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Summary: Sex and violence - I think
Review: A particularly miniature gem from a master miniaturist, The Curious Sofa tells of the delightfully open-minded Alice who, approached one day in the park while she's eating grapes, takes a taxi ride with a young gentleman during which she does something that she's never done before. The story then proceeds to a country house, during which various upper-class folk introduce Alice to a dizzying variety of fun, variously involving a French maid, a Countess, a married couple who each have a wooden leg, numerous "exceptionally well-formed" gentlemen and an enthusiastic Old English sheepdog. You don't actually see anything, thanks to Mr. Gorey's discreet placing of trees, bushes, clothed persons and screens between us and the action, so fans of genuine porn can expect to be disappointed. But this is still a highly titillating book. It climaxes, as it were, when the whole party encounters the eponymous and somewhat sinister sofa, at which point events get rather beyond Alice's control in a way that I'll leave to your imagination. I don't know what kind of tea Mr. Gorey drinks but I'd quite like to try some. If you wanted to explain to somebody what the word "suggestive" means, and were for some reason allergic to dictionaries, you were best off lending them this book. It's all good fun until the last page - which I find extremely worrying. And yet I'm afraid that says more about me than it says about the book.
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Summary: Pornography, Gorey-style!
Review: Although the cover states that this is a pornographic tale, the pornography is left to the mind of the reader, just as his famous tots in the Gashlycrumb Tinies are depicted just prior to their gory (pardon the pun!) deaths. Anyone who appreciates the artist's sophisticated satire of the Victorian gothic will love this volume poking fun of Victorian sexual repression. Even Victorian furniture needs an outlet sometimes, as Gorey well knows!
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Summary: Several reasons to beg loving relatives for this book..
Review: Every slightly Disturbed Person should have at least one example of Goreyhood on their shelves.. in case your loving relatives find this too distressing to buy for you, here are some sensible reasons to throw at them.. *Victorian orgies are cool *It's a party accessory: read it aloud. *It's a storybook for young, impressionable children. *You can hit people with it and it will sting. *Or, Whatever.. It's just so droll and vague and cheery. Besides, Victorian orgies are cool.
Rating: 
Summary: Anyone up for a game of Thumbfumble?
Review: Hardly pornographic at all, this small and simple book is filled with insinuations of events that could quite possibly be indecent or tawdry, but remain veiled, allowing the reader to reach their own conclusions. While The Curious Sofa is amusing in its naive and capricious way, it is not a "bust out laughing" piece of entertainment, and made me smile but not laugh. I'm not entirely sure that is worth the $9.00 price. It would be more recommendable if it was half the price and marketed more as a novelty or gift item. When looking at purchasing this item, take note of the small size of the book and the number of pages. The book is little enough to be a stocking stuffer at Christmas time, and the page count says 64, but it is actually only 32, because the printing is one-sided, so there is only one picture per page turn, opposite pages are all blank. The drawings, while indeed whimsical, were not particularly special, and the only one who could possibly label anything in this book "pornographic" would be Mother Goose. We never do get to see this Curious Sofa either, and I found that to be the difference between feeling titillated with the unseen, and feeling cheated out of something that could have been special. Overall, it would be a nice gift item if the price were lower, but at $9.00 for 32 pages with no real conclusion to the tale, leave it on the shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: The Curious Sofa and how it holds up
Review: I believe this is a good book but not one of Edward Gorey's finest. A must have for any fan or collecter though, don't get me wrong. We need more writers like him to keep up the dark humor in this world.
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Summary: Volume Eleven Of The "Encyclopedia Of Unimaginable Customs"
Review: In a typically odd work by Edward Gorey, the protagonist, Alice, gets her eyes opened to many new experiences by companions of various sorts (including Colonel Gilbert and his wife Louise, both of whom have wooden legs, and Donald, a sheepdog). All these new activities are strangely suggestive, but not what most people would actually call pornographic; after all, the book is only illustrated with Gorey's discreet little drawings.
The sofa itself is contained in a room lined in polar bear fur, is upholstered in scarlet velvet, and has nine legs and seven arms; when the machinery starts within it Alice shudders and the book concludes in a delightfully ambiguous manner, in what may well be one of the strangest endings of any of Gorey's books.
I like Gorey, and this is a good little book, but is not actually one of my favorites, as I think there are others more whimsical, and a few are even stranger. For Gorey lovers this is a great little book, but understand that it is quite small, which makes it a questionable value, particularly in light of the excellent compilations available.
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Summary: Not at all what i expected.
Review: Make sure that you want to buy this type of book. It was not at all what I was expecting.
Rating:
Summary: Not at all what i expected.
Review: Make sure that you want to buy this type of book. It was not at all what I was expecting.
Rating:
Summary: Yummy!
Review: Sex and death without ever really speaking about either--plant your tongue firmly in your cheek, because Gorey is the master. If you're particularly wicked, give this book to prudish relatives at Christmastime.
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Summary: Um. Well, it's different.
Review: That's about all I can say. I was expecting a bit more than this. it's very small and very thin and implies more than it says. It's sort of mocking. The sofa isn't curious in the sense that it want s to know things, it's curious in the sense that there's something different about it. Definitely rated whatever you would rate your own mind, since most of the dirty stuff IS all in the implications and has little to do with the words or images. Little kids would read it and just not get it, but adults might see it a bit different. Not for kids.
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