MS. Found in a Bottle

by Edgar Allan Poe

"MS. Found in a Bottle" is an 1833 short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).

The plot follows an unnamed narrator at sea who finds himself in a series of harrowing circumstances. As he nears his own disastrous death while his ship drives ever southward, he writes an "MS.", or manuscript telling of his adventures which he casts into the sea…

The ebook contains a long note on Poe’s life and work written by French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) in 1852. The essay was translated in English by Henry Curwen (1845-1892).

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Classics

30 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 20, 2012

About the author

The 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...

Reviews

[Katerina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Απογοητευμένη για ακόμα μία φορά από διήγημα του Edgar Allan Poe. Μου φάνηκε αδιάφορο και βαρετό. Ναι, αν και πολύ μικρό με κούρασε και ήθελα απλά να το τελειώσω. Μέσα από αυτό ο Poe πέτυχε φυσικά τον στόχο του να δείξει την τεράστια δύναμη της φύσης και των στοιχείων της. Πόσο αδύναμος είναι τελικά ο άνθρωπος μπροστά στην οργή της. Μέσα από αυτό παρατήρησα και κάτι άλλο. Κάτι που μπορεί να μην είχε σκοπό να το δείξει, παρόλα αυτά, εγώ αυτό κατάλαβα. Με το μήνυμα στο μπουκάλι που ήθελε να αφήσει σε περίπτωση που συμβεί κάτι να το βρει κάποιος, καταλαβαίνω τη δική του αγωνία ή την αγωνία όλων των ανθρώπων όσα δημιουργούν να μείνουν, να αναγνωριστούν. Να αφήσουν το στίγμα τους. Να μην χαθούν απλά και στην συγκεκριμένη περίπτωση, να τα καταβροχθίσει η θάλασσα.

Αν και δεν μου άρεσε, συνεχίζω να μην τα παρατάω και αυτό επειδή μου έχουν αφήσει καλές εντυπώσεις τα ποιήματά του.

[Maria Pap-A-Gian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ένα άρθρο πάνω στον μύθο του Ιπτάμενου Ολλανδού, του πλοίου φαντάσματος που στοιχειώνει τους ναυτικούς με έστειλε σε αυτό το διήγημα του Edgar Allan Poe. Ένα πλοίο που ο μύθος λεει ότι το πλήρωμά του πέθανε εν πλω στα ανοιχτά του ακρωτηρίου της Καλής Ελπίδος και καταδικασμένο καθώς είναι να μην πιάσει ποτέ λιμάνι προσεγγίζει σκάφη που περνούν απ' την περιοχή και οι ψυχές του πληρώματος προσπαθούν να μάθουν νέα για τους συγγενείς τους, κάτι που θεωρείται πολύ κακός οιωνός. Το διήγημα αρκετά καλογραμμένο και περιγραφικό μίας άλλης ναυτικής τραγωδίας φέρνει τους μοναδικούς δύο επιζώντες αντιμέτωπους με τον Ιπτάμενο Ολλανδό και εκεί ξετυλίγεται ένα κουβάρι μυστήριων και σκοτεινών γεγονότων.

[Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I could not help feeling the utter hopelessness of hope itself, and prepared myself gloomily for that death which I thought nothing could defer beyond an hour, as, with every knot of way the ship made, the swelling of the black stupendous seas became more dismally appalling. At times we gasped for breath at an elevation beyond the albatross — at times became dizzy with the velocity of our descent into some watery hell, where the air grew stagnant, and no sound disturbed the slumbers of the kraken."

[Aishu Rehman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poe’s fascination with scientific discoveries and theories, including some way-out-there ideas, provided much fodder for his writing. Several tales, particularly the story “MS. Found in a Bottle” and the novel Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, suggest an interest in what was then known as the Hollow Earth Theory. The idea had been around since the late seventeenth century.

[Alishba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again, the story explores Poe’s hallmark themes, building suspense and tension.

Written in the form of a diary, it follows a man on a sea voyage who encounters the supernatural. His thoughts become increasingly muddled as he recalls his descent into madness aboard a ghostly ship.

While Poe excels at crafting a gothic atmosphere, i find myself more drawn to his poetry, as his stories often lack the immediate depth that his verses deliver.