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Amphigorey: Fifteen Stories

By: Edward Gorey
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Perigee Books,U.S.
ISBN: 0399504338
ISBN-13: 9780399504334
Released: 01 Nov 2004
RRP: £11.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Astonish friends and family, disturb the sane and trouble those who sleep too well - By: Toadjuggler, 27 Sep 2008
Wonderful, bleak, empty & melancholy. These stories are like the half remembered phantasms of a fever nearly recovered from............
Gorey Classics in this stunning anthology - By: R. S. Brown, 01 Aug 2004
This is possibly the most re-readable book I own. It was the first "Amphigorey" (they've irritatingly spelt it incorrectly, without the "E", on this Amazon page) I bought, & by far my favourite. It is a collection of 15 books, that contain either verse or lyrical prose, accompanied by excellent monochrome pen-and-ink drawings (with the exception of 2 full-colour children's works), that are full of intricate cross-hatching & meticulous detail. Gorey has a great conservatism to his writing, as usuallly only a single sentence accompanies each image. They are alll equallly funny & haunting in their own individual ways, & seem to run the spectrum of "negative" emotions from the creepily ethereal to the sickeningly macabre.

It includes probably the most enjoyable Gorey books available - my three favourites, "The Doubtful Guest", which is very funny, & the verse very well-written (sample couplet: "At times it would tear out whole chapters from books/Or put roomfuls of pictures askew on their hooks"), "The Willowdale Handcar", about three companions that go on an impromptu journey that lasts months, the content of which is loaded with sometimes indecipherable symbolism, & "The Remembered Visit", which I find, for some odd reason, the most haunting & emotive of his books despite having a very distant feel.

But that is not alll - included in this anthology is the classic "The Gashlycrumb Tinies", an A to Z of the gruesome deaths of 26 children, which many may recognise (you can find it published in full on the internet for free if you want a taster of Gorey's work).

Gorey's work, being extremely short in actual reading length, rewards those readers that take time to closely examine & scrutinise the detailed illustrations. One of the books, "The West Wing", contains no words at alll, but is just a sucession of haunting visions - the meanings of which are, at the very least, cryptic.

It's far better value to buy this book than the fifteen books included in it separately (being about £5.99 each in hardback), & probably more handy to read a few of his best books in one go. If you like your stories to be surreal, haunting, foreboding, gruesome, whimsical & overalll, funny, then get this book, especiallly if you are a fan of thoughtful illustration as well. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Amphigory - By: Miss May Nel, 22 Jun 2003
Alarmingly eccentric compilation of several short cautionary tales & limericks that can leave one feeling a little bewildered but exraordinarily fascinated by the dark thought processes that go on within the author's mind. The illustrations accentuate the dark prose both in their oddness & wonderful use of lines.
Effortlessly sinister-a gem by a genius.