The stories which are illustrated by these drawings are very creepy. Many of the stories are incredibly pointless. Some of them end awfully, others don't really end at all. Some aren't stories, but rather collections of poems with a title. At times, things get quite disgusting. For example, in one set of alphabetical poems entitled "The Fatal Lozenge," the last poem goes like this:

The ZOUAVE used to war and battle
Would sooner take a life than not:
It scarcely has begun to prattle
When he impales a hapless tot.

This is accompanied by an illustration of a baby pinned through its abdomen with a sword and blood dripping down. But no matter what, everything in this collection is interesting and unique. This book is at no time dull or boring. Plus, it makes a great conversation piece. I love showing people my Amphigorey book! Most people have never heard of Edward Gorey and are entirely surprised that such a bizarre book even exists.

In any case, if you don't already have it, you should definitely get this book! It's such a great thing to have around the house, you'll never regret owning it!


Brilliant   June 16, 2001
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

This is a classic volume of dark humour. But that's not all it is. Edward Gorey has created not just quirky limericks, not just hilarious stories of macabre, and not just pages of delicous nonsense. He has created his own _universe_. The Amphigorey universe is filled with a mood that Gorey has perfected. The dark niceties fit together to create this mood like a puzzle--everything from his Neo-Victorian cross-hatchwork, Edwardian character names, even the font. Amphigorey is an hilarious gothic masterpiece.


Madly Morbid and Sadistically Savouring   January 4, 2003
 7 out of 10 found this review helpful

You have not fully lived until you have read Amphigorey!
With it's delightful pieces of artwork and sometimes unintellgible use of verse Edward Gorey's first fifteen books come together in what I would call a brilliant spectacle of cloaked and sometimes deceased spectres.
With stories such as The Hapless Child a story my fifty year old father described as sad and twistedly morbid (needless to say he never asked to look at the book again) and The Curious Sofa a story that hints pornographic ideals but does not detail or embellish them will revoulting sex scenes...the story's lines just merely plant naughty thoughts in your head and your brain travels on from there, it is a classic book, a book I've cherished for years and would love to see referred to as a classic work of art rather than mere fiction and humor!


Macabre blast from the past.   March 31, 2001
 6 out of 10 found this review helpful

I first found this book in a library when I was in the throws of teenage angst and at the time it appealed to my morbid state of mind. Now I have a slightly less tragic appreciation of Edward Gorey. I love his dark illustrations and equally dark content. The tragic ends of children in The Gashlycrumb Tinies brings to mind all those children I look at and think, you little brat!!!