Amphigorey Too

Thanks to The Beastly Baby and the Evil Garden, this may be even better than the original Amphigorey.

Great-Uncle Franz, beside the lake
Is being strangled by a snake

This has to be my favorite of the four Amphigorey collections. I don't know if that's because I've had it so long and read it so many times that it has completely infected me, or because all the faux children's stories inside are just so great. "The Beastly Baby" is a fantastic way to get things

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started, but I think my favorite has to be "The Lavender Leotard," about ballet-dancing siblings.

Things to notice: Edward Gorey's pseudonyms, Ogdred Weary and Mrs. Regera Dowdy, are anagrams of his name. The author always wears a big fur coat and tennis shoes. Fantods also wear sneakers and make a couple of appearances in odd places in the book.

And now, a limerick: "Little Zooks, of whom no one was fond, They shot toward the roof and beyond; The infant's trajectory passed him over the rectory, and into a lily-choked pond."

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An wonderful collection of some of Edward Gorey's finest creations.

An wonderful collection of some of Edward Gorey's finest creations.

I don't really know if Gorey is an acquired taste because i absolutely love him--if you do too i'm sure you will appreciate this collection. Includes the Guilded Bat about a ballerina-i once saw the ballet commisioned from this work with sets designed by Gorey and the ballet itself was Gorey come

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to life--incredible!

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Edward Gorey had a style all his own; black and white line drawings that seem simple but sometimes have an immense amount of detail in them- wallpaper, draperies, carpets all meticulously drawn in. The pieces all seem to be set in the Edwardian era and are frequently grim and bleak. But there is

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also a humor to them all; very dark humor mostly. ‘Amphigory Too’ is a collection of twenty of Gorey’s works, including ‘The Beastly Baby’, ‘The Gilded Bat’ and ‘The Osbick Bird’. ‘The Gilded Bat’ is one of his best know pieces, the story of a poor girl who becomes a prima ballerina but who’s life still remains basically dreary. ‘The Osbick Bird’ I found rather sweet, being about the lifelong friendship between man and extremely large bird. As for ‘The Beastly Baby’, well, I sympathized with the parents in that one. Like any anthology it’s a mixed bag, but most of the stories included are winners.

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Indeed, I'm sure I had read this before, but I read it again, for realsies. Good stuff. No childhood favorites, but fun short vignettes and a spotting of the character from The Doubtful Guest.

An wonderful collection of some of Edward Gorey's finest creations.

An wonderful collection of some of Edward Gorey's finest creations.

Since I read Edward Gorey's biography, I thought it would be a good idea to immerse myself in his books which led me to Amphigorey, Amphigorey Too, and Amphigorey Again. These are collections of his illustrated works and I have to be honest that I don't think I'm intellectual enough to get the

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'deeper meaning' behind his grotesque little tales. While I found some of them amusing, I wasn't overly impressed or blown away. Also, I have to agree with Gorey's biographer that his books do best in their tiny format instead of lumped together like this. Reading fatigue hit me HARD while I was trying to get through these (and they really didn't capture my imagination) so it's going to be a 4/10 from me.

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Mildly entertaining.

A series of multi-panel stories.

Some of Gorey's stories are interesting, some are mildly disturbing (like the dead child on the side of the road, who was saved from being abused at the orphanage), and some are just... "huh?" or "ummm... okay..."

The art is always darkly

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beautiful, of course.

Overall, I guess I get enough Gorey from various random sources, one panel at a time, because I have no particular intent to read any of the other compendiums.

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