| Title | : | The Doubtful Guest |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0747541558 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780747541554 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 32 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1957 |
The Doubtful Guest Reviews
-
this review is for bird brian!!
i am insisting on reading this book as a metaphor for parenthood. in this wonderfully-illustrated-as-always edward gorey book, this creature arrives one evening, uninvited, unexpected. and it looks like a weird-ass penguin in a scarf and some canvas kicks. and it just will not leave.
it came seventeen years ago - and to this day it has shown no intention of going away
i assume there are plenty of parents who feel this way about their odd children - the alien, the other, the unrelatable who seems never to be leaving the nest and letting them get back to their lives already.
and it is a total pain in the ass. while this creature is living amongst them, it eats all the syrup and toast, and part of a plate, it steals parts from the gramophone, it hangs out in the fireplace and destroys its own shoes, it rips up books (!!!)
and messes up the hanging pictures, it lies down on the floor in front of the door and gets in everyone's way, it hides in a tureen, it steals and hides all the bath towels, it sleepwalks, it throws the beloved objects of others in the pond, and it seemingly has no intention of ever leaving or getting a job or finding a nice girl and settling down!!
sound familiar, parents??
time to clean house before it gets any worse.
come to my blog! -
ARSENICO E VECCHI MERLETTI
Le opere di Gorey, perché illustrate, e perché narrate come filastrocche, sembrano nate per l’infanzia: ma così non è, potrebbero caso mai essere considerate una parodia dei libri per bambini (parodia feroce, assai feroce).
Gorey prende spunto da quella letteratura, ma subito innesta il suo inesauribile umorismo nero (più dark che black), la sua vena sinistra e sadica.
Per esempio, I piccini di Gashlycrumb è un abbecedario nel quale a ogni lettera dell’alfabeto corrisponde il nome di un bambino, morto in maniera più o meno atroce.
Gorey è tutto meno che un autore di letteratura infantile. Il suo pubblico è quello degli adulti.
Io sono un suo fedele lettore dal momento in cui sono diventato adulto.
L’ospite sgradito, l’ospite equivoco in altre traduzioni, è forse il personaggio più famoso disegnato da Gorey, e fino alla morte di Gorey (2000) è stata probabilmente l’unica sua opera reperibile in italiano (e con difficoltà).
Si tratta di una specie di pinguino in sciarpa e scarpe da tennis che si autoinvita e insedia a tempo indeterminato nella magione di signori, severi e attoniti, sottoponendoli a una serie di pacate torture senza che nessuno chieda niente a lui.
È un’invasione pacifica, ma dall’effetto sconvolgente: il pinguino è creatura indecifrabile e assurda, che progressivamente diventa sempre più presente nella vita della famiglia che abita la casa. Famiglia che inspiegabilmente è incapace di arginare l’uccello, col quale finirà per convivere molti anni, finché il bambino diventerà adulto e i genitori anziani.
Uscito nel 1958, ha finito presto con il rappresentare l’alter ego dello stesso Gorey, che, con l'aggiunta di un immancabile cappotto di pelliccia e di un Maggiolino giallo, si vestiva e comportava più o meno come lui.
Fino al punto da portarsi dietro per anni, in braccio o per mano, un pelouche a sembianza dell’Ospite Sgradito.
Anche qui il tratteggio a pennino in bianco e nero simula incisioni ottocentesche. Anche qui ci si muove tra il gotico e surreale, tra il macabro e il nonsense, tra mistero ed enigma. Nulla viene mai rivelato, non c’è spiegazione, e neppure risoluzione.
Gorey racconta di morte, veleni, scannamenti, crudeltà varie e omicidi, con la leggerezza con cui le dame inglesi dell’Ottocento prendevano il tè osservando i mariti giocare a cricket.
Per Gorey si scomodò addirittura il sommo Edmund Wilson che firmò l'introduzione a questa edizione speciale, ghiotta e imperdibile, paragonando l'autore a mostri sacri come Beardsley e Beerbohm. Che splendida compagnia!
PS
Morte malinconica del bambino ostrica e altre storie è il titolo del libro di Tim Burton, che non esisterebbe, come non esisterebbe il suo cinema e il suo immaginario, se non fosse prima esistito Gorey.
-
"At times it would tear out whole chapters from books
Or put roomfuls of pictures askew on their hooks"
Squee! Gorey! I haven't shelved any Gorey but I've read A LOT of Gorey which is possibly why I'm generally as cheerful as I am. And now I realize I need more Gorey these days, ones that sneaked past me like this awesome little gem-- which is perfectly relevant and weirdly therapeutic -- and time to revisit the trove. Come to Lori, Gorey. I've missed you, you sly fox. -
Ever heard of the man named Edward Gorey?
Well, he's the author of this quirky story,
About a something from somewhere that shows up one day,
And shows no intention of going away.
Perhaps you've seen his drawings, his ladies in long dresses,
His alphabet book may have taught your your esses.
Ah, now you remember the man, Edward Gorey,
The author in all his pen-and-ink glory. -
Gorgeous little book and immensely weird! Four stars plus, what an artist, Edward Gorey. Beautiful & supercreative absolutely superb, intriguing black & white drawings. Every drawing accompanied by a two-line rhyme. Love the dark drawings and elusive storylines of Gorey. I keep looking at the drawings, for more details... Out of this world!!
-
Happy Halloween month!
I've read this a few times as a part of larger collections, but enjoyed it again. I recall great reviewer Karen insisting that the book is really about parenting for some people. In it a weird bird shows up in a Victorian mansion and doesn't leave for 17 years. They tolerate him, but as she says, "he is a total pain in the ass." "It" eats all the syrup and toast, and part of a plate; it rips apart a gramophone, lies around moping on the floor in inconvenient places, rips off the soles of its shoes, rips up books: Pain in the ass!
And doesn't leave for 17 years. That's it, really, but rereading it as parenting made it especially amusing. We wrongly assume that most people who become parents are "natural" parents or come to grow into it. Or they hate kids but come to love their own. Those who KNOW are myths, but they are perpetuated, anyway. The adults in this story, an extended family, just don't know what to do with this "guest," and largely leave him alone. Like a metaphor for a lot of kids growing up?
I sometimes wonder about Gorey, never in a relationship anyone knew about, never had kids, writing lovingly but spookily for/about kids. . . . heh heh heh.
Here it is, on YouTube, in less than three minutes, promise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XxVh... -
What would you do if an unwanted guest arrived at your house and moved in for 17 years. Well, this little story is about a very strange guest that looks like a penguin and he is very trying. Funny enough, the family is unable to oust him from their house.
This was quirky for Edward and it was a fun little short story. I had a fun time with the story and art. Gorey is so Droll. This is the beauty of Gorey. Why tell a usual story when it can be so strange. -
Since the Doubtful Guest looks a bit like a penguin, I'm particularly enamored.
***
Now I long for a doubtful guest costume. Building the beak/nose would be the only tricky part, if one already happens to have a Doctor Who-like bizarrely long scarf, as who doesn't? Excellent costume for anyone who feels socially awkward, ie. at least half of humanity. Plus I'm short.
I never actually noticed the son growing up before this time, I don't think.
Personal copy -
"Then they saw something standing on top of an urn,
Whose peculiar appearance gave them quite a turn."
- Edward Gorey, The Doubtful Guest
A dark penguin (?) with white converse shoes, a wool scarf, and an affinity for bowls, plates, and urns shows up and inserts him/her/itself into a gothic Victorian family's estate. I think this book was created on a boozy bet. Gorey bet some absurd friend he could write a small poem of illustrated couplets and use the words:
1. Urn
2. Gramophone
3. Flues
4. Hooks
5. Tureen
6. Wrath
7. Creep
In many ways this is a love note to odd pets. Those animals that come into your home and don't exactly love you back, but become absolutely part of your life. Again, like most Gorey books, this one is absurd, Victorian, gothic, slightly dark and a total hoot. He taps into the cracks and shadows we all usually tuck in tight and hide away and produces a muted laugh every time. -
In una casa vittoriana irrompe un essere strano, apparentemente un pinguino. Si muove goffamente in mezzo agli altrettanto impacciati componenti della famiglia che lo ospita. Fa danni, scompagina i libri, si arrampica su per il camino, mangia anche le stoviglie di casa. Con i suoi disegni raffinati e divertenti, racconta una storia sensa senso che si innesta sulla imperturbabile quotidianità degli abitanti della casa.
-
This was my introduction to Edward Gorey, I became an instant fan and thus began my fascination with his stories and illustrations. That said, these books are not for everyone. They will appeal to those with a humorous dark side who appreciate nonsensical verse with a touch of eccentricity. Think bizarre Dr. Seuss and substitute eerie black & white Edwardian illustrations for the colorful Seussian images. I own a few of Gorey’s books and I pick them up regularly just to clear the creative cobwebs and a sinister laugh.
In this fable, the guest is an odd looking aardvark-type who appears uninvited and then wreaks havoc upon the household and after 17 years is still there (remind anyone of children?). In another humorously twisted tale, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, he challenges the traditional alphabet book and gives us a deranged tale of children who meet with calamitous endings. As I said, not for everyone, but for those of us with a penchant for the absurd and just a hint of the mildly macabre, Gorey was an absolute genius. -
I can tell that Edward Gorey has influenced many writers with his bizarre little tales as I have read books that contain similarly absurd series of events. I have no idea what the guest is, it looks like a completely black penguin wearing trainers. It seems to do things to annoy it's hosts, sleeping in the tureen and stealing bath towels. The illustrations are wonderfully dark as always, they are so full of detail you could easily get away without the words.
As usual with Edward Gorey nothing is explained, your imagination is left to come up with it's own reasons. Loved this absurd little book. -
You see this weird penguin-like creature with a striped scarf and white canvas shoes, wandering about, carelessly mysterious and not understood by anyone, including the reader. Is it a metaphor for pets? Children? Aliens? Who knows. All I can say is that you fall in love with it pretty soon.
-
An unexpected guest, a creature in sneakers, arrives at the home of a well-off family and remains for 17 years. As the rhyming couplets relate, there was no hope of the creature departing either.
-
Looks like the guest was an emo anteater! #zotzot Love it!
-
Delightfully odd.
-
What to make of this book? It took about one minute to read and had little to say for itself. As usual with Gorey, his illustrations are interesting, but what's the point? As usual with me, when I first read a Gorey, I don't get it - why do I keep buying his books? If past experience is anything to go by, I'll return to this book and it'll start to find its place, and I mine with it. For now, a doubtful 3/5, which will likely improve with age.
A doubtful guest, indeed.
UPDATE: Let's try this again after a second read and some reflection! Forgetting what I think Gorey is trying to say unlocks what I feel. The Doubtful Guest feels like
Anxiety
Depression
Isolation
It's a guest, so do I invite those things into my life? Maybe, but it's doubtful. I can scream at it to leave, and it ignores me. I sleep, but it gives me no peace. It spoils the things I enjoy, drowns the things I love. Year after year, it shows no sign of going away. What kind of guest is this? 4/5 -
"At times it would tear out whole chapters from books, or put roomfuls of pictures askew on their hooks."
Behind every Gorey character, animal or creature there is a kernel of truth and allusions to something deeper. For me, The Doubtful Guest is difficult not to read as an unwanted child acting out for attention. One of my favorite elements of this short story - a counterpoint to this perspective - is watching the young boy in the family grow up in the shadow of this dark visitor, who is all but a shadow himself. But despite the uneasy tone of the narrative, and its unresolved conclusion, the visitor's white Chuck Taylors always seem to make me smile. -
"It came seventeen years ago - and to this day it has shown no intention of going away."
Another Bizzare and Twisted read that was recommended to me by goodreads after finishing the "Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories".
The whole story was written in the shape of a metaphor and it kindda belongs to the dark humour genre which I seem to enjoy, it's my first read by Edward Gorey but probably not the last. -
Short enough to read while standing in a museum gift shop, and also rather funny. The penguin-y creature moved in and never left, and no one seems terribly bothered. Delightful!
-
https://pepperlines.blogspot.com/2018... -
Preface
This little strange creature who roams around the house and destroys books? What a nightmare. I still enjoy the creepy drawings and rhyming.
(PS: This could be a good way of introducing kids to horror).
————————————————————————————
4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ -
সুরিয়ালিস্টিক, এবসার্ড, নন্সেন্স স্ক্রিপ্ট লাইক সুকুমার রয় এন্ড অল-সো মেটাফরিক আই গেজ।
-
Beautiful pictures, 💛 the doubtful guest
-
This has definitely been my favourite in the Edward Gorey series so far. I agree with other readers that say this comic is a metaphor for life with children.
This weird hipster dark penguin type character shows up wearing a scarf ,white canvas shoes an is intent on causing havoc. He listens to no one, gets in the way, hides the bath towels, throws stuff in the pond and rips up books! He stays for 17 years and still shows no sign of leaving. Sound familiar to any parents out there??
-
Well, I liked this better than The Gashlycrumb Tinies. It’s more cohesive, and there’s more of a plot. I also liked the vibe much better; whereas that one just felt gratuitously gory and violent, this one is more atmospheric. It’s unnerving and creepy, but more because of the tension that builds than for anything gruesome. This book also had a bit more humor, as well as an unexpected turn right at the end. I can say that I definitely appreciate Gorey more now that I’ve read this one too, but I doubt I’ll be reading anything else by him any time soon. It’s fine quality for what it is, but it’s just not a style that I particularly enjoy.
-
Full review to come!
-
My brother Rickie will always be my Doubtful Guest ...
-
Sebald's smirk...
Essential reading for those who bloom in gloom... -
it was so cute.
