Rating: 
Summary: The most gloomy wonderful book ever.
Review: My highest possible recommendation. Before Tim Burton or the current popularity of gothic themed humor comics there was Edward Gorey. Both his illustrated stories and the animated introduction to PBS's Mystery have always enchanted me.An ABC of dead children may seem dreadful but Edward Gorey adds charm to his spooky, terrible and freakish stories. Each 19th Century looking gothic fairy tale tickles the fancy of the dark little Wednesday Adams inside you. You'll squirm, you'll giggle, and you will want to read it again every quiet rainy day.
Rating: 
Summary: Fairly Lame
Review: Not knowing much about Gorey, I thought I'd try it since I saw the cartoon about that one kid that smothered under a rug. Ha! Anway, the whole book was lame. Just barely entertaining. Not for an adult reader unless you really, really obsessively liked Gorey as a kid. And several of the cartoons were in french.......
Rating:
Summary: Odd brilliance
Review: Straddling the line between cartooning and fine art, Gorey has always made for intriguing reading. This first "Amphigorey" collection contains many of his very best stories, among them the mesmerically funny "The Unstrung Harp," the haunting "West Wing," and the sublimely wistful masterpiece "The Remembered Visit." Great stuff from a dry wit.
Rating:
Summary: A bizarre and beautiful book!
Review: The artwork in Amphigorey is absolutely amazing. The style is reminiscent of a very old cartoon. Every single frame of each story is so detailed, and the lines are so intricate and precise, it's as if Gorey spent days on each drawing. The stories which are illustrated by these drawings are very creepy. Many of the stories are incredibly pointless. Some of them end awfully, others don't really end at all. Some aren't stories, but rather collections of poems with a title. At times, things get quite disgusting. For example, in one set of alphabetical poems entitled "The Fatal Lozenge," the last poem goes like this: The ZOUAVE used to war and battle
Would sooner take a life than not:
It scarcely has begun to prattle
When he impales a hapless tot. This is accompanied by an illustration of a baby pinned through its abdomen with a sword and blood dripping down. But no matter what, everything in this collection is interesting and unique. This book is at no time dull or boring. Plus, it makes a great conversation piece. I love showing people my Amphigorey book! Most people have never heard of Edward Gorey and are entirely surprised that such a bizarre book even exists. In any case, if you don't already have it, you should definitely get this book! It's such a great thing to have around the house, you'll never regret owning it!
Rating:
Summary: A bizarre and beautiful book!
Review: The artwork in Amphigorey is absolutely amazing. The style is reminiscent of a very old cartoon. Every single frame of each story is so detailed, and the lines are so intricate and precise, it's as if Gorey spent days on each drawing. The stories which are illustrated by these drawings are very creepy. Many of the stories are incredibly pointless. Some of them end awfully, others don't really end at all. Some aren't stories, but rather collections of poems with a title. At times, things get quite disgusting. For example, in one set of alphabetical poems entitled "The Fatal Lozenge," the last poem goes like this: The ZOUAVE used to war and battle
Would sooner take a life than not:
It scarcely has begun to prattle
When he impales a hapless tot. This is accompanied by an illustration of a baby pinned through its abdomen with a sword and blood dripping down. But no matter what, everything in this collection is interesting and unique. This book is at no time dull or boring. Plus, it makes a great conversation piece. I love showing people my Amphigorey book! Most people have never heard of Edward Gorey and are entirely surprised that such a bizarre book even exists. In any case, if you don't already have it, you should definitely get this book! It's such a great thing to have around the house, you'll never regret owning it!
Rating:
Summary: Journey into the Dark
Review: The singular career of Edward Gorey is quite impossible to adequately characterize, in part because his work articulates the tension between exaggerated opposites at every step. The style of his work and the simplicity of his verse superficially resemble books for children, but the intense macabre of his stories and their relentless existential interrogations bely our every tendency to treat him lightly. Likewise, though there is an unmistakeable cartoonish-quality to his illustation, close examination reveals an astonishing precision, care, and attention to detail. I think this explains in part the curious power and profundity that his images convey. Like myth, his stories present and in some way mediate the deep paradoxes of our experience. His stories are short, much as the poems of the Modernist poets are short. It is not that Gorey has little to say; rather, he speaks so well that precious few words are required. Complementing Gorey's stylistic precision and excellence, the images that surface from his best tales are unmistakeably illuminating in the curious way that parable is illuminating. Something is communicated, but it is difficult to say exactly what it is. Gorey is a singular emmisary of the Dream Works, wholely and unmistakeably himself in each stroke of the pen. These compendia are great treasures.
Rating:
Summary: Journey into the Dark
Review: The singular career of Edward Gorey is quite impossible to adequately characterize, in part because his work articulates the tension between exaggerated opposites at every step. The style of his work and the simplicity of his verse superficially resemble books for children, but the intense macabre of his stories and their relentless existential interrogations bely our every tendency to treat him lightly. Likewise, though there is an unmistakeable cartoonish-quality to his illustation, close examination reveals an astonishing precision, care, and attention to detail. I think this explains in part the curious power and profundity that his images convey. Like myth, his stories present and in some way mediate the deep paradoxes of our experience. His stories are short, much as the poems of the Modernist poets are short. It is not that Gorey has little to say; rather, he speaks so well that precious few words are required. Complementing Gorey's stylistic precision and excellence, the images that surface from his best tales are unmistakeably illuminating in the curious way that parable is illuminating. Something is communicated, but it is difficult to say exactly what it is. Gorey is a singular emmisary of the Dream Works, wholely and unmistakeably himself in each stroke of the pen. These compendia are great treasures.
Rating:
Summary: The Gashlycrumb Tinies Demand Your Presence!
Review: This book is GORGEOUS. I first discovered it while hanging about at a Christmas party at the house of a pair of my uncle's co-workers. I didn't know any of the guests, so I looked around the house and discovered the host's collection of antique books, Amphigorey among them. When the lord of the household found me sitting in his rocking chair and reading, he graciously invited me to borrow the volume, which I did. How grateful I am! Edward Gorey is the Renee Magritte of literature. I have always loved bizarre, vague, puzzling works, and Amphigorey is delightfully, bitterly twisted. The characters are so spectral. On each page I see... not nightmares, but dark dreams surfacing. This wild, enchanting book ranks alongside William J. Meyer's comic book saga, White Bread, as one of my favorite "what the hell is going on" works of literature. Within the borrowed volume I read, I discovered an artifact that may be of immense value. It was a printed invitation decorated by a copy of Edward Gorey's drawing of the Gashlycrumb Tinies and their Grim Reaper nanny. In Gorey's handwriting, the invitation gave the names of two gentlemen and continued "...and the Gashlycrumb Tinies demand your presence at their home at 8:00 pm on ALL HALLOWS EVEN [that's not a typo], 1975." The invitation announced a costume contest and gave an address and phone number. Ah, to have attended Mr. Gorey's celebration! He is surely the master of Halloween.
Rating:
Summary: Synopsis
Review: This collection is ideal for a Gorey fan. It is very extensive and saves you the trouble of buying each seperate book, and is probably cheaper. It also includes more obscure titles, otherwise very difficult to find.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This is a classic volume of dark humour. But that's not all it is. Edward Gorey has created not just quirky limericks, not just hilarious stories of macabre, and not just pages of delicous nonsense. He has created his own _universe_. The Amphigorey universe is filled with a mood that Gorey has perfected. The dark niceties fit together to create this mood like a puzzle--everything from his Neo-Victorian cross-hatchwork, Edwardian character names, even the font. Amphigorey is an hilarious gothic masterpiece.
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