Rating: 
Summary: The best dirty book I've ever read
Review: The Curious Sofa is the best dirty book I've ever looked at or read. It is the tale of a sexual adventure gone wildly out of control. Ogdred Weary's prose reads rather like an erotic, almost-picaresque retelling of Gosford Park. It's astonishing, just how proper a fetishistic, sadomasochistic kink session can be when populated by upper-class folk (and a Old English Sheepdog). The book is made even better by the artwork of Edward Gorey, which has more in common with the direction of Alfred Hitchcock than the in-your-face pictorials of Larry Flynt. But if you're a fan of Gorey, you know that already.
Rating:
Summary: The best dirty book I've ever read
Review: The Curious Sofa is the best dirty book I've ever looked at or read. It is the tale of a sexual adventure gone wildly out of control. Ogdred Weary's prose reads rather like an erotic, almost-picaresque retelling of Gosford Park. It's astonishing, just how proper a fetishistic, sadomasochistic kink session can be when populated by upper-class folk (and a Old English Sheepdog). The book is made even better by the artwork of Edward Gorey, which has more in common with the direction of Alfred Hitchcock than the in-your-face pictorials of Larry Flynt. But if you're a fan of Gorey, you know that already.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent gift for those amused by dead children.
Review: The Curious Sofa/The Gashlycrumb Tinies are the kind of books that can jump of the shelf at you, and I have found that they instantly reminded me of someone else. The only problem with this is that whenever I run in to someone who I think would enjoy Gorey's rather unique style of horror, I have to buy another copy. Untill now, this has procluded me from owning one of my own. This problem is now solved, and not at an undue price. I recommend reading both of these books before purchasing, and that only takes a few minutes. See if reading them doesn't remind you of those amused by dead children and Victorian orgies in your life.
Rating:
Summary: Delightfully Wicked
Review: The first Gorey book I've ever bought, and it's left me panting for more. Subtitled "a pornographic work," The Curious Sofa it is indeed, but for what it leaves out. Readers won't find sex or violence on these pages, merely the titillation of the unseen. Umm... mouth watering!
Rating: 
Summary: The Curious Sofa and how it holds up
Review: The first Gorey book I've ever bought, and it's left me panting for more. Subtitled "a pornographic work," The Curious Sofa it is indeed, but for what it leaves out. Readers won't find sex or violence on these pages, merely the titillation of the unseen. Umm... mouth watering!
Rating:
Summary: Delightfully Wicked
Review: The first Gorey book I've ever bought, and it's left me panting for more. Subtitled "a pornographic work," The Curious Sofa it is indeed, but for what it leaves out. Readers won't find sex or violence on these pages, merely the titillation of the unseen. Umm... mouth watering!
Rating:
Summary: WEIRD!!!
Review: This book is a"pornographic work", but nothing is explicit. For example: "On the floor of the taxi, Alice and Edward did something she'd never done before." The drawings show the edge of a couch here, elbows above a screen there, nothing more. Everything is implied, but the meaning cannot be mistaken. Definitely creepy but witty and humorous.
Rating:
Summary: A Sinful Little Tale
Review: This delightfully illustrated tale tells the story of Alice and her wicked little sexual encounters. The illustrations never show anything inappropriate nor is the prose ever truly pornographic, yet the reader knows exactly what is going on by observing the characters knowing smiles. Edward Gorey is a wonderful illustrator and a literary delight, which this classic little tale shows.
Rating:
Summary: Gerald did a terrible thing to Elsie with a saucepan....
Review: Though definitely not for everyone, this is probably the creepiest little thing I've read in a LONG time, this being accomplished entirely by subtle insinuation and suggestion than anything concrete. Pornographic work? Not exactly, if you are expecting the sort of thing all those spam e-mails promise. This is surrealism, enigmatic and dreamlike... the graphic imagery is limited to bizarrely posed and leering maybe-unclothed/maybe-not cartoon figures tastefully obscured behind monstrously large ornamental urns, twisted naked tree limbs, and imposing bamboo screens, with such captions as "That evening in the library Scylla, one of the guests who had certain anatomical peculiarities, demonstrated the 'Lithuanian Typewriter', assisted by Ronald and Rupert, two remarkably well-set-up young men from the village." Over and again through the "story" my reaction was "What the heck is THAT supposed to mean???" while taken together they imply something hideously and repugnantly barbaric and freakishly obscene, with the only possible conclusions (when they can be made at all) not matching the reactions of the characters, until the shocking conclusion where at last the characters react appropriately to an eerie situation that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever... making the entire experience that much more disconcerting. This is the beauty of Edward Gory's surrealism. Though, as I said earlier, it is not for everyone- the horror is too enigmatic and the humor a bit too strange for the taste of most people I know... as one negative review said: "Make sure you want to buy this sort of book... it is not what I was expecting." (What was she expecting? She never said... the statement would make a lovely caption for a Gory cartoon, though, unrelated to the panels directly preceding and following it: [A woman in a fur coat and a pair of sinister tennis shoes marking a calendar, while a strange and ambiguous animal watches:] "I would fancy a cup of tea, but only on alternating Tuesdays."/ [The ambiguous animal stands in a bookstore, frowning doubtfully as a distraught young woman points fearfully at a nondescript and dusty book on the bottom shelf of an antique bookcase, telling the woman in tennis shoes:] "Make sure you want to buy this sort of book... it is not what I was expecting."/ [The distraught-looking woman asks the woman in sneakers while looking out the shop window:] "Is it my imagination, or has that building moved since last I saw it?" [The doubtful animal replies:] "NO.") And I think I should also mention that Gory's little cartoons are probably not a good idea for children. Although, I believe that at 9, 10, or 11 I would have been fascinated by the intricately detailed and strange little creepy drawings and their bizarre captions and though any vaguely "adult" elements would have gone way over my head, the cartoons would nonetheless have sparked my imagination... seeing them again as an adult would have been that much more chilling. And, in closing, yes, this book is tiny, and very short. I'd suggest first of all trying out "Amphigory"- a collection of Gory's weird cartoons which includes "The Curious Sofa: A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary", and if you especially like that story to get the little book, or to buy it as a gift for friends with a twisted sense of humor. In fact I would recommend that anyone suspecting they might have a taste for surrealism, dream-like and brutal satire of stiff and stuffy Edwardian and Victorian mannerisms art and customs, subtle gothic horror and twisted humor get hold of as many of the Amphigory books as they can.
Rating:
Summary: titillating
Review: tit·il·late v. tit·il·lat·ed, tit·il·lat·ing, tit·il·lates. v. tr. To stimulate by touching lightly; tickle. To excite (another) pleasurably, superficially or erotically. v. intr. To excite another, especially in a superficial, pleasurable manner: "Once you decide to titillate instead of illuminate . . . you create a climate of expectation that requires a higher and higher level of intensity" (Bill Moyers). This books hints at, yet never delivers - which is quite often the better of the two.
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