Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was obsessed with the theme of being buried alive, a claustrophobic fantasy that plays a central role in the four longer sea stories in this volume. In the novella "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," the hero cannot free himself from his cramped hiding place aboard a whaling ship. He is saved only at the last moment, only to embark on a journey that literally takes him to the eerie end of the world. In "A Descent into the Maelstrom," a massive, bottomless whirlpool engulfs the hero, and a similar fate threatens the lonely narrator trapped aboard a ghost ship in "MS. Found in a Bottle." Finally, "The Oblong Box" revolves around a bizarre transport of a corpse aboard a sailing vessel in distress.