Amphigorey Also

My introduction to Edward Gorey (1925-2000) came earlier this year, in the form of one of his work - ‘The Gashlycrumb Tinies'. Someone helpfully scanned and posted the entire thing online.[return][return]The story, each line illustrated, goes like this:[return][return]A is for Amy who fell down the stairs[return]B is for Basil assaulted by bears[return]C is for Clara who wasted away[return]D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh[return][return]Definately not your standard ABCs. Heck, younger children probably won't even get it. If they do, it might be in the form of a bad dream.[return][return]Amphigorey is a compilation of 15 books by writer and artist Edward Gorey, noted for his macabre illustrated books. Although born in Chicago, the Victorian and Edwardian setting of his stories often lead people to assume he was British.[return][return]He was fond of publishing under pseudonyms that are based on anagrams of his first and last name.[return][return]His first independant work - The Unstrung Harp - is included in this compilation. It features a Mr Earbass, a well-known novelist embarking on his new novel which is entitled “The Unstrung Harp”.[return][return]The story chronicles his agony of writing a novel, with his obsession and paranoia surfacing as characters from his novels appeared in his house and the stage of awfulness of his story hits. There really isn't any sense to it unless you can identify with that absurd state of mind that most of us won't admit to experiencing.[return][return]Some of the stories here come in the form or poetry or limericks. This is the case with The Listing Attic. One of the many snippets include this:[return][return]There was a young woman whose stammer[return]Was atrocious, and so was her grammar;[return]But when they are not improved[return]When her husband was moved[return]To knock out her teeth with a hammer.[return][return]One of the stories that is relatively kid-friendly is The Bug Book, which is about three groups of different-coloured bugs who had to work together to get rid of a menacing black bug.[return][return]Admitedly, there were a number of stories in this collection that didn't seem to go anywhere and left me with a great big “huh?”[return][return]Those of you who are fans of Tim Burton may want to look up Gorey, who inspired much of the famous director's style.[return]return

Delightful, strange, quirky. The Gothic in the most macabre sense. Sometimes, the drawings provide more of an insight than the captions which accompany them, which is always amusing.