The Gashlycrumb Tinies Summary and Reviews

The Gashlycrumb Tinies
by Edward Gorey

The Gashlycrumb Tinies
List Price: $10.28
Our Price: $9.00
You Save: $1.28 (12%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.97 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Edward Gorey
Illustrator: Edward Gorey
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown)
Published: 1998-11-05
ISBN: 0747541604
Number of pages: 64
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Book Reviews of The Gashlycrumb Tinies

Book Review: epitomizing humor in subject matter indescribably appalling
Summary: 5 Stars

In 1964, after a visit to the "Big Apple" for a visit to MOMA, (followed by dinner with my parents and horrific little sister, Hope), my father saw a 24-hour book store and stopped the car. An inveterate "book-hound" who attended NYU in the Forties before joinging the Marines for WWII, Dad could no more pass up an "all-night" bookstore than anticipate removing an appendix sans anesthesia. So, in spite of protestations from my mother, in we went.

We entered the store, a shabby, ill-lighted affair, complete with an appropriately seedy bohemian proprietor with spectacles and surly cat, and my father told Hope and me each could have any book we liked. Being twelve, and as yet unfettered by adolescent yearnings, I perused the shelves and shelves of books, eschewing the vulgarities of sports and camping tomes, until landing upon a three book set of Gorey's uniquely humoros books.

Dad, true to his word, bought the books for me, some trivial rubbish about ribbons for Hope, and we drove home to the Jersey Shore in the dark; my ride in the back seat beside my younger sibling, normally as much fun as being seated on an ant hill, now quite the thing due to Gorey's books. I had the small up-light on and in its shallow luminescence, I read each poetic demise accompanied by laughter.

In the interim years my sense of humor was influenced by Gorey's ghastly humor, making my later entrance into the American equivalent of your Public Schools, almost palatable. Eventually, through fealty to the mark of a good mind being manifested by lack of organizational acumen,I lost or misplaced the Gorey books, and it was not until last week I found the Gashlycrumb Tinies here on Amazon UK. I ordered it and in two days it was in my mail box, awaiting my return from a day at work that would render senseless any healthy rhinocerous.

How do I adequately express the joy and laughter I experienced once I sat down after supper and let my eyes wander over those simple yet uproarious pages? In the thirty-five years since I first read the book I had all but forgotten about Gorey and his array of small tots done in by circumstance or an overly inquisitive nature.

Having the book now reminds me of a time in my life when all books were fascinating; surely a boon to one so annoyed by all that is printed today being mostly mundane in the extreme.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies still makes me laugh, its macabre subject matter still fascinates me the way Karloff's voice did uttering even something so simple as "Good-day, Doctor," and I am transported back to an earlier time when, though still a child, I was given entrance to the world of adult humor.

I recommend this book to anyone with a sense of absurdist humor, and will conclude that even one so inherently obtuse as a "Yank in the Colonies" might still draw such enjoyment from so gifted an author, so unfortunate an array of aphabetized tots on their way to a "better place."

Arts & Photography Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Favorite Illustrated Books for Adult Audiences
Unwitting Wisdom: An Anthology of Aesop's Fables ImageUnwitting Wisdom: An Anthology of Aesop's Fables
by Helen Ward
Chronicle Books; Published: 2004-08-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.35
Price in other shops: $18.95
Destined for Dizziness! ImageDestined for Dizziness!
by Souther Salazar
Buenaventura Press; Published: 2005-12-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.93
Price in other shops: $5.95
The Juniper Tree: And Other Tales from Grimm ImageThe Juniper Tree: And Other Tales from Grimm
by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm K. Grimm
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); Published: 2003-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.12
Price in other shops: $28.00
Selected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine ImageSelected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine
Dover Publications; Published: 1968-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.70
Price in other shops: $6.95
Charles Harper's Birds and Words ImageCharles Harper's Birds and Words
by Charley Harper
Ammo Books; Published: 2008-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.40
Price in other shops: $27.95
A French Alphabet Book of 1814: For Alfred Bourdier De Beauregard, Created by his uncle Arnaud at the Chateau DeBeaumoont De Beauregard ImageA French Alphabet Book of 1814: For Alfred Bourdier De Beauregard, Created by his uncle Arnaud at the Chateau DeBeaumoont De Beauregard
Rizzoli; Published: 2007-10-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.72
Price in other shops: $24.95
Wave ImageWave
by Suzy Lee
Chronicle Books; Published: 2008-04-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.18
Price in other shops: $15.99
Up & Down New York (New York Bound Books) ImageUp & Down New York (New York Bound Books)
by Tony Sarg
Universe; Published: 2007-03-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.26
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Gashlycrumb Tinies ImageThe Gashlycrumb Tinies
by Edward Gorey
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; Published: 1998-11-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $47.99
The Sweetest Fig ImageThe Sweetest Fig
by Chris Van Allsburg
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; Published: 1993-10-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.47
Price in other shops: $18.95
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Object-Lesson ImageThe Object-Lesson
by Edward Gorey
Harcourt; Published: 2002-03-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.59
Price in other shops: $12.00
Amphigorey Too ImageAmphigorey Too
by Edward Gorey
Perigee Trade; Published: 1980-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.28
Price in other shops: $18.95
The Willowdale Handcar: or the Return of the Black Doll ImageThe Willowdale Handcar: or the Return of the Black Doll
by Edward Gorey
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2003-10-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.32
Price in other shops: $10.00
The Other Statue ImageThe Other Statue
by Edward Gorey
Harcourt; Published: 2001-07-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.34
Price in other shops: $16.00
The Epiplectic Bicycle ImageThe Epiplectic Bicycle
by Edward Gorey
Harcourt; Published: 1998-06-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: $10.00
Amphigorey ImageAmphigorey
by Edward Gorey
Perigee Trade; Published: 1980-01-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.74
Price in other shops: $18.95
The Curious Sofa: A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary ImageThe Curious Sofa: A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary
by Ogdred Weary
Harcourt; Published: 1997-09-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.19
Price in other shops: $10.00
The Doubtful Guest ImageThe Doubtful Guest
by Edward Gorey
Harcourt; Published: 1998-06-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.20
Price in other shops: $10.00
The Twelve Terrors of Christmas ImageThe Twelve Terrors of Christmas
by John Updike
Pomegranate Communications; Published: 2006-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops: $9.95
Cautionary Tales for Children ImageCautionary Tales for Children
by Edward Gorey, Hilaire Belloc
Harcourt; Published: 2002-12-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.32
Price in other shops: $16.00