Rating: Summary: Hilarious Review: "The Haunted Tea Cosy" shows Gorey's esoteric humor at its best. Loosely based on Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," we follow Edmund Gravel through a series of affecting scenes rendered in flat pen and ink, many involving wallpaper and other absurd Edwardian commonplaces. In the end he builds a mountain of fruitcake and carries a celebration "to the very edge of the unseemly." Fans of Gorey will treasure this addition to the canon, and those unfamiliar with his brilliant "Amphigorey" collection may begin to see what the fuss is about by reading this offbeat gift book.
Rating: Summary: Hilarious Review: "The Haunted Tea Cosy" shows Gorey's esoteric humor at its best. Loosely based on Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," we follow Edmund Gravel through a series of affecting scenes rendered in flat pen and ink, many involving wallpaper and other absurd Edwardian commonplaces. In the end he builds a mountain of fruitcake and carries a celebration "to the very edge of the unseemly." Fans of Gorey will treasure this addition to the canon, and those unfamiliar with his brilliant "Amphigorey" collection may begin to see what the fuss is about by reading this offbeat gift book.
Rating: Summary: Not his best work Review: A tired swipe at Dickens and a blatant theft of one of Thurber's dogs
Rating: Summary: How to dispose of 30 minutes of the 12 Days of Christmas Review: Edmund Gravel traverses through this quick but enjoyable read by Edward Gorey, including his great illustrations. A bug-like creature leaps from Edmunds tea-cozy and takes him on a Dickens-like "Christmas Carol"-like journey. The stories are sad, depressing, and amusing all in one. Great holiday entertainment, and a great gift for the scrooge who has everything but this book.
Rating: Summary: How to dispose of 30 minutes of the 12 Days of Christmas Review: Edmund Gravel traverses through this quick but enjoyable read by Edward Gorey, including his great illustrations. A bug-like creature leaps from Edmunds tea-cozy and takes him on a Dickens-like "Christmas Carol"-like journey. The stories are sad, depressing, and amusing all in one. Great holiday entertainment, and a great gift for the scrooge who has everything but this book.
Rating: Summary: More good stuff Review: Gorey has always been brilliant, with a unique style and an obscure but keen sense of humor. In this parody of "A Christmas Carol," he brings us his usual genius. The ending is particularly funny. Good for those with subtle taste.
Rating: Summary: With nearly 80 books, not every one can be a gem.... Review: I have been an avid fan and collector of Gorey for several years. Hence, I am always excited when a new title is released. (Incidentally, this is NOT his first book in 25 years--in the past 25 years, he has published around 40 titles.) Unfortunately, the Haunted Tea Cosy is far from his best effort; in fact, I would consider it to be among his worst. Echoing the sentiments of another reviewer, the writing itself is vintage Gorey--but really, who collects Gorey for the words? It is the illustrations which give his works their ominous charm, and the sketches in this book appear to be just that: sketches, rough drafts, ideas for a grander scheme. The figures appear to be parodies of Gorey's characters, created in haste. And the background is virtually non-existent. (Compare that to earlier works such as The Iron Tonic and The West Wing, where even the wallpaper and bricks are highly detailed.)Of course, my opinion of Mr. Gorey and his books will remain high--he is my favorite, in fact. However, my admiration of him does not make me blind to the fact that this is a very disappointing work. But hey--after nearly 80 wonderful books, he's allowed to publish a "turkey" or two....
Rating: Summary: Enchanted Review: I liked it lots, beautiful illustrations for a nice change of pace from the usual holiday cheer, and yes "her husband's were the brains" is correct, as in "her husband's [brains] were the brains".
Rating: Summary: Good interpretation with illustrations below par Review: I LOVE Ed Gorey's work and have a growing collection. His attention to detail, symbolism, word usage and dark humor are all hallmarks. However, I was a little disappointed with the "Haunted Tea Cozy," which I received as a gift. This is a clever, witty interpretation of "A Christmas Carol" and is vintage Gorey with regard to the text and choice of characters. However, the drawings were just not as sharply detailed as Gorey fans will be expecting. I don't want to place blame with Mr. Gorey (this work was first printed in magazine form a year before and maybe the loss of crispness, hatching etcetera was due to the printing). If you are an avid collector you will still want it and if you like the story or Mr. Gorey's writing it's worth the money. Nonetheless this is the first time I can say that I felt slightly cheated with a Gorey work.
Rating: Summary: not his best Review: I really enjoy most of Gorey's works, usually because the pictures are wonderfully creepy. In this book, the images lack teh detail that you find in so many of Gorey's other works. The story, a strange "Christmas Carol"-like thing, doesn't make the book worth getting, without better pictures to back it up.
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