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رسالة في قارورة
من الأعمال القصصية الكاملة للكاتب، دار الكتاب الجديد، ترجمة مصطفى ناصر.
15 pages, Paperback
First published October 19, 1833
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,961 books27.3k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 355 reviews
June 4, 2016
Poe starts this one by making it absolutely clear that his narrator has no imagination; he is rational, stable, and perhaps even a little bit dull. So that means he is sane or, at the very least, he thinks he is. And there’s the rub. Why would he take such efforts to tell us this? Does he want you to believe this strange story?
I think so. He wants you to give his words credence. Then, when the impossible happens, you don’t doubt it. Robert Louis Stevenson did a very similar thing in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. A perfectly normal man narrates the story (Utterson) so when the world turns upside down you don’t doubt the character’s sanity or the plausibility of the events. However, with Poe it’s never that simple. When he turns the realism off, there is always more to the occurrence. There is always something darker in his character’s mind.
The sea goes black and a strange ship hovers above the narrator’s own:
All around was horror, and thick gloom, and a black sweltering desert of ebony. Superstitious terror crept by degrees into the spirit of the old Swede, and my own soul was wrapped up in silent wonder.
And then the reality sets in. We can never fully trust one of Poe’s narrator’s despite what he says about himself. There is always something persecuting them or something troubling their mind. That’s just how Poe writes. It’s not clear what this one’s problem is, but he’s definitely haunted by something. The story is a progression of fragmented narrative sequences in the form of a journal. Each is written when the narrator is under a different degree of mental strain. As the story develops, the strain becomes heavier. The writing is more erratic, passionate and nonsensical. It becomes much darker towards the end; it’s like he isn’t even there on the ship, a silent observer of the new crew: a spectre.
To conceive the horror of my sensations is, I presume, utterly impossible — yet a curiosity to penetrate the mysteries of these awful regions predominates even over my despair, and will reconcile me to the most hideous aspect of death.
He is almost separate from all others. Are they ghosts? Or has he completely lost it? It’s hard to tell. There is a high degree of distance within the narrative. The narrator shares the fate of the crew, their “destiny,” though he never really felt part of it. The story is dense and complex. I’d argue that the narrator changed as he wrote it. Something altered him resulting in this strange account, which is tenuous at best. I’m not entirely sure he was even in on a ghost ship at the end. He may have imagined it all. Why else would he tell you he had no imagination? He wants you to believe his words. I smell an unreliable narrator. This is a wonderfully dark tale, complex and undefinable.
I think so. He wants you to give his words credence. Then, when the impossible happens, you don’t doubt it. Robert Louis Stevenson did a very similar thing in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. A perfectly normal man narrates the story (Utterson) so when the world turns upside down you don’t doubt the character’s sanity or the plausibility of the events. However, with Poe it’s never that simple. When he turns the realism off, there is always more to the occurrence. There is always something darker in his character’s mind.
The sea goes black and a strange ship hovers above the narrator’s own:
All around was horror, and thick gloom, and a black sweltering desert of ebony. Superstitious terror crept by degrees into the spirit of the old Swede, and my own soul was wrapped up in silent wonder.
And then the reality sets in. We can never fully trust one of Poe’s narrator’s despite what he says about himself. There is always something persecuting them or something troubling their mind. That’s just how Poe writes. It’s not clear what this one’s problem is, but he’s definitely haunted by something. The story is a progression of fragmented narrative sequences in the form of a journal. Each is written when the narrator is under a different degree of mental strain. As the story develops, the strain becomes heavier. The writing is more erratic, passionate and nonsensical. It becomes much darker towards the end; it’s like he isn’t even there on the ship, a silent observer of the new crew: a spectre.
To conceive the horror of my sensations is, I presume, utterly impossible — yet a curiosity to penetrate the mysteries of these awful regions predominates even over my despair, and will reconcile me to the most hideous aspect of death.
He is almost separate from all others. Are they ghosts? Or has he completely lost it? It’s hard to tell. There is a high degree of distance within the narrative. The narrator shares the fate of the crew, their “destiny,” though he never really felt part of it. The story is dense and complex. I’d argue that the narrator changed as he wrote it. Something altered him resulting in this strange account, which is tenuous at best. I’m not entirely sure he was even in on a ghost ship at the end. He may have imagined it all. Why else would he tell you he had no imagination? He wants you to believe his words. I smell an unreliable narrator. This is a wonderfully dark tale, complex and undefinable.
February 4, 2021
MS. Found in a Bottle by Edgar Allan Poe
It is one of Poe's sea tales where an unnamed narrator finds himself in some frightening situations. Not his best work, I feel. But still, there was terror and suspense in this short story.
Decent.
It is one of Poe's sea tales where an unnamed narrator finds himself in some frightening situations. Not his best work, I feel. But still, there was terror and suspense in this short story.
A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my soul.
Decent.
November 15, 2021
احدي قصص مجموعة قناع الموت الاحمر
تحت اسم: مخطوطة في قنينة
تحت اسم: مخطوطة في قنينة
June 27, 2024
Alguna vez leí La botellita de cristal de Lovecraft y, sabiendo que éste relato de Poe posiblemente inspiró al primero, no le tenía mucha fe. Estuve totalmente equivocado. En la presente historia conoceremos a un hombre escéptico que trata de encontrarle una coherencia lógica a todo, pero que vivirá una sobrenatural aventura sin explicación alguna, cosa que trastocará sus creencias e ideales.
Y es que, claramente la enorme embarcación donde este desgraciado protagonista pasa es un barco fantasma y/o maldito. Antes de aparecerse por primera vez ante el personaje de forma tan imponente sobre las tormentosas olas, este misterioso barco evocó los clásicos y característicos presagios para anunciar su presencia, tal cual nos cuentan las tradicionales leyendas folclóricas de este tipo: extensa niebla, luces extrañas en el mar, etc. así como el Holandés Errante o el Caleuche.
Siguiendo con esta base de leyenda que evidentemente inspiró la estructura de este relato, da para plantearse muchas preguntas y teorías al respecto: ¿Cuál será la metáfora de esta historia?, ¿tendrá alguna? ¿Qué significa este gran buque o qué es?, ¿podrá ser una representación de La Muerte o una personificación de los caídos en altamar y/o de los náufragos? ¿Hacia a dónde se dirige esta embarcación y cuál es su objetivo? ¿Quiénes o qué conforman a la tripulación?, ¿son custodios de algo o llevan (a) algún tesoro importante? ¿Qué hay acerca del misterioso documento que revisaba el capitán?
Muchas preguntas sin respuesta aparente; o, simplemente Poe quiso jugar con el misterio y darnos a entender de que hay cosas extrañas que están más allá de nuestro entendimiento y que no tenemos por qué enterarnos de estos propósitos, ya que somos insignificantes ante tales circunstancias. A lo mejor ese es el único resultado y mensaje final, siendo así esta obra, una especie de precursor del concepto que posteriormente se desarrollaría a mayor escala para ser conocido como ‘’horror cósmico’’.
Concluyendo, puedo decir que me agradó bastante la parte en la que el protagonista describe ver ‘’paredes de hielo’’ mientras navegaba hacia confines desconocidos, a sabiendas de que le espera un destino funesto.
En esta obra se presentan buenas atmósferas y la ambientación es adecuada. Una historia muy bien lograda y atrapante. Además, siento que, este cuento me gustó muchísimo más que El gato negro, a pesar de ser más simple que este último. Esto significa que, Manuscrito encontrado en una botella, se convierte en mi relato favorito del autor hasta el momento; pero, soy realista y objetivo, así que le daré exactamente la misma calificación de ★★★★☆.
Para no perder el hilo con las demás reseñas de Narraciones extraordinarias:
• Precedida de Los anteojos: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• Seguida por El corazón delator: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Y es que, claramente la enorme embarcación donde este desgraciado protagonista pasa es un barco fantasma y/o maldito. Antes de aparecerse por primera vez ante el personaje de forma tan imponente sobre las tormentosas olas, este misterioso barco evocó los clásicos y característicos presagios para anunciar su presencia, tal cual nos cuentan las tradicionales leyendas folclóricas de este tipo: extensa niebla, luces extrañas en el mar, etc. así como el Holandés Errante o el Caleuche.
Siguiendo con esta base de leyenda que evidentemente inspiró la estructura de este relato, da para plantearse muchas preguntas y teorías al respecto: ¿Cuál será la metáfora de esta historia?, ¿tendrá alguna? ¿Qué significa este gran buque o qué es?, ¿podrá ser una representación de La Muerte o una personificación de los caídos en altamar y/o de los náufragos? ¿Hacia a dónde se dirige esta embarcación y cuál es su objetivo? ¿Quiénes o qué conforman a la tripulación?, ¿son custodios de algo o llevan (a) algún tesoro importante? ¿Qué hay acerca del misterioso documento que revisaba el capitán?
Muchas preguntas sin respuesta aparente; o, simplemente Poe quiso jugar con el misterio y darnos a entender de que hay cosas extrañas que están más allá de nuestro entendimiento y que no tenemos por qué enterarnos de estos propósitos, ya que somos insignificantes ante tales circunstancias. A lo mejor ese es el único resultado y mensaje final, siendo así esta obra, una especie de precursor del concepto que posteriormente se desarrollaría a mayor escala para ser conocido como ‘’horror cósmico’’.
Concluyendo, puedo decir que me agradó bastante la parte en la que el protagonista describe ver ‘’paredes de hielo’’ mientras navegaba hacia confines desconocidos, a sabiendas de que le espera un destino funesto.
En esta obra se presentan buenas atmósferas y la ambientación es adecuada. Una historia muy bien lograda y atrapante. Además, siento que, este cuento me gustó muchísimo más que El gato negro, a pesar de ser más simple que este último. Esto significa que, Manuscrito encontrado en una botella, se convierte en mi relato favorito del autor hasta el momento; pero, soy realista y objetivo, así que le daré exactamente la misma calificación de ★★★★☆.
Para no perder el hilo con las demás reseñas de Narraciones extraordinarias:
• Precedida de Los anteojos: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• Seguida por El corazón delator: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
July 5, 2020
"Είμαστε, αναμφίβολα, καταδικασμένοι να ζυγιαζόμαστε αέναα στο χείλος της αιωνιότητας, χωρίς να κάνουμε ποτέ την τελειωτική βουτιά στην άβυσσο."
October 25, 2021
I’m honestly quite surprised that this has such a low rating. I thought it was a beautifully written spooky nautical tale. I wish it had been longer!
December 21, 2023
- يبدو ان القصة ترتكز فكرتها على احدى القصص الإلمانية عن سفينة كانت تسير بسرعات جنونية واختفت يوماً قرب رأس الرجاء الصالح وعادت ��لظهور لاحقاً - حسب البحارة- فأطلقوا عليها اسم "السفينة الشبح" او "سفينة الأشباح".
- يبدأ الشخص الراوي بالكلام بوصف ذاته وأهم ما يركز عليه هو تعليله العلمي لجميع الظواهر مهما كانت بسيطة، ليكتشف في الجزء الثاني من القصة انه في سفينة أشباح والتفسير العلمي لا يساعده الآن، وهنا قد يكون ادغار يضرب على المغالاة في التفسير والتشبث بالآراء!
- قصة جيدة، وهي من الأعمال الأولى لإدغار بو.
- يبدأ الشخص الراوي بالكلام بوصف ذاته وأهم ما يركز عليه هو تعليله العلمي لجميع الظواهر مهما كانت بسيطة، ليكتشف في الجزء الثاني من القصة انه في سفينة أشباح والتفسير العلمي لا يساعده الآن، وهنا قد يكون ادغار يضرب على المغالاة في التفسير والتشبث بالآراء!
- قصة جيدة، وهي من الأعمال الأولى لإدغار بو.
January 23, 2023
If I were to hazard a guess, I think it was completely consistent with Poe's character in this early stage of his writing career to intend that MS Found in a Bottle be considered as a satire of the adventure stories of the day. However, I would also add, that despite his penchant to be critical of pretentiousness, he was not above a little ostentatiousness himself. This sixth of Poe's stories to be published was submitted as an entry into a writing contest for the Baltimore Saturday Visiter, which he won receiving a $50 prize, likely the first time he got paid for his work published October 19, 1833. Sea tales were very popular during this time, and I believe that despite Poe's intention to poke fun at the fad, he skillfully tells a tale that although begins as adventure, swiftly transforms into a gothic tale of strange storms, ghostly crewmates, and horrifying situations. In the initial pages of the manuscript, our narrator proceeds to communicate that he is a rational person, not given to fits of imagination. Then, follows a fantastical story that the reader should believe, because our narrator has told us that we should believe him. Lovecraft uses the same device in At the Mountains of Madness, Stevenson uses it in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and any number of authors used it to communicate that their narrator was a sane person about to bear witness to insane things. The writing here demonstrates an innate grasp of what those adventure stories were able to capture, while Poe added his gothic, supernatural slant to create a unique alchemy. Definitely, a classic horror story.
January 13, 2021
Este fue el primer golpe de gracia en la carrera de Edgar Allan Poe; y lo fue a punto tal que en 1833 ganó un premio de cincuenta dólares. La situación económica de Poe era muy delicada, ya que se había peleado casi definitivamente con su padre adoptivo John Allan, por lo que ese dinero lo ayudó a no sucumbir.
"El manuscrito hallado en una botella" contiene todos los elementos sobrenaturales que pueden encontrarse en un barco.
El relato supone un doble naufragio. Ambos barcos están condenados. Además lo que Poe nos cuenta aquí se relaciona en cierto modo en primer lugar con "Un descenso al Maelström" y con su única novela "La narrativa de Arthur Gordon Pym", repletas de avatares y situaciones desesperantes.
El hecho que el personaje principal no pueda ser vistos por los tripulantes del segundo barco abre el enigma de preguntarnos si él está o muerto o si son los otros los que ya no forman parte de este mundo.
Indudablemente, H. P. Lovecraft y Jules Verne deben haberse sentido atraídos por este cuento que nos plantea a la muerte como el escollo al cual, de la misma manera que el barco del cuento, nos dirigimos ineludiblemente.
"El manuscrito hallado en una botella" contiene todos los elementos sobrenaturales que pueden encontrarse en un barco.
El relato supone un doble naufragio. Ambos barcos están condenados. Además lo que Poe nos cuenta aquí se relaciona en cierto modo en primer lugar con "Un descenso al Maelström" y con su única novela "La narrativa de Arthur Gordon Pym", repletas de avatares y situaciones desesperantes.
El hecho que el personaje principal no pueda ser vistos por los tripulantes del segundo barco abre el enigma de preguntarnos si él está o muerto o si son los otros los que ya no forman parte de este mundo.
Indudablemente, H. P. Lovecraft y Jules Verne deben haberse sentido atraídos por este cuento que nos plantea a la muerte como el escollo al cual, de la misma manera que el barco del cuento, nos dirigimos ineludiblemente.
December 8, 2018
This seemed more a Jules Verne story than one by Poe.
January 5, 2020
After asserting his own reliability, insisting he is practical rather than imaginative, an unnamed narrator tells the story of his shipwreck. His vessel gets into a storm then is crashed by another ship. At the moment of the impact he winds over to the board of the enormous, weird, mysterious ship. First he is hiding, but soon realizes that no one notices his presence, even if he is standing in front of them.
The writing style is captivating, sprinkled with humor, but the story is finished abruptly. You don’t find out anything about the mysterious ship and its creepy, weird crew before they meet their inevitable end.
You are engaged in the story, your interest is piqued, then you are left unsatisfied… What a pity…
Some critics suggest that MS. Found in a Bottle was meant to be a satire of sea stories in general, especially in light of the absurdity of the plot and the fact that the narrator unrealistically keeps a diary through it all. (wikipedia)
But come on, is any of Poe's writings realistic? Far from it. Maybe he just wanted to ride the trend of sea tales and wrote his own spooky version.
Incomprehensible men! Wrapped up in meditations of a kind which I cannot divine, they pass me by unnoticed. Concealment is utter folly on my part, for the people will not see. It was but just now that I passed directly before the eyes of the mate --it was no long while ago that I ventured into the captain's own private cabin, and took thence the materials with which I write, and have written.
The writing style is captivating, sprinkled with humor, but the story is finished abruptly. You don’t find out anything about the mysterious ship and its creepy, weird crew before they meet their inevitable end.
It appears to me a miracle of miracles that our enormous bulk is not swallowed up at once and forever. We are surely doomed to hover continually upon the brink of Eternity, without taking a final plunge into the abyss.
You are engaged in the story, your interest is piqued, then you are left unsatisfied… What a pity…
Some critics suggest that MS. Found in a Bottle was meant to be a satire of sea stories in general, especially in light of the absurdity of the plot and the fact that the narrator unrealistically keeps a diary through it all. (wikipedia)
But come on, is any of Poe's writings realistic? Far from it. Maybe he just wanted to ride the trend of sea tales and wrote his own spooky version.
July 14, 2021
Me ha parecido bastante flojo y corto, no entendí el quid del relato.
June 28, 2022
The narrator survives a shipwreck by getting onto another ship, large and mysterious with an incredibly old crew. I really enjoyed the writing but the story doesn’t really end in a satisfying way as there’s no explanation and can you believe the narrator anyway? He shoved his manuscript in a bottle.
April 25, 2020
Here in this simple “note” are so many of his most beautiful pondering thoughts that make him a great writer in my mind.
Like a poor man trying to understand the covenant of Davey Jones, of The Flying Dutchman and his eternal crew as his ship is broken apart and his starting head of North -North West was not fated. He was only destined to stumble aboard the Eternal ship and its creaking crew to take him ever South toward the swirling whirlpools of Hell and the cold death of the sea 🌊... beautiful, sorrowful, and yet trimmed in many things to love for those that know and love sea folklore.
Like a poor man trying to understand the covenant of Davey Jones, of The Flying Dutchman and his eternal crew as his ship is broken apart and his starting head of North -North West was not fated. He was only destined to stumble aboard the Eternal ship and its creaking crew to take him ever South toward the swirling whirlpools of Hell and the cold death of the sea 🌊... beautiful, sorrowful, and yet trimmed in many things to love for those that know and love sea folklore.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 21, 2021
#12/148
This was by far my least favorite tale by Poe.
I do not even have anything to say about this one, it just did not entice my interests.
But here's an image.
This was by far my least favorite tale by Poe.
I do not even have anything to say about this one, it just did not entice my interests.
But here's an image.
October 13, 2020
" ذلك الذي لديه دقيقة واحدة فقط ليحيا ... لم يعد لديه أي شيء يخفيه " فيليب كوينول من مسرحية أتيس ..
وأنا أقول " ذلك الذي لديه دقيقة واحدة فقط ليحيا .... لم يعد هناك أي شيء يخيفه ..."
" لم أكن مستعدا لأن أثق في عرق من البشر الذي منحني من النظرة الفضولية السريعة التي ألقيتها عليه خواصا عديدة غير مألوفة غامضة وريبة وخشية "
يمهد إدجار آلان بو في بداية القصة أن كل شيء واقع لا خيال فالكاتب إنسان وُبِخَ على جفاف عبقريته ونُسِبَ إليه نقص الخيال ...
يقابل البطل في رحلته الوجه القاسي للمحيط فأصبح يعارك وحش الأمواج الكاسر فقط للنجاة بحياته عندما تمر سفينة من أعجب ما رأى وينتقل إلى سطحها خفية ولكن الغريب عدم ملاحظة الطاقم له كأنه شبح لا يُبالي به أحد ليواجه قدر آخر على متن هذه السفينة ..
استمتعوا ...
دمتم قراء ... ❤❤❤
وأنا أقول " ذلك الذي لديه دقيقة واحدة فقط ليحيا .... لم يعد هناك أي شيء يخيفه ..."
" لم أكن مستعدا لأن أثق في عرق من البشر الذي منحني من النظرة الفضولية السريعة التي ألقيتها عليه خواصا عديدة غير مألوفة غامضة وريبة وخشية "
يمهد إدجار آلان بو في بداية القصة أن كل شيء واقع لا خيال فالكاتب إنسان وُبِخَ على جفاف عبقريته ونُسِبَ إليه نقص الخيال ...
يقابل البطل في رحلته الوجه القاسي للمحيط فأصبح يعارك وحش الأمواج الكاسر فقط للنجاة بحياته عندما تمر سفينة من أعجب ما رأى وينتقل إلى سطحها خفية ولكن الغريب عدم ملاحظة الطاقم له كأنه شبح لا يُبالي به أحد ليواجه قدر آخر على متن هذه السفينة ..
استمتعوا ...
دمتم قراء ... ❤❤❤
July 13, 2022
MS in a Bottle is a horror story at sea. A narrator finds himself to be one of two survivors of a storm aboard a ship. One day, another huge ship crashes into his and he sneaks aboard, hoping to stow away. While hiding from the crew, the narrator notices some odd things: outdated navigation tools, elderly crew members, a distraught captain. Nobody seems to notice him and eventually he is able to walk among them and still go unnoticed. Their ship heads towards the South Pole and gets pulled into a whirlpool. All along, the narrator is writing his manuscript that he will put into a bottle and which the reader is reading at the moment. We never do find out if the sailors die, if they are sucked into the center of the earth, or if they are stuck in limbo forever.
Poe seems to have played with his horror at sea motif with this story before penning A Descent into the Maelstrom or Arthur Gordon Pym. The haunted ship, akin to the Flying Dutchman, is a cursed ship and the narrator becomes cursed like the rest of the crew. His situation of being stranded on his ship is just made worse by jumping aboard the strange one caught in limbo. The limbo is awful but it’s made worse when the crew seems to welcome their potential deaths when the whirlpool starts to pull the ship under. The feeling of hopelessness is pervasive. Perhaps this story is a satire on sensationalized sea tales but it seems too horrible for me to think it funny. However, it was submitted to a contest - and it won - with other satirical pieces like Bon-Bon. However he meant it - horrific or funny - Poe certainly wrote a classic story with MS in a Bottle.
Poe seems to have played with his horror at sea motif with this story before penning A Descent into the Maelstrom or Arthur Gordon Pym. The haunted ship, akin to the Flying Dutchman, is a cursed ship and the narrator becomes cursed like the rest of the crew. His situation of being stranded on his ship is just made worse by jumping aboard the strange one caught in limbo. The limbo is awful but it’s made worse when the crew seems to welcome their potential deaths when the whirlpool starts to pull the ship under. The feeling of hopelessness is pervasive. Perhaps this story is a satire on sensationalized sea tales but it seems too horrible for me to think it funny. However, it was submitted to a contest - and it won - with other satirical pieces like Bon-Bon. However he meant it - horrific or funny - Poe certainly wrote a classic story with MS in a Bottle.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2019
3.5 stars
es buen relato. conciso, interesante y a la expectativa de lo que puede pasar cuando vives lo que el protagonista. ese horror de saber cómo tú y un anciano sueco son los únicos sobrevivientes... me quedé con ganas de ver más.
y sin darme cuenta este relato venía publicado en la colección narraciones extraordinarias, misma que ya había marcado como leída, pero es bueno leer el relato individual para recordarlo, porque no lo tenía tan presente.
es buen relato. conciso, interesante y a la expectativa de lo que puede pasar cuando vives lo que el protagonista. ese horror de saber cómo tú y un anciano sueco son los únicos sobrevivientes... me quedé con ganas de ver más.
y sin darme cuenta este relato venía publicado en la colección narraciones extraordinarias, misma que ya había marcado como leída, pero es bueno leer el relato individual para recordarlo, porque no lo tenía tan presente.
October 9, 2020
There obviously are people who enjoy naval slang; I am not one of them. But, of course, since this is a story by Poe, this particular sea voyage is not going to end well. Poe's world, in general, is definitely not nice, and not supposed to be such. This particular story is, again, misanthropic, hopeless, macabre.
It's mysterious, too - some critics even have their doubts if this was written seriously or as a parody. I'd say, seriously; what do you think?
It's mysterious, too - some critics even have their doubts if this was written seriously or as a parody. I'd say, seriously; what do you think?
November 29, 2019
Poe!, cuanto más lo leo más me gusta. Sobretodo estos así cortitos, que rompen con todo. Que te dejan sumergido en su mundo, que te cambian el ritmo.
January 7, 2022
3 Stars. A sea adventure. Not unlike a few of Poe's others including his only novel, "Narrative of A. Gordon Pym," which follows a lad stowed away on a whaling ship. Like that one, the reader is left to imagine the terrible ending. "Ms." first came out in the "Baltimore Saturday Visiter" in 1833 as the winner for "best tale." In those days, the $50 prize was big! My read of the 11 pages was from the 1960 volume, "The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales." It's not a horror story, as much as one of terror on the sea around Antarctica - the wild ocean, winds, cold and ice. The continent itself had only been discovered in 1820! We follow the unidentified narrator as a passenger on a ship out of the Dutch East Indies city of Batavia (now Jakarta). They soon experience a typhoon, and only two survive, the narrator and an old Swede. Drifting south, they collide with a strange ghost ship of huge proportions which is manned by extremely old and unseeing people. Again he survives but his new ship is trapped in the ferocious winds around the new continent. It is then that he launches his manuscript in a bottle to describe his plight. Is it a dream? Or worse - reality? (August 2020)
November 28, 2023
وأخيراً، تظهر الملامح الحقيقية لكتابات "بو" في قصة "رسالة في قارورة" ويأخذنا في رحلة إلى أعماق البحار، وبطلنا الرحال الذي يسافر كثيراً، وهذه المرة في سفينة هائلة، تنتظرها أحداث غريبة في أعماق البحار الغامضة، قصة مرعبة، ببساطة شديدة، ولكن عندما تربط اسم القصة بأحداثها، تجد أن النهاية كانت شديدة السوداوية والمآسأوية.
September 12, 2020
Another extremely underrated tale of the macabre by Poe. The way the ocean is described in this story is filled with gloomy, supernatural horror, yet it is so oddly beautiful and captivating that it makes the tragic finale of the tale leave you all the more speechless.
Gothic horror blending with my deep fear of the sea made this a melancholy and exciting experience for me.
Gothic horror blending with my deep fear of the sea made this a melancholy and exciting experience for me.
June 3, 2017
Sometimes you read title of a particular story and find it interesting but when you actually read the story, it turns out, well, not-that-interesting! Reading this short story was that kind of experience for me.
I went into this story expecting something totally different, but bubble of my expectations was bursted and I was left disappointed. :|
I went into this story expecting something totally different, but bubble of my expectations was bursted and I was left disappointed. :|
June 15, 2013
I have always been drawn to Poe's elaborate psychological tales of consternation, awe, and fear. "Manuscript Found in a Bottle" is an early example of this type of story - not quite effusive dread but more inner fear. Set on the fickle seas, Poe's unnamed narrator is on a ship that is hit and capsized by a Simoom (combination of sand storm and hurricane). The whole of the crew (except for an old Swede) is swept overboard. Eventually, the ship is struck by a gigantic black ship, and the unnamed narrator is able to scramble onboard where he finds outdated maps and useless tools. Perhaps the most eldritch part of this experience is that no one on the ship recognizes his existence. The boat is manned by elderly crewmen who pay no attention to him and reach only some level of hope as the ship drives forward into Antarctica where it hits a whirlpool and begins to sink into the sea.
Some scholars believe the story to be a parody of common sea stories, but I believe the story can be also taken as a terrifying realization of impending death. The narrator takes an active role on a nonstop, nature-guided journey to the maelstrom that ends the story (and presumably the narrator's life). While he does attempt to notify individuals of the constant storms that seem to follow him, the individuals he encounters ignore his apprehension. He is fated to hit the black hole at the end of the tale, and, perhaps unconsciously, his actions move him closer and closer to the end.
Some scholars believe the story to be a parody of common sea stories, but I believe the story can be also taken as a terrifying realization of impending death. The narrator takes an active role on a nonstop, nature-guided journey to the maelstrom that ends the story (and presumably the narrator's life). While he does attempt to notify individuals of the constant storms that seem to follow him, the individuals he encounters ignore his apprehension. He is fated to hit the black hole at the end of the tale, and, perhaps unconsciously, his actions move him closer and closer to the end.
October 8, 2014
Something tossed-off about this tale, something inept and hurried (especially in regard to logic of plotting), something sneering and aggressive and nose-thumbing (a kind of fuck you to critical calls for literary propriety), but then also something utterly powerful and raw too, as if Poe’s apparent don’t care attitude unleashed an animal of surging storming descriptive powers.
So the plotting makes no sense, as it begins as a personal narrative, as a proper literary tale told in a relatively leisurely way, but then shifts into an urgent journalistic narrative of the present moment, necessarily fragmented and impressionistic, and ends (spoiler alert! as if…) with the very narrative we have just read stoppered into a bottle and tossed to safety from the destructive depths of a maelstrom, drawing, presumably, the author to his death. It’s all so technically ludicrous…
But overlooking that, and concentrating on the narrative of storm and shipwreck, the tale has an eerie power; and with a little effort, such as tweaking the narrative into a semblance of sense, the tale can acquire a devastating existential effect: a final cry carrying knowledge from the pits of a living hell.
Poe lets out all the stops in his description of a stormy surging sea, with sentence piled on sentence in an accumulation of pell-mell force that gives the impression of a hulking edifice and a torrential inundation of erosive force, an oceanic mountain range of words, with hyperbolic exaggerations adding either a touch of the ridiculous or a key to the insane terror of the recording mind.
And the Ship of Death, on which the narrator finds himself after his ship is crushed by it, with its senescent ghost-like crew blind to the narrator’s very being, is viscerally haunting, and ranks up there with the best of Poe’s work.
Too bad the over-arching narrative conceit brings the tale down, but then, really, what more do we need, at times, than potent imagery written well, damn the illogicality of the context? This tale sticks in my craw.
So the plotting makes no sense, as it begins as a personal narrative, as a proper literary tale told in a relatively leisurely way, but then shifts into an urgent journalistic narrative of the present moment, necessarily fragmented and impressionistic, and ends (spoiler alert! as if…) with the very narrative we have just read stoppered into a bottle and tossed to safety from the destructive depths of a maelstrom, drawing, presumably, the author to his death. It’s all so technically ludicrous…
But overlooking that, and concentrating on the narrative of storm and shipwreck, the tale has an eerie power; and with a little effort, such as tweaking the narrative into a semblance of sense, the tale can acquire a devastating existential effect: a final cry carrying knowledge from the pits of a living hell.
Poe lets out all the stops in his description of a stormy surging sea, with sentence piled on sentence in an accumulation of pell-mell force that gives the impression of a hulking edifice and a torrential inundation of erosive force, an oceanic mountain range of words, with hyperbolic exaggerations adding either a touch of the ridiculous or a key to the insane terror of the recording mind.
And the Ship of Death, on which the narrator finds himself after his ship is crushed by it, with its senescent ghost-like crew blind to the narrator’s very being, is viscerally haunting, and ranks up there with the best of Poe’s work.
Too bad the over-arching narrative conceit brings the tale down, but then, really, what more do we need, at times, than potent imagery written well, damn the illogicality of the context? This tale sticks in my craw.
August 16, 2021
"It is evident that we are hurrying onwards to some exciting knowledge — some never-to-be-imparted secret, whose attainment is destruction".
There are some wonderful lines in this work, along with some interesting imagery. But it isn't much of a story, more a description of increasing distress. It's kinda boring, honestly. I'm going to choose a better known tale for my next selection.
There are some wonderful lines in this work, along with some interesting imagery. But it isn't much of a story, more a description of increasing distress. It's kinda boring, honestly. I'm going to choose a better known tale for my next selection.
December 5, 2018
Mágico, original y muy imaginativo relato sobre una fantástica historia en el mar, con toques de piratas y misterio.
February 15, 2019
Ese final, me ha gustado mucho
December 11, 2020
just a dream and the wind to carry me, and soon I will be free
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