Edward Gorey wrote and illustrated small, darkly comic books in which Victorian and Edwardian visual styles meet absurdity, menace and deadpan narration. The Gashlycrumb Tinies is an alphabet book in which twenty-six children meet increasingly improbable deaths, pairing concise rhyming captions with cross-hatched black-and-white drawings. The Doubtful Guest follows a strange creature that enters a household and refuses to leave, while The Unstrung Harp satirises the habits and frustrations of an author trying to produce a novel. Gorey's work frequently imitates the appearance of old children's books while giving them material that is macabre, ambiguous or deliberately pointless. His compact books reward attention to posture, architecture and small visual details as much as to the text. They fit illustrated humour, Gothic art and literary oddities rather than conventional children's storytelling. The Gashlycrumb Tinies is the quickest introduction to his combination of formal elegance, morbidity and very dry comedy. Read more Less
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