Author: Edward Gorey
Genre: Horror / Fantasy
Year Published: 1972
Year Read: 2012
Series: Amphigorey #1
Publisher: Perigee Trade
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 10+ (Death, Violence, Disturbing Imagery and Sexual Situations)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
EDWARD GOREY’S BEST
WORKS JAM-PACKED INTO ONE VOLUME!
After reading Edward
Gorey’s morbid classic “The
Gashlycrumb Tinies” (which is also surprisingly in this volume), I just had
to read more of Edward Gorey’s works
and I managed to pick up a volume of his works called “Amphigorey” and boy, was I amazed at the stories in this
collection!
In this volume, there is a collection of fifteen stories
written by Edward Gorey and they include:
1) The
Unstrung Harp
2) The
Listing Attic
3) The
Doubtful Guest
4) The
Object-Lesson
5) The
Bug Book
6) The
Fatal Lozenge
7) The
Hapless Child
8) The
Curious Sofa
9) The
Willowdale Handcar
10) The
Gashlycrumb Tinies
11) The
Insect God
12) The
West Wing
13) The
Wuggly Ump
14) The
Sinking Spell
15) The
Remembered Visit
Wow! I never would have thought that I would find part of
the complete collection of Edward
Gorey’s works since he noted at the introduction that most of his works
were expensive and hard to find, so he made this compilation of all of his
works, which was fine with me! After
reading most of his works in this volume, I have a greater appreciation for Edward Gorey’s writing style as the
majority of stories he had written were truly morbid and gruesome to read
through! Just reading about murders and
people dying of unnatural causes was just a treat for me to read since I love
reading really morbid stories with effective illustrations! Edward
Gorey’s illustrations clearly compliment the dark and spooky mood of the
stories as the colorings are all in black and white, which seems like something
that came out of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies.
Some of my favorite stories in this volume were “The Fatal Lozenge,” “The Hapless Child,” “The Gashlycrumb Tinies,”
“The Insect God” and “The Wuggly Ump.”
~A Little Warning~
THIS BOOK IS NOT
EXACTLY FOR CHILDREN!
As I mentioned before, there are many images of characters
being killed or dying of unnatural causes and also, there are many stories
where children are killed or are being mistreated that could be disturbing for
young children. There is also a story
called “The Curious Sofa” that
implies that sexual activities between several characters are present. Also, the reason why I took off half a point
from this book was because I felt that some of the stories in this volume were
a bit boring (“The Unstrung Harp”
was my least favorite story) and some stories were a bit difficult to
understand since the language is a bit old-fashioned for the modern audience.
Overall, “Amphigorey”
is a great collection of stories for fans of Edward Gorey’s works and anyone who loves reading about morbid
stories would definitely enjoy this collection!
I would recommend this volume to older children and teenagers since
there are many disturbing moments in this collection and some young readers might
not understand the sexual themes in “The
Curious Sofa.”
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