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Title: The horror of life on a whaling ship written with grisly detail
Review: Written in 1838, this is the only complete novel written by Edgar Alan Poe. It is written as a first person narrative and describes in grisly detail the story of a stowaway on a whaling ship. I must say that I learned more about life at sea in those times than I ever wanted to know, especially the horror of near starvation, cannibalism, mistreatment and death. Every sentence seems to bring another repulsive incident and life at sea seems a serious and perhaps too realistic description.Good thing the book was short because it was difficult to read even though there was no doubt of the writer's skill. Basically, it was an excellent book, but it's difficult to recommend unless the reader is willing to thrust himself or herself into a this sad and painful world which is based on how things were in those early whaling days.
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