read The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket – and you should – I hope it will make the story less confusing.

One of the best things I came away with was an understanding of the vastness and remoteness of the South Pacific. Poe mentions and island called Tristan D'Acunha, smack dab in the middle of the ocean, between Brazil and South Africa. British entrepreneurs settled it in the early 19th Century, and it's still inhabited to this day. The main settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, is the most remote outpost of Western civilization on the globe.

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