A Descent into the Maelstrom
by Edgar Allan Poe · first published 1920
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"A Descent into the Maelström" is an 1841 short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. In the tale, a man recounts how he survived a shipwreck and a whirlpool. It has been grouped with Poe's tales of ratiocination and also labeled an early form of science fiction.
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I wonder if the author knows that Edgar Allan Poe's A Descent into the Maelström is entirely fictional...
on “Black Hole Analogue Discovered in South Atlantic” ↗…me an event such as never happened to mortal man -- or at least such as no man ever survived to tell of -- and the six hours of deadly terror which I then endured have broken me up body and soul.” A Descent Into The Maelstrom, Edgar Allan Poe, 1845 https://poestories.com/read/descent
on “Extreme 'Rogue Wave' in the North Pacific Confirmed as Most Extreme on Record” ↗Part of the reason is the decline of the semicolon and em-dash. At least anecdotally, I feel that they were far more common in pre-20th century fiction. Consider the opening of Poe's "Descent into the Maelstrom": > “Not long ago,” said he at length, “and I could have guided you on this route as well as the youngest of my sons; but, about three years past, there happened to me an event such as never happened…
on “Why Have Sentence Lengths Decreased?” ↗