Amphigorey: Fifteen Books

The stories this anthology contains are in order as follows:The Unstrung Harp, The Listing Attic, The Doubtful Guest, The Object-Lesson, The Bug Book, The Fatal Lozenge, The Hapless Child, The Curious Sofa, The Willowdale Handcar, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Insect God, The West Wing, The Wuggly Ump, The Sinking Spell, and The Remembered Visit.I bought this book knowing it would be great, but it would have been nice if I knew which stories it contained. Perhaps this information is in a place where i did not notice it and my post here is redundant, but in any case, here it is.

5 stars for the content.It includes the Gorey alphabet, a Charles Adams esque whoot.3.5 stars for the layout - images are half page each (i.e, if you open the book to any page, there are two images on the left and two on the right, one above and one below). Which means these are smaller - not nearly as fun or impactful to look at the drawings. :(So..average that out -- a 3.75 star experience (the images weigh more heavily than the writing....it should be so, but hey, it's graphic novel, and these things shouldn't be smallish).Round it up...4 stars.If I could find this full size (i need to look)...I'd never buy small again

The book is great, but as other reviews have mentioned this printing is awful. The lighter images are so washed out they’re barely visible. It’s like they photocopied it too many times. It’s a shame because obviously the art is the main attraction in an Edward Gorey book. Get a used older edition instead.

I purchased this book nine years ago and have read it several times. I did this current re-read after finishing the latest autobiography on Gorey: Born to be Posthumous. I didn’t care for the biography, but on a positive note it made me want to revisit Amphigorey. Having more knowledge about the author/illustrator did enhance my reading and enjoyment of this book.Edward Gorey is quirky to say the least and this is reflected in his work. His drawings are works of art and patient attention to detail. I love the complexity of the backgrounds and his odd looking characters. It is a bit like Dr. Seuss for those with a weird and morbid sense of humor. Amphigorey contains 15 books, including my favorites The Doubtful Guest, The Unstrung Harp, The Hapless Child, The Curious Sofa, and of course The Gashlycrumb Tinies. This book is part nonesense rhymes, part macabre morality tales, and part astute life observations. If you consider yourself to have a twisted sense of humor, this will be a great book for you. For those who are not familiar with Gorey, The Gashlycrumb Tinies is a great introduction. It is book that teaches the alphabet and each letter is represented by a child and how that child dies. Hilarious, right? In fact, throughout Gorey’s work children are often victims of tragic-comic endings. If you don’t appreciate that type of humor, this is not the book for you.The rhymes, stories, and word play are genius. The Edwardian illustrations are amazing. What I really love about Edward Gorey’s work is the multiple layers. You can breeze through this book and read it for fun. You can laugh at all the character and place names (ie; C. F Earbrass an author who lives in a home called Hobbies Odd in the town of Mortshire). So clever! You can analyze the content and pour over the drawings. No matter how you approach it, Amphigorey is a book that you can read over and over and you will gain something new each time. I read portions of this book to my husband, who was not familiar with Edward Gorey. The experience seemed to cement his impression that his wife is a weirdo, but he did laugh at the text and illustrations!A note on my copy of this book. Others have complained about light text and drawings. That was not the case with my edition, first published in 1980. However, the last four books in the compilation are a bit mixed up. The West Wing is interrupted by The Sinking Spell and the beginning of The Remembered Visit. Then the remainder of The West Wing appears, The Wuggly Ump is next, and then The Remembered Visit finishes. At first I was not sure if this was some purposeful Gorey humor. Who knows, maybe my book will be a rare edition some day.

I was a fan of "The Doubtful Guest," "The Gashlycrumb Tinies," and "The Unstrung Harp." Outside of those three, the rest seemed okay.The opening letters of the alphabet from "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" (which is illustrated, for awareness!):A is for Amy who fell down the stairsB is for Basil assaulted by bearsEach is about how a child dies, and they even make sure the rhyming continues.Some were strange kids stories or limericks, and others felt like illustrared dreams or surrealist short stories, of which some felt vaguely open and random (such as "The Object-Lesson").Giving it 3 / 5 star rating, but I do really love how much inspiration and influence Edward Gorey has had on other artists and projects (Tim Burton, "Notes on A Case of Melancholia" by Nicholas Gurewitch, "The End of The World" by Don Hertzfeldt, and others).For gothic absurdity, madness, dark humor, and tragedy -- Edward Gorey's illustrations are the place to be.

This is a fine collection of Edward Gorey's works. These books were published between 1953 and 1965 when Gorey was still quite young. They are for both the old and young (although it's best to read them yourself first) and contain stories and verse of what he always referred to as nonsense. There is more than a bit of dark matter here- one of the books goes through the ABC's of how different children die- but I remember that my older brother found it hilarious when we were little. Go figure.The art is what made me purchase this book. Gorey's pen and ink drawings are overwhelmingly gothic in nature and the shape of his characters, their expressions, backgrounds and the bizarre happenings are fascinating. I remember being surprised when I found out that he was American rather than British because his artwork always reminded me of old Victorian art. Between his art and his obviously vivid imagination, he must have been quite a man.

If you like Edward Gorey’s work, this collection contains all his classic stories. This one contains Gashleycrumb Tinies )still the best for cheering the cockles of the heart, especially one that delights in macabre humour) as well as The Hapless Child and The Insect God. The illustrations are reproduced beautifully, capturing each nuance of the detail.

I'd never heard of Edward Gorey till his work came up as a recommendation on Amazon when I purchased 'Struwwelpeter'.This is a wonderful collection of fifteen short stories/ funny alphabets/ collections of limericks. One 'story' is wordless. A couple have colour pictures and are particularly suitable for a younger audience. One is subtitled 'A Pornographic Work' (you're quite safe reading it!)I have reviewed each individually (qv), but in brief:1) The Unstrung Harp is to my mind the funniest in this collection - the tale of a struggling writer, written in wonderful rather Victorian English, and with accompanying illustrations.2) The Listing Attic - a collection of excellent limericks3) The Doubtful Guest - another wonderful short story (in rhyming couplets) of a peculiar creature who turns up one day to live with a Victorian family4)The Object-Lesson - very strange; 3 b/w illustrations per page, each with a line of text. No obvious thread to the narrative - seemed to me to be a take-off of Japanese haiku5)The Bug Book - in colour, and aimed at kids too, tale of some friendly bugs and how they deal with a nasty big bully bug who shows up one day6) The Fatal Lozenge - A brilliant alphabet, each letter featuring a person (from Apparition to Zouave) with a 4 line verse7) The Hapless Child - A parody of terribly sad Victorian children's tales (only THEY usually have a happy ending!)8) The Curious Sofa - For me the weak point of the collection. Meant to be a funny pornographic tale, but I just found it silly9) The Willowdale Handcar - Weird, but funny, tale of three young people who decide to take off in a handcar one day. At times quite scary things occur, but as in many Gorey tales, don't expect a conclusion...10) The Gashlycrumb Tinies - Seems to be Gorey's best-known work: a very funny alphabet of 26 little kids who each meet a grisly and quite unusual end ("F is for Fanny sucked dry by a leech")11)The Insect God - I loved this 'cautionary tale' about a little girl who accepts sweets from a stranger - and is abducted and taken off to be fed to an insect! Meanwhile her Victorian family "grew sick with apprehension, Which a heavy tea only served to increase"12)The West Wing - a wordless 30 picture work; each appears to show something spooky in a room - a shadow of a levitating woman; a ghostly face peering through window; handkerchiefs flying...) There's no narrative or story, but I found it grew on me the more I looked at it.13) The Wuggly ump - in colour and definitely aimed at kids, the story of three good little children, weaving daisy-chains and eating their bread and milk; but the Wuggly Ump has left his lair and is headed their vway.14)The Sinking spell - not one of the best but quite entertaining tale of a creature (whom we never see) descending into the house of a Victorian family15) The Remembered Visit - not a funny story, but rather sad and beautiful tale of a little girl being taken to visit an elderly gentleman...Her recollections of the event: topiary, his not wearing socks...and later her guilt at an unfulfilled promise...Buying Amphigorey is the best value way of acquiring a whole collection of Gorey works.

My favourite illustrator. Was excited to see this collection, however my copy arrived damaged. Severely creased pages. The product itself isn't what I expected. The quality of images wasn't great and not very well compiled from small books to this full size version, too much white space between and around the text and illustrations.

I did enjoy reading this but Edward Gorey is definitely very weird and random with his ideas and a couple of the stories haunted me for days afterwards. I love that he makes you use your own imagination. What he presents you with is only half a story. It's up to you to draw your own conclusions. So when you find a story a bit disturbing and wonder where that came from, Gorey can't be held accountable, in only created the idea, you filled in the blanks yourself.

I have to agree with the other reviewer who complained about the poor print quality. it's hard to understand given that the book is otherwise quite handsomely presented. Given that gorey's appeal resides in the intricacies of his drawings this version is hard to recommend. Probably better to get them individually and experience them as Gorey intended.