Other reviews condemned the attempt at presenting a true story. A reviewer for the "Metropolitan Magazine" noted that, though the story was good as fiction, "when palmed upon the public as a true thing, it cannot appear in any other light than that of a bungling business—an impudent attempt at imposing on the credulity of the ignorant." Nevertheless, some readers believed portions of Poe's novel were true, especially in England, and justified the absurdity of the book with an assumption that author Pym was exaggerating the truth. Publisher George Putnam later noted that "whole columns of these new 'discoveries', including the hieroglyphics (sic) found on the rocks, were copied by many of the English country papers as sober historical truth."