| Title | : | Amphigorey Too (Amphigorey, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0399504206 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780399504204 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1975 |
Amphigorey Too (Amphigorey, #2) Reviews
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There are four compilations comprising the body of Edward Gorey's work not including collaborations: Amphigorey, Amphigorey Too, Amphigorey Again and Amphigorey Also. They were done posthumously and each one is terrific. Amphigorey contains his best. It's like the first greatest hits album from a band with more than enough material for four of them.
Too, too, is a trove. Unlike the others it's all black and white. Too begins with "The Beastly Baby," a wonderfully drawn and written story put out under one of his many pen names, Ogred Weary. His sensibility is droll, the look of his black and white drawings and nature of the writing so Victorian or at times Edwardian that many people still believe he was British. Fact is he was an American who lived an uneventful life with his cats on Cape Cod and an annual subscription to the Boston Ballet. It's well known Gorey didn't like children but he didn't wish them dead -- he just enjoyed writing and drawing them to their deaths. He loved cats and there are plenty of unlucky cats in his work too.
One of my all-time favorite Goreys is "The Nursery Frieze." It consists of one of his bizarre animal-ish creatures, identical in each panel, each with a different word or place-name lettered above its head: odd ones, obscure ones, humorous ones with occasional pedestrian words thrown in to temporarily surprise the reader back to the mundane. I never tire of it.
Other favorites of mine in Too include "The Gilded Bat," a beautifully-drawn tale of the life (and death of course) of a ballerina, delicious Gorey tales "The Deranged Cousins," "The Disrespectful Summons" and "The Iron Tonic," and "The Abandoned Sock," one of those marvels in which Gorey tells quite a tale without words. If any sound vaguely familiar it's time to revisit his work; if they seem intriguing it's time to check it out.
His work delights me. Turning the page, having forgotten the table of contents which has no page numbers anyway, one never knows what one will encounter, only that it will be entertaining, surprising and provocative. -
It’s official: I’m a Gorey fan! Where has this beautiful, white-bearded curmudgeon been my whole life? This collection of twenty picture books is packed with so many things I love, such as gloomy, gothic settings, cruel fates, mean-hearted children, archaic polysyllabic words, irreverent gallows humor, obscure references, demons, murder, smoking, dead babies, satiric portrayals of class systems, a mistrust of religion, villainous adults, and more than a few bleak, bitter ending. Gorey’s artwork is so deceptively simple yet elegant that it is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any reader who shares a morbid mind like my own, even as he inks out depictions of feline decapitations, hapless victims of falling pottery, man-eating plants, terrible plane crashes, suicidal inanimate objects, ominous skylines, miserable children, and at least one instance of the Devil copping a feel. I can’t wait to get me mitts on another one of these omnibuses!
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A short story collection of Edward Gorey’s published works with 21 new stories. This is the 2nd of 4 volumes bringing all his catalog to the world. I look forward to the rest of them. I thought the 1st volume was better overall, but this has some great little stories in it. Edward Gorey brings me joy with his musings.
Includes:
The Beastly Baby
The Nursery Frieze
The Pious Infant
The Evil Garden
The Inanimate Tragedy
The Gilded Bat
The Iron Tonic
The Osbick Bird
The Chinese Obelisks (bis)
The Deranged Cousins
The Eleventh Episode
[The Untitled Book]
The Lavender Leotard
The Disrespectful Summons
The Abandoned Sock
The Lost Lions
Story for Sara
The Salt Herring
Leaves from a Mislaid Album
A Limerick -
I really needed a doses of twisted laughs and creepy nonsense. By the end of the year, apparently the whole universe is plotting against me and loads of work are piling up next to my massive to-read pile. One is the fun pile, the other one is the academic/work pile. And people couldn't care less about this, so, when I have time, I'll write a proper review. You know, one that is, actually, about the book and not my personal whatever. Although, I'll probably forget all about it and this is what people are going to read for months.
Anyway, all I can say is that I'm a Gorey fan now!
Dec 09, 13
* Also on
my blog. -
Este volumen recoge unas historias mucho más bizarras que el anterior. Neciamente pensé que lo mejor de Gorey estaba en Amphigorey, pero lo que hay aquí es...Jesus, mam'.
El humor de Gorey es más ácido y bizarro en esta antología, lo que convierte en este libro ilustrado en un producto mucho más underground o marginal que la anterior antología de relatos. Aunque en Amphigorey tenemos un abecedario de niños suicidas, en Amphigorey Too la muerte se vuelve un recurso más habitual. Pero no solo es su aparición, sino el planteamiento de ésta. La muerte, siempre tabú y envuelta en un intenso dramatismo, aquí resulta un recurso más del absurdo. No nos impresiona que el final sea funesto sino cómo llegamos a él. Tal vez ofenda o provoque risa, según lo enrevesado que sea el sentido del humor del lector. Desde luego no deja indiferente.
Cuando lees a Gorey has de tener clara una cosa: No pretende agradar al lector y tú tampoco le gustas a él. Es una relación tensa, tormentosa como el romance de Heathcliff y Catherine Earnshaw. Para mí leer las historias de Gorey es como pasear desnuda por mi casa y que de la cafetera italiana salga una persona preguntándome si me parece correcto comer queso manchego con palillos chinos. Sin duda, una aparición tan desagradable como la de un fantasma para una heroína gótica decimonónica.
Por otro lado, explicar las historias de Gorey sería despojarlas de uno de los aspectos más trascendentales e importantes de su obra. La relación entre las historias de Gorey y el lector va más allá de relegar al observador a una mera función pasiva o contemplativa. Los finales son abiertos, en ocasiones abruptos. Invita a que sigas, que vuelvas la broma más macabra o que cierres el libro sintiendo que el ano se ha encogido un par de milímetros.
Mis historias favoritas de este volumen son [El libro sin título], El murciélago dorado, Los primos dementes, El niño Pío, Las conjuraciones irrespetuosas e Historia para Sara, pero realmente todas las historias son recomendables. Todas las historias están dibujadas con mucho cariño y cuidando hasta el más mínimo detalle. Nada es prescindible, ninguna historia la percibes innecesaria o fuera de lugar, aunque sean muy distintas entre sí. Por ejemplo, El libro sin título es la aparición de unas criaturas extrañas, sacadas del nivel más profundo del subconsciente; El murciélago dorado es la carrera artística de una bailarina de balet; Los primos dementes es una narración sobre desgraciados y miserables que comparten un vinculo sanguíneo y la Historia de Sara, cuya autor es Alphonse Allais no E. Gorey, tiene tintes de cuento infantil victoriano por su aparente intención moral (esta es planteada de forma satírica. Ahí está la gracia).
La verdad es que este autor me está enseñando bastante a nivel compositivo y narrativo. Podría pasarme horas mirando sus dibujos, extrayendo nuevas formas de disponer los elementos y plantear historias. Por otro lado, observo que desarrolla en sus historias temas de tal forma que me recuerdan a otros que yo he planteado en mis propias pajas mentales. Cuanto más me conozco a mi misma, mejor comprendo que vivo en un mundo extraño, plagado de interrogantes y monstruos con cabezas de calabacín, almeja, seta y boniato que cantan canciones navideñas a una tumba anónima. Creo que vivo por y para crear cosas que sean una combinación entre el absurdo, el bizarro o extraño con personajillos inocuos como Hello Kitty o los Telettubbies, pasado todo por la freidora de la cultura rusa. Gorey me está ayudando mucho a sacar eso de dentro.
Hace un año quería cortarme las venas porque no entendía a los vivos y las relaciones humanas preestablecidas. Casi caigo de en la misma dinámica este año. Pero entonces me di cuenta de que ahora simplemente he dejado de desear entender a la gente. Porque me aburre. -
Edward Gorey's work is one of those rare things that consistently renews my faith in the awesome potential of human creativity.
Is that corny enough of a review for ya? Yeah, I know it sounds really gross, but it's true. Looking at his pictures makes me want to try harder to resuscitate the numbed 98% of my brain I never use for anything at all. Edward Gorey made all this stuff, and he's a human being just like me! Or maybe he isn't. Maybe he's some weird spidery creature with dark frightening eyes who lives under the stairs in the basement of a haunted Victorian. That would explain some things. -
The second collection of Edward Gorey and I just loved it.
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Wow it took us 2 weeks to read the first one and only 2 days to read the second! This one had so many ballet related stories. There was one costume in the Lavender Leotard that I remembered learning about in the Dance & Fashion book I read a couple weeks ago. I wish I had not returned the book because I googled and I could not find any information on it. Hopefully when I return to work no one will have bought it and I will find the page I am looking for. I learned that Gorey was an obsessive Balanchine fan and that the current exhibit at the Gorey house is about ballet. Maybe we will have to take a trip this summer. I also really loved that we got to see the draft of the Chinese Obelisk and the final product. The Gilded Bat was my favorite story.
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4.5 stars!
EDWARD GOREY’S MOST DISTURBING STORIES PART TWO!
After reading the first volume of Edward Gorey’s “Amphigorey,” I decided to check out the second volume “Amphigorey Too” and see if my inner Edward Gorey fan girl self would enjoy this volume as much as the first volume. I will admit that I was amazed at this second volume as it is just as disturbing and interesting as the first volume!
In this volume, there are a total of twenty stories collected by Edward Gorey, which includes:
1) The Beastly Baby
2) The Nursery Frieze
3) The Pious Infant
4) The Evil Garden
5) The Inanimate Tragedy
6) The Gilded Bat
7) The Iron Tonic
8) The Osbick Bird
9) The Chinese Obelisks
10) The Deranged Cousins
11) The Eleventh Episode
12) The Untitled Book
13) The Lavender Leotard
14) The Disrespectful Summons
15) The Abandoned Sock
16) The Lost Lions
17) Story for Sara
18) The Salt Herring
19) Leaves from a Mislaid Album
20) A Limerick
Just like the first volume, Edward Gorey has done a brilliant job with both writing and illustrating this book! Edward Gorey’s writing has a sophisticated tone as the stories seem to take place in Old Victorian times and the writing greatly complements the creepy atmosphere of the stories such as using words like “atrocious,” “beastly,” and “abandoned” to really bring out the creepy situations of the stories. Edward Gorey’s illustrations are just as effective as they were in the first volume as the coloring is in black and white. Even though the characters look a bit simplistic, the images of the characters performing horrible deeds such as an image of a baby ripping off a cat’s head, is brilliantly done as the images are not too gory. Some of my favorite stories in this volume were:
The Beastly Baby
The Chinese Obelisks
Story for Sara
The Disrespectful Summons
~Once again…~
THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR CHILDREN!
There is a lot of disturbing content in this volume that would scare small children such as images of characters ripping animals’ heads off and children being tortured and eaten by various threats. Also, the writing might be too difficult for smaller children to really understand since it is written in a more sophisticated manner that contains many large words like “monotonous,” “innumerable” and “interred.” The reason why I took off half a point from this book was because some of the stories like “The Iron Tonic,” and “The Salt Herring” were a bit boring to read through and sort of slowed down the stories for me.
Overall, “Amphigorey Too” is a great sequel to “Amphigorey” as it has enough disturbing content and sophisticated storytelling that will make Edward Gorey fans drool with anticipation! I would recommend this book to older children and teens since there is so much disturbing content (characters being killed) that would disturb smaller children.
Review is also on:
Rabbit Ears Book Blog -
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 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. -
Even stranger, darker, and more nonsensical than I expected, though that's Gorey for you. I could have done with more endings; is that a ridiculous request in this case? The best selections for me were "The Evil Garden," "The Osbick Bird," "The Chinese Obelisks," and "The Limerick."
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So witty, so darkly humorous and mocking. For Gorey fans - a feast!
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Amphigorey Too's stories were much darker and I didn't enjoy them as much.
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Best collection yet (between Amphogorey and Amphigorey Also) except this book was missing 3 stories and repeated 3 stories. It was quite distressing
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Edward Gorey was a very unique something or other.
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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 '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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We had a copy of Amphigorey in the house when I was a kid & I remember re-reading The Wuggly Ump & the The Gashlycrumb Tinies over and over again. Even the less narrative stories grabbed my attention & held them. When I (very recently) found there were move volumes of Gorey's work I was super excited, but I found this volume fairly flat. The illustrations are, of course, gorgeous, but the stories were mostly meh. I enjoyed The Beastly Baby, The Evil Garden, & The Osbick Bird as they felt the most like the first volume. Overall, good but not spectacular, I probably wont actively seek out volumes 3 or 4 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Again, delightful. Scrumptious. A short, easy read for those who love seeing children die (it's a humorous book, don't worry). From this one my favorite had to be The Deranged Cousins!
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dark interesting poetry...
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Another winner from the delightfully twisted Gorey. I was especially amused by the short story "The Beastly Baby," and highly recommend it to everyone.
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A mix of decent, good, and disappointing short tales (and some hardly amounting to tale-dom, e.g. a nursey frieze). I've reviewed all the contents separately. Taken overall, this is not a must-read to the extent that Amphigorey was, not remotely. That was the greatest hits album, and this is a collection of other songs for the completists among us.
I hold out hope that I will enjoy the third and fourth volumes more, with my new, lowered expectations.
I also should point out that my edition, hilariously, sports a massive error on that initial page which lists publication dates etc. … it’s got the details for the contents of the original Amphigorey. So it proudly lists the original publication dates for "The Fatal Lozenge" or "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" but remains mum on the contents for this book. Copy and paste error? Surprised no one caught it.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.) -
While there are still some stories I'm not as drawn to, you can see Gorey's style and wit solidifying and hitting the mark more often. Oddly though one of the best was The Chinese Obelisks' original sketches which are amazingly loose, but have such motion, something you don't often think of with Gorey, which makes it that much more interesting.
The Beastly Baby ★★
The Nursery Frieze ★★★
The Pious Infant ★★★
The Evil Garden ★★★★★
The Inanimate Tragedy ★★★★★
The Gilded Bat ★★★★
The Iron Tonic ★★★★★
The Osbick Bird ★★★
The Chinese Obelisks (Original) ★★★★★
The Chinese Obelisks ★★★★★
The Deranged Cousins ★★★★★
The Eleventh Episode ★★
[The Untitled Book] ★
The Lavender Leotard ★★
The Disrespectful Summons ★★★★
The Abandoned Sock ★★★★
The Lost Lions ★★★★
Story for Sara [by Alphonse Allais] ★★
The Salt Herring [by Charles Cros] ★★
Leaves from a Mislaid Album ★★★★★
A Limerick ★★★ -
Amphigorey Too unfortunately doesn't have nearly as many enjoyable and accessible works as its predecessor. The only ones in this collection that I really found charming or funny were "The Osbick Bird", "The Deranged Cousins", "The Nursery Frieze", and "The Lavender Leotard". I found most of the others either dull or generally unengaging, though "The Chinese Obelisks" was a fairly enjoyable piece of dark humor.
I'm still on the fence about whether I will really re-read the first Amphigorey book, but I do plan to send this one on its way. -
I've been really thinking about my own art style, and who influenced me. One of my large influences as a child was one particular book, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, which was illustrated by none other than Edward Gorey. As an adult, I am coming back to his work with new eyes, and seeing how my own careful linework echoes his, though my patterning and influences are much more folk art than high literature. Reading this was very enjoyable, and I spent some time copying some of his techniques.
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Contents:
The Beastly Baby
The Nursery Frieze
The Pious Infant
The Evil Garden
The Inanimate Tragedy
The Gilded Bat
The Iron Tunic
The Osbick Bird
The Chinese Obelisks (bis)
The Deranged Cousins
The Eleventh Episode
[The Untitled Book]
The Lavender Leotard
The Disrespectful Summons
The Abandoned Sock
The Lost Lions
Story for Sara
The Salt Herring
Leaves from a Mislaid Album
A Limerick -
I discovered Edward Gorey when I read a picture book about him in my reading for the Mock Caldecott Awards. Being an influencer for authors/artistic people such as Lemony Snickett, Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton I figured I'd enjoy his work...and I do. There are 4 books in the series which include all of his published work. So much fun to read, just a really out of whack perspective on life and I love it.
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Enjoyable, dark, humorous, surreal stories. Sometimes children's stories, but other times, who knows.
I likes this collection more than "Amphigorey" -- the first one -- though, there are good stories stretched across both.
All the things you'd expect: death, madness, fortune, misfortune, murder, suicide, unfortunate children, terrible children, happy children, and dead children. It has it all! -
Maybe I don't have the art appreciation mind or this series of book is just plain boring. The sentences and stories are fun to read at first glance, and that's it. I'm not sure what I got from reading 2 books in this series.
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I looked for volume one in the library and came away with volumes two, three, and four instead. This decidedly Gorey volume (two) is exactly what we’ve all come to expect from the master of the macabre etching. Ha! What a twisted brain this man had.
