Amphigorey Also

Rating:
Summary: A delicious selection of Gorey delights
Review: A collection of various works by the devilishly deadpan Gorey, "Amphigorey Also" is a book that demands repeated readings. The book displays Gorey's talents to the fullest, from his painstakingly cross-hatched black-and-white drawings to his more lighthearted color works. This book is a must-read (and a must-own) for Gorey fans as well as the uninitiated.

Rating:
Summary: Unlike anything else
Review: Fine artist? Cartoonist? Humorist? Macabre? Gorey is a one-of-a-kind genius, though these are not all his best works - most of those are in the first of the "Amphigorey" series. Nevertheless, we are treated to some visually stunning works - "The Sopping Thursday," "L'heure Bleu," and all of them, really - and some first rate Gorey humor in "The Blue Aspic," "The Broken Spoke," and the adverbial wordplay in "The Glorious Nosebleed." Perhaps the greatest inclusion is "The Awdrey-Gore Legacy," an anigramic, enigmatic piece that creates genuine interest upon further study of its vagueries; plus it is funny. For Gorey fans, an essential part of your collection.

Rating:
Summary: Got to love it
Review: Gorey captured and sustained a unique mood: somewhat baffled, somewhat paranoid, seldom decisively either. His characters all seem to stare blankly into the distance. Maybe they're trying to remember somthing that seemed terribly important at the time, maybe they caught glimpses of something ominous out of the corners of their eyes. Maybe they just realized that something is horribly wrong, but no one knows what. I'm never sure whether to laugh out loud at his images or to start looking back over my own shoulder.

His penwork is as familiar to PBS "Mystery!" fans as to the Gorey hard-core. He uses color, occasionally, but only to set off the black and white drawings. His little stories approach, but never quite reach either disjointedness or the truly macabre. I'm not quite sure where to file this one, but it seems comfortable half-way between the comics and the fine art.

If you are determined to know what's going on, Gorey's work may not be for you - possibly, because Gorey never quite knew either.

Rating:
Summary: i find it dark, hillarious, intelligent, and belligerant
Review: i love the work of edward gorey. this book captures some great selections including "the tuning fork", "the eclectic abecedarium", and "the awdrey gorey legacy". i find it visually pleasing and a literary romp thru gorey's use of the english language! good show!

Rating:
Summary: Gorey and ghastly
Review: The much-lamented Edward Gorey specialized in intricate, ominous pen-and-ink drawings. Doomed Victorian opera singers, alligators, time-bending bicycles, and plenty of creatures strange and grotesque fill "Amphigorey Also," a collection of Gorey's quirky work.

Included is the cute "Utter Zoo" ("The Ippagoggy has a taste/for every kind of glue and paste"), the tragic "Blue Aspic" (a crazed, impoverished man stalks an opera diva), the amusing "Sopping Thursday" (Bruno the dog looks for his master's umbrella), and the delicious revenge fairy tale "The Tuning Fork." The highlight is the "Awdrey Gore Legacy," a deliciously warped murder mystery.

Some of the offerings are kind of befuddling, like the disjointed conversation between a mustachioed man and a woman with a geisha hairdo, or the "Eclectic Abcedarium" with its too tiny pictures. But most of them, like "Les Passementeries Horribles" (in which embroidery and tassels act ominous) or "The Prune People" (which is pictures of people with prunes for heads) are amusing even if they make no sense.

Edward Gorey's delicate pen-and-ink illustrations would be fun even if he didn't possess the morbid whimsy that fills almost every story. Okay, if you are easily offended, then the "Loathsome Couple" will offend you with a pair of crazy killers lure, photograph and murder small children ("They spent the better part of the night murdering the child in various ways"). But he did so in the best of bad taste.

His slightly warped sensibilities were also shown in the chilly skies and barren-looking outdoors, cute children and haughty adults in Victorian attire. There are occasional splashes of color (like the blue backdrops of "L'heure Bleue"), but even then it tends to be a bit eerie and faded like old photographs.

The eerie whimsy of Edward Gorey's work is alive and well in "Amphigorey Also." A few of the works are duds, but overall it's a strange and wonderful ride.

Rating:
Summary: GLORIOUS FUN
Review: The third Edward Gorey collection- Dedicated to: The dog at Gay Head :-)

Features 17 stories

THE UTTER ZOO: An alphabet featuring creatures whose names begin with each of the 26 letters, from: "The Ampoo is intensely neat; it's head is small, likewise it's feet" to "About the Zote what can be said? There was just one, and now it's dead"

THE BLUE ASPIC: A classic, about Jasper Ankle a VERY obsessed fan of a opera singer named Ortenzia Caviglia who puts the audience in raptures with her arias like: "Gli Occhielli & Lizzia Bordena" (Lizzie Borden!) :-)

THE EPIPLECTIC BICYCLE: "It was the day after Tuesday and the day before Wednesday..Embley and Yewbert were hitting one another with croquet mallets"..suddenly they discover a bicycle, and go on an adventure!

THE SOPPING THURSDAY: It's raining and Bruno the dog's master cannot find his umbrella! Bruno (a very noble beast) goes off to search for his masters umbrella, passing by many people who are also trying to cope with the weather.

THE GRAND PASSION (A novel): A very short novel! About the odd conversation between a woman with a geisha hairdo and a gentleman in a top hat. :-P

LES PASSEMENTERIES HORRIBLES: A passementerie is: A dress trimming, as of braid or silk embroidery (The Winston Dictionary College Edition) This story features some very ominous passementeries looming over people and animals, peeking through windows at people. :-P Acting very suspicious!

THE ECLECTIC ABECEDARIUM: Another alphabet: "Betray no qualms, when asking for ALMS" "A hidden BIRD is often heard" together with cute little pictures.

L'HEURE BLEUE: The title translates to: "The Blue Hour" the sky in the background is colored a beautiful twilight blue. The story features two creautures who resemble dogs, who both have the letter "T" embroidered on their sweaters. The plot follows their many interesting observations, during this "blue hour" :-)...VERY CUTE!

THE BROKEN SPOKE: Featuring a variety of "cycling cards" with pictures of a bunch of people (from all walks of life!) on bicycles!

THE AWDREY GORE LEGACY: A murder mystery! Who did it?! "One moment she was sitting there. The next, she had vanished into air"! It shows you a selection of weapons which may have been used, an assortment of suspicious characters, and some spots the body may be located. And Englands most sought after detective, a half Irish, half Japanese gentleman: named "Waredo Dyrge" and his inseparable canine companion "Deary"

THE GLORIOUS NOSEBLEEED: Yet another alphabet, with charming illustrations..."She wandered among the trees AIMLESSLY" "The creature regarded them BALEFULLY"...."He exposed himself LEWDLY" ;-)

THE LOATHSOME COUPLE: May be shocking to SOME, but not me. About the terrible coupling of two loathsome (pathetic and pitiful!) individuals "Harold Snedleigh" & "Mona Gritch" who plan and carry out the murder of children together( those Gorey children are so hapless!). A long story, a Gorey classic and one of my favorites. The plot may make some frown and seem distastful, but strangley....it isn't.

THE GREEN BEADS: About little Tancred, whose mother sends him to buy three pennies worth of tapioca. Suddenly he meets a very odd old mentally disturbed person (whose sex is unclear) Who reveals SHE is Tancred's grandmother 'Baroness von Rettig" who Tancred's mother had thought was lost long ago. But what ever became of the Baroness's emerald necklace?

LES URNES UTILES: The title translates to: "The Useful Urns" and here they are huge, bigger than people. They stand in the most awkward of places, and bear odd inscriptions.

THE STUPID JOKE: All about Friederich and his idea for a stupid joke, instead of getting out of bead he'll just lie there, while his family come in trying various ways to make him get up!

THE PRUNE PEOPLE: Is all about..well, prune people! People who have prunes for heads!

THE TUNING FORK: About poor homely Theod whose presence drove her family wild! Bent on suicide she rushed to the ocean, flinging herself in. But instead she meets a fanstatic sea creature who sympatizes with poor Theoda and her cruel past.

Here Edward Gorey is as great as usual! The Loathsome Couple may shock and offend some people, but it really is done in the most tasteful way as possible, for the subject matter.

Rating:
Summary: The darkest,most macabre Amphigorey
Review: This book, like the ones before in the Amphigorey series, has a collection of small books by the American Gothic, Edward Gorey. The stories nearest to the end are some of the most grim of his books. Some of my favorite are the Glorious Nosebleed, The Broken Spoke and the Blue Aspic.

Rating:
Summary: Still delightfully entertaining!
Review: This is the third of the Amphigorey series. Like those before it, this book is witty, charming, horrifying, and a delight to read. Filled with gothic illustrations, these short stories will sometimes chill you, sometimes confuse you, yet always entertain you.

Rating:
Summary: In Gorey Heaven!
Review: What a wonderful compilation of the works of this unusual and extremely gifted artist! While Charles Addams is a household name, that of Edward Gorey still brings looks of puzzlement whenever it comes up in conversation. I personally feel he has never received the acclaim justly due him, but then again, his works certainly will not be to everyone's taste. At times his stories are beyond comprehension, but perhaps that was his intention--to leave us guessing or use our own imagination to fill in the gaps. Be that as it may, the illustrations are worth the price of the book alone. If you love Edward Gorey and would rather have some of his works together in one volume, do yourself a favor and purchase this book. But be prepared to enter his personal weird and at times incomprehensible world.