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Title: Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey by Edward Gorey, Karen Wilkin ISBN: 0-15-100504-4 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: "The of it all"
Comment: A long time fan of Edward Gorey, I was given this book as a birthday present by my sister. Having never read anything about his life, I found this book insightful but also a little redundant. This isn't necessarily a book to read straight through, but might work better read over time in order to dispel the similarities in questions/answers.
This is not a biography, but rather a collection of interviews the confirmed "recluse" gave over the span of his life. Gorey talks passionately about his loves (ballet, cats, reading) as well as his hates (Henry James - and who could argue?). Each interview paints a picture of the artist that lives up to the weird and wondrous works he creates. Gorey's works are bizarre and although not intentionally macabre, they are oddly disconcerting, if not downright unsetlling. Sometimes his knowledge and responses have the same effect.
For anyone who is a fan of this too little known author and artist, "Ascending Peculiarity" is a wonderful portrait of Edward Gorey. It leaves you wanting to know more, wishing you were there asking the questions, just as many of his works leave you wondering what they were all about.
Rating: 3
Summary: For Gorey Fanatics Only
Comment: This book is a collection of career-spanning interviews, each of which say generally the same thing, which makes for repetitive reading. However, in each, Gorey does reveal one or two new details about himself. None of the interviews delve too deeply into the mind of this reclusive artist, who gives interviews not because he likes them but only because he can't seem to say "no". I recommed instead Theroux's slim memoir, which somehow seems to contains all the same information but more. That being said, I'm still glad I read it because I'm a Gorey fanatic and there aren't too many books about him.
Rating: 5
Summary: Read it for the man - buy it for the references
Comment: Amid the doorstop-sized biographies of anyone who has put two ideas together, it's great to have this bright little collection of interviews of a remarkably original thinker. The variety of the interviewers is effective - there are graphic design types asking about paper and nibs, and literary types working on themes and influences, as well as the official New Yorker canonization, and the sharp little session with Dick Cavett. Gorey comes across as both erudite and self-effacing - he's an intellectual with an asbsurdist's lack of vanity about his place in the world, and a humanist's warmth for the pleasantness of daily life.
What made this book better than a nice bio of an interesting person is that Gorey was, in his words, "a cultural magpie," and was very generous with his compliments to artists he found excellent. So if you like the play of aesthetic styles and ideas in Gorey's work, you'll probably love listening to him talk about the artists he admires. I've added a half-dozen of his recommendations to my to-read list.
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Title: The Strange Case of Edward Gorey by Alexander Theroux ISBN: 1560973854 Publisher: Fantagraphics Books Pub. Date: 15 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Elephant House: Or, The Home of Edward Gorey by Kevin McDermott, Edward Gorey ISBN: 0764924958 Publisher: Pomegranate Communications Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Curious Sofa: A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary by Edward Gorey, Ogdred Weary ISBN: 0151003076 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 15 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: Amphigorey by Edward Gorey ISBN: 0399504338 Publisher: Perigee Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1980 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas by Edward Gorey ISBN: 0151004153 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 31 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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