Edward Gorey

'A is for Amy who fell down the stairs. B is for Basil assaulted by bears. C is for Clara who wasted away. D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh...'

The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Or, After the Outing

A new, small-format edition of one of Edward Gorey's “dark masterpieces of surreal morality” (Vanity Fair): a witty, disquieting journey through the alphabet.

Sarah Sammis

Ian and I are both fans of macabre humor and especially of Edward Gorey. Surprised that we didn't own a copy of The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Ian bought a lovely copy for me for Christmas. I have already read it at least twice (possibly three times) and I'm seriously considering doing a series of 3D renders based on this book (one per letter). My goal isn't to reproduce the drawings or the children, just to explore the settings.

The book is short, only twenty-six pages long. Each page is a different child and a different death, usually by a stupid or self destructive method. It's in the vein of a Victorian cautionary tale except that the deaths described are so extreme to be gothic parody.

The pictures though don't actually show the deaths. The children are instead juxtaposed against an environment that at first glance looks ordinary, albeit a little off. Only little Zillah hints at death with her skull-headed doll. It is the verse at the bottom of each page that brings all the elements together to create a grizzly and delightfully surreal twenty-six line poem.

Lara Engle

Wonderful illustrations. Grim sense of humor. Charming. Those poor children ...

Michael Springer

A singsong story 
by Edward Gorey 
full of cheerful black and grey illustrations

each one of a kid
at the moment they did
meet a tragic and early termination.

By wolf maw and knife
they depart from this life,
by drowning, falling and decapitation

until each one is slewn
and their bodies are strewn
all about Gorey's morbid imagination.

The funniest aspect of this, I believe, is the way each picture shows the child right before the tragedy occurs. For instance, the girl about to die of poisoning is shown sitting down with her hand on her tummy, making a slightly worried face. The girl who gets impaled is shown tossing a big metal rod up in the air. And I just love the little boy that dies of ennui.

Ryan LaFerney

The Gashllycrumb Tinies is the antithesis to instructive & safe picture books. Gorey tells the tale of 26 children (each representing a letter of the alphabet) and their untimely deaths in rhyming dactylic couplets, accompanied by the author's distinctive black and white illustrations that emphasize the banalness of death. Look, I think instructive works are important for children but I also think life and the world is a scary place. We should shield them from the specter of death. I think Gorey was a mastermind for creating this little, sarcastic but important picture book.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Or, After the Outing

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