"This can be nothing else than the great whirlpool of the Maelstrom."

1 star. This short story felt flat to me. Of course, this is THE Edgar Allan Poe we're talking about. His works are notoriously known to chill all readers to the bone. I have only ever read his poetry, but this is the first (short) story I've read of his and I was not entirely impressed. I read somewhere that two ways you can create suspense in your work and scare readers is to either under describe things or over describe them. After reading 'A Descent into the Maelstrom,' is it obvious Poe underwent the latter notion. His descriptions were detailed so extensively that I would forget what was being talked about by the end of the paragraph, and it seemed like a burden to get through it, rather than a fear. Nevertheless, I will not judge Poe so soon just by this one work!

Predchadzajuce zbierky Poeovych poviedok boli okej, ale toto je asi vyber toho najhorsieho co Poe kedy napisal.

Dobrodruzstvo Hansa Phalla - toto uplne zabil. 50 stranova poviedka, ktora mi pripomenula casy, kedy som pisal protokoly z fyziky. 50 stran protokolu fakt nechces citat. Citatel potrebuje ocelove nervy, alebo uchylku v sebatryzneni, aby tuto zbierku nehodil von oknom uz v prvej polovici tejto "poviedky". Soryjako, pochopil som o co v nej Poeovi islo, ale to iste by sa dalo napisat aj na menej stran, a mozno aj zabavnejsim stylom. Napr poviedka Mesmericke Odhalenie z tejto zbierky bola podobneho razu, ale nebola zbytocne dlha, a bola 100x zaujimavejsia a putavejsia (pockat... 100 x 0 sa rovna... shiiiiit).

Lyricke poviedky, ktore nemaju dej, ale su iba sposobom vyjadrenia myslienok autora, ma akosi vobec nebavia. V tejto zbierke je takych poviedok az polovica (Rozhovor E a Ch, Rozhovor M a U, Ostrov Vil, Sila Slov).

Zostup do Maelstromu a Pribeh zo Skalnatych Hor tuto zbierku ako tak zachranuju. Ak by som hodnotil iba tieto dve poviedky samostatne, tak dostanu asi 4 hviezdicky, ale zbierka ako celok ma u mna 1 hviezdicku.

Great EAP short story. It sucked me in from the beginning and was the right pace to keep me entrathled. I finished it easily in one sitting.

I read this short story for an AP Literature class of mine. My group and I had to present it to the class and give a brief summary, describe the use of figurative language, use an example of literary criticism, etc. I found that there wasn't much literary criticism for the story to begin with. That may have had to do with the fact that the story itself didn't reach much popularity compared to Poe's other works. Despite the lack of popularity, I expected the story itself to be very interesting. Poe's works as a whole are incredibly fascinating to me. However upon reading this I didn't feel as much fascination as I had hoped. Perhaps because in a literal sense it was a story about a potentially unreliable elderly man telling a story of a whirlpool that almost killed him. But after taking a step back and looking over the story once again produced a change of opinion. The use of imagery and personification were beautiful and frightening. It made me feel as though the Maelstrom itself was a living breathing destruction machine; a strong yet mesmerizing god. Poe's writing was beautiful just as expected.

As I wrote this review I originally wanted to give A Descent into the Maelstrom a 2 out of 5 stars. I was genuinely bored with the story until I was able to research and really appreciate the story for what it was, and I can say that I was utterly impressed.

“To the right and left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like ramparts of the world, lines of horridly black and beetling cliff, whose character of gloom was but the more forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared high up against its white and ghastly crest, howling and shrieking forever.”

When I find a Poe I like, I really like it. When I find a Poe I’m not crazy about, I find my judgement is rather harsh. A Descent into the Maelström falls into the latter category.

Although this was an atmospheric read, I was never pulled into it the way I had hoped to be. It was a quick read, one that I powered through in no time, but at no point was I hooked. I kept reading because I wanted to see how it ended, not because I was invested. I know many enjoy this one, but this is one of the Poe stories that did not work for me.

All in all, this is one of Poe’s work I won’t be reading again.

[b:A Descent into the Maelstrom|1515582|A Descent into the Maelstrom|Edgar Allan Poe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1184554102l/1515582._SY75_.jpg|1458775] by [a:Edgar Allan Poe|4624490|Edgar Allan Poe|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1454522972p2/4624490.jpg]

This is a short story about a man who tells how he survived a shipwreck and a whirlpool. It's a tale of fear and terror. However, I didn't enjoy this story. Even, Poe agreed that the ending was not so perfect.

but in the next moment I cursed myself for being so great a fool as to dream of hope at all.

Not so enjoyable.