Customer Reviews

The Doubtful Guest

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I used to pick up my dad's Edward Gorey books when I was a wee boy, read them in half an hour and put them back on the shelves, quivering with fear. Admittedly I was also scared of Doctor Who, old people and "Strawberry Fields Forever". But Gorey has definitely tapped into a seam of subterranean panic; his hollow-eyed pseudo-Edwardian families have a look about them as though some sort of hideously deformed ancestor has been chained up in the attic for centuries. The Doubtful Guest is ostensibly for kids, telling the story of a strange, aardvarkesque creature in tennis shoes (typical Gorey touch, the tennis shoes) that comes to stay one "wild winter night", but maybe you have to be an adult to find it truly unnerving. The creature slopes about the house, eating plates, lying in doorways and hiding towels, and the hapless family can't bring itself to dispose of the thing. At the end of the book it's been there for seventeen years and is sitting in the drawing room with the same look of wide-eyed expectancy, while the enervated family stands about aimlessly with as little of a clue as ever.

This isn't quite my favourite Gorey. Other contenders would be the almost absurdly depressing The Hapless Child (small girl is born, parents die, is sent to workhouse, winds up perishing in the street, is found by its actually-not-dead-but-until-recently-in-Africa father who, typically, fails to recognise his daughter) and the surreal The Object Lesson (classic Gorey opening line: "It was already Thursday, but his Lordship's artificial limb could not be found..."). Or else there's the sexy but menacing The Curious Sofa...

He's still a master and a true original. Check out the way that the house in The Doubtful Guest seems to have been invaded by a black fog; Henry James took over a hundred pages to write The Turn of the Screw, but Gorey can squeeze comparably effects into 26 pages. Not many "children's" books of 43 years ago still have this power to charm and alarm.

This is my single favorite Edward Gorey book, partially because of the amusing couplets it is written in, but mostly because of the appearance of the guest himself, which never ceases to amuse me. The concept of a strange creature who mysteriously visits and decides to stay (seventeen years) while exercising odd whims (like fits in which he removes all towels from the bath or hiding inside a soup tureen) is particularly suited to Gorey's odd brand of humor (although it is not one of his more unusual books, by any stretch of the imagination.)

I have liked Edward Gorey since I was in my teens, and still find him as unique and entertaining as ever. This is my very favorite Gorey book, and would make an excellent introduction to one of the oddest cartoonists of the twentieth century.

This is the second book of Gorey's that I've gotten, the first was The Gashlycrumb Tinies. I think I like Doubtful Guest even better than that volume. The wonderful illustrations of the prim and proper residents of the house, as they put up with the antics of the Doubtful Guest tickle me to no end. The rhyming verse that Gorey uses to tell this tale is whimsical and bizarre. It brings a smile to my face every time I think of this book, if you like Gorey, you've got to have this one.

My only gripe is that the book is a little short. I can easily tolerate it, however, as it's just so much macabre fun...

This book tells a simple and easy story with rhyming couplets. It is a sort and fun book that, unlike some of his other books, is completely appropriate. It is drawn in a complex, dark, crosshatching technique. The characters are beautiful, with their flowing robes and melancholy expressions. The background is just as detailed, and appears have as much effort put into them as the characters, so as a result, the illustrations fit and are nicely proportioned. Over all, this book is one of Gorey's best works, along with After the Outing. It is a macabre, enjoyably fantasy that anyone should have on his or her bookshelf or coffee table.

Gorey is brilliant as usual with this absurd tale of a creature who inexplicably shows up on a family's doorstep and moves in, only to spend most of his time licking the walls. Classic stuff.

"It would carry off objects of which it grew fond, And protect them by dropping them into the pond." This quote sounds like British humour to me --- however these are the words of the American author Edward Gorey. This entertaining tale of a creature that arrives at a family's home one day is very amusing because of its strangeness. Each little episode is a description of a strange little event precipitated by the "Doubtful Guest" done in rhyme. It begs comparisons with Dr. Seuss, but it is a more sophisticated, darker humour, that is more suitable for adults. Accompanied by Gorey's own ink drawings, this book is a classic. Although it will only take a few minutes to read it, you will enjoy re-reading it many times.

This is a charming story of a questionable character who appears out of nowhere and endears "it"self by simply being itself: odd, personable, quirky, and tenacious. The pen and ink drawings by Edward Gorey are impeccable (his formal training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago lasted only one year), showing a natural gift for precision and imagination; they are used exclusively as signatures of the PBS series "Mystery." The Victorian/Edwardian theme creates another world, placing the reader in the late 19th, early 20th century of elegance and propriety, making the mysterious appearance of this peculiar "Doubtful Guest" even more peculiar. The fact that Mr. Gorey created these drawings and the story they tell in 1957 is testimony to its timeless, endearing, enduring quality.

I have been a long time admirer of Goreys' artwork, but when I recieved this book I became a fan of his literature too. The drawings can only add to the mystery surrounding this strange guest, and although the plotline isn't very complex, I thought that this was the most enjoyable story I had read in years. I hope to have all of his books someday.

This glorious book by Edward Gorey has always been a favorite and a favorite gift. However, this edition earns only 3 stars--5 for Gorey and 1 for the publisher. This edition has been reduced to an unfortunate size, and loses much of its charm and wonderful, absorbing detail.

This may be the most memorable book ever made, because once you have read it, the words and the images will stay with you forever. There is no other story that will give you the illustration of a huge tureen, accompanied by the word "Alas." There is no other book that delights your eyes with the delicate illustration of an proper, aristocratic Edwardian family, and describes their nocturnal activities as "at last they stopped screaming, and went off to bed." Your life will be enriched by the addition of such useful couplets as:

"It would carry off objects of which it grew fond
And protect them by dropping them into the pond."

How can the mind of one man have produced such a work of idiosyncratic genius? There is no other author and illustrator but Edward Gorey who could take a few brief pages, and create the indelible creature known as The Doubtful Guest, bringing it to vivid life for the ages. Once you have read this book, and met the Doubtful Guest, its image and behaviors will stay with you for the rest of your life. Once you have met the Doubtful Guest, you will want to own this volume, so that you can engage with it again and again - celebrating, perhaps, the fact that it has not visited you - yet.

Since you will want to read this book repeatedly, you should buy it now.