| Title | : | The Epiplectic Bicycle |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0747541655 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780747541653 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 64 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1969 |
The Epiplectic Bicycle Reviews
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I do love Edward Gorey and this is a great little oddity. It appears no one dies during this story, but do they really not die? The end leaves us wondering what happened to the kids and what is going on?? This is about 2 kids and a bicycle having adventures. It did make me laugh. There are not that many frames, but it skips chapters around like crazy and that felt like its own joke to me. This story just tickled me.
I do love the artwork and the mystery left at the end. Fantastic. I also found a short someone made of the story when I was looking up the publication date on Vimeo. It is 6 minutes of wonder. It’s worth looking up. I just put in the title and it came up. It is stop motion and it’s right off the page.
I also read this to the nephew and he loved it. I did ask him about the opening. The line is ‘It was the day after Tuesday and the day before Wednesday.’ He didn’t catch that till I pointed it out. I asked him the day after Tuesday and he said Wednesday and then I asked him what the day before Wednesday was and He said Tuesday, so I asked him which day they were talking about and now he was confused. He didn’t get it. I told him I think it was a joke. He didn’t laugh. He loved the bit with the alligator. He thought this was really weird and he gave this 4 stars.
This is one of my more favorite Gorey stories. LOVE. -
"It was the day after Tuesday and the day before Wednesday."
And why do you ask me, "what does 'epiplectic' mean?" !! Do I look like a dictionary?!
Two siblings are just hanging around doing what siblings do, hitting each other on the head with croquet mallets (remember those days?!) and a[n untenanted] bicycle shows up, leading to various random adventures, including entering a barn where it "was too dark to hear anything." Yes, we are in a world Gorey loves, between Tuesday and Wednesday, that twilight zone, though never really scary.
Just crazy, absurd. It seems like it all happened in a dream, or in surreality, or, as in the end they discover an obelisk was erected in their memory 173 years ago, so they are really. . . (ooh, it's a ghost story!).
Callista refers to a film version of the story by Lauren Horoszewski posted on Vimeo; here it is:
https://vimeo.com/11171863 -
What the strange bird muttered made me laugh out loud(sorry other library patrons).What prompted me to give this 5 stars were the comments and reviews of other Goodreaders.It took me longer to read them then it did to read the book.Thank you all!
p.s.The front and back cover are very funny. -
Having misread the title as "The Epileptic Bicycle", I was waiting for some kind of velocipedic convulsion which never happened. Having re-read the title, I understand why.
Both text and illustrations are slight and, while not without interest, neither really grabbed me. But, I think there may be more in here than my first reading uncovered, so I'll give it a short while and read it again to see if I can plumb some hidden depths.
Update 25-05-2015: I have read it again, and there are no hidden depths to be plumbed, as far as I can tell. Nonetheless, there is something about the book that I like (possibly that Yewbert looks a bit like Curt Cobain? That the bird reminds me of the 'nuisance bird' in The Phantom Tollbooth?), so I will give it an extra ½ star = 3½ stars. -
Embley and Yewbert's surreal adventures on their epipleptic bike. They begin with a fight with croquet hammers (a novelty weapon!) and then, amongst other things, pass through a field of turnips, which are not there, and meet up with an alligator. The alligator gets hit after it attacks them and, in typical Gorey style, utters the immortal (!) words "I die." Great fun and, as always, beautifully illustrated by the author.
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i have a crush on edward gorey. wouldn't it be great to be his friend, and have him write you birthday cards like the curious sofa?
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Who can say what this book is about. Who cares is what I say.
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Of all the books I own this one might possibly be the one I return to the most. The fact that it is very short is one reason; an alligator that rises out of a puddle shouting,"Ho!" is another. Certainly not the most disturbing of Gorey's books (children only beat each other with croquet mallets in this one), but maybe his funniest and most mysterious. And my favourite.
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Another favorite. I actually had birds named Embley and Yewbert.
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Delightful and splendid with the usual Gorey whimsy.
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Amazing!
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Silly fun
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THE EPIPLECTIC BICYCLE is one of the Gorey's usual stories told through ink drawings accompanied by pithy captions. This tale concerns Embley and Yewbert, two children who are distracted from their pastime of hitting each other with croquet mallets by a sentient bicycle that appears out of nowhere. Thereupon they hop on and go through various adventures, ending in a shocking revelation that seems right out of the "Voyage of Bran". The story is one of great whimsy and a love of nonsense, and amusingly contradicts itself at several points.
While THE EPIPLECTIC BICYCLE is quite funny, I don't rate it among Gorey's most substantial works due to the sparseness of the drawings and the fact that it lacks the macabre tone common to Gorey's greatest work. If you've never read an Edward Gorey book before, start with THE OTHER STATUE or THE BLUE ASPIC, grim stories whose drawings are of astounding quality. -
"Beware of this and that."
Each frame has such dark portent and allegorical potential. This was my second purchased and still favorite of the Gorey books, and a grim reminder to never have siblings. -
Embley and Yewbert have a harrowing journey on an untenanted bicycle. I am very fond of the instance in which an alligator accosts them and Embley kicks it in the nose, and it expires. I like books in which the next page does not indicate anything that one can/will/should expect on the following.
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A marvelous study of the long and fascinating history of bicycle manufacture in the Trobriand islands. Recommended for all fans of legionnaire's disease and arbitrage.
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I like silly and I like surreal, but my like does not extend to this book.
I need there to be a little sense beneath the sill. I desire there to be a clever play on words or an in-joke I can appreciate in the company of a select audience.
I could find none of this here.
So sorry.
Just one more thing: according to the interweb - epiplectic is a form of the word epiplexis, which is a Greek word which means to chide or shame someone into better behavior. -
The best conclusion one can come to concerning this book is that Gorey's characters operate within their own laws of space, time, and normalcy. The second best conclusion is that Gorey did, in fact, muddle the language and translation of this book up on purpose so as to delight the reader and annoy the critics (and honestly, they were getting too big for their britches anyways, weren't they?).
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This was a lovely Christmas gift from a dear friend. It was completely random and delightfully funny. I loved the illustrations. Definite proof that two wheels are better than four (at least in cases where the two wheels propel themselves)!
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The Doubtful Guest is still my favorite gorey, but this one does have some moving renditions of drowning. right? am i thinking of the right one? -
Despite the plot indicated in the title, it is one of Gorey's most fluid tales. The puppetmaster of poetry and pictures, Gorey proves once again to be the definitive auteur of literature and the term "in a class by himself" dodges cliché with a swerve of the handlebars.
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Chanced upon at a bookstore, and this was a great 5 min on-the-spot read! My intro to Edward Gorey (why didn't I know about him before??) and one that's made me an instant fan. I bet I can revisit this book again and again to discover more.
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The Epiplectic Bicycle by Edward Gorey (first published 1969)
While Embley and Yewbert are hitting one another with croquet mallets one day, an untenanted bicycle rolls into their garden. This book chronicles their adventures across turnip fields, through barns and into bushes. -
So fun to find this teensy book sitting among the hulking monsters on the "G" adult fiction shelf, like a thin little sliver of mushroom smished between two hearty slices of rustic country loaf. And a nice, twisty ending.
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Gorey is a master of infusing a minor quirky moment into an entire, enchanting, story.
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Beware of this and that.
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Absurd and weird - but a little too pointless for my taste...
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A quirky and non-sensical pocket sized children's book, with many a laugh for all ages. Lovely black and white pencil sketches and clever prose. One for imaginative children.
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A cute but dark short story from Gorey. Fun quick read with great art as usual.
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Gorey's dark, dry humor in a story of two siblings who go on a bicycle adventure.
