The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym moves from the American coast to mutiny in mid-ocean, from shipwreck on a savage island towards the then unknown South pole. Eureka, by contrast, tackles the sublime subject of the universe: how it works and how it will end. The narrator, like a detective, analyses the ‘plot of God’; and this cosmic text becomes a model against which the enigmas of Pym are illuminated.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic. He is best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. He was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.
