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A review by 600bars
Amphigorey Also by Edward Gorey
4.0
This one has my favorite cover of the Amphigoreys. Many excellent stories. I read “the Blue Aspic”, a story about an opera singer and her obsessive fan, the same day that I attended the opera for the first time in my life. The story reminded me of the movie Perfect Blue, which is also about an obsessive fan and a star. Both have Blue in the title!
In this collection we really see an East Asian influence on Gorey’s art. This was prevalent in the other volumes too but I really noticed it here. I especially loved Less Passementeries Horribles. The series is just pictures of people being stalked by giant Omamori tassels and Hanamusubi knots that ominously float over them, ghostlike. Literally genius. I have a few of these tassel/amulets and associate them with a feeling of security, because I bought them at a shrine to provide protection. It tickled me to see that inverted here, the knots are a potentially dangerous specter.
This volume had way more color stories than the other two! And so many bicycles!
Another standout was the Awdrey Gore Legacy. First of all I loved the fictional pulp novel covers he drew on the title page. I realized that Gorey did the covers for a couple books I own and I’ll def be on the lookout for more. This story is not a story at all, it is just presenting the evidence of a murder mystery and you can peruse it at your leisure. Maps, objects, suspect profiles, fragments of notes.
Unlike the other collections, and unlike most stories, we actually end on a triumphant note. The Tuning Fork seems like another one of Gorey’s typical stories where a child is horribly abused and then the kid either dies or the story ends abruptly in an unsettling manner. This time the little girl attempts suicide but is saved by a sea monster, who then helps her enact revenge on her cruel family. I loved the dark water in the illustrations.
I think this is the best volume overall even though nothing has made me laugh as hard as the Hapless Child.
In this collection we really see an East Asian influence on Gorey’s art. This was prevalent in the other volumes too but I really noticed it here. I especially loved Less Passementeries Horribles. The series is just pictures of people being stalked by giant Omamori tassels and Hanamusubi knots that ominously float over them, ghostlike. Literally genius. I have a few of these tassel/amulets and associate them with a feeling of security, because I bought them at a shrine to provide protection. It tickled me to see that inverted here, the knots are a potentially dangerous specter.
This volume had way more color stories than the other two! And so many bicycles!
Another standout was the Awdrey Gore Legacy. First of all I loved the fictional pulp novel covers he drew on the title page. I realized that Gorey did the covers for a couple books I own and I’ll def be on the lookout for more. This story is not a story at all, it is just presenting the evidence of a murder mystery and you can peruse it at your leisure. Maps, objects, suspect profiles, fragments of notes.
Unlike the other collections, and unlike most stories, we actually end on a triumphant note. The Tuning Fork seems like another one of Gorey’s typical stories where a child is horribly abused and then the kid either dies or the story ends abruptly in an unsettling manner. This time the little girl attempts suicide but is saved by a sea monster, who then helps her enact revenge on her cruel family. I loved the dark water in the illustrations.
I think this is the best volume overall even though nothing has made me laugh as hard as the Hapless Child.