A Gorey Xmas

Back in 1980, a show started a long run on PBS. This show was called "Mystery!" "Mystery!" is responsible for bringing to the small screen the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes, as well as Miss Marple, Inspecteor Morse and Cadfael. I never watched much of "Mystery!", but my parents were regulars, and never missed an episode. I only needed to see the opening credits, and then my interest waned. Edward Gorey designed the title sequence, which was animated in his style which is very striking and impressionable to anyone who sees it.


It certainly made an impression on me; it draws you in wherever you see it. I always take a longer look at a book cover if Edward Gorey has illustrated it. I'm guilty of buying several books that I may never read, just because Gorey did their jackets. Gorey's books, meaning books of his cartoons and stories, are fantastically dark, sinister and hilarious in turns. He has a great command of the French language, having majored in French Lit. in school, and reading his stuff makes you feel like you're reading long lost stories from Europe. In fact, Edward Gorey was an American through and through, and he never even went abroad. He wasn't interested in visiting Europe at all.

Edward Gorey, who passed away in 2000, made a couple holiday books too. His two books, which are companion pieces, are entitled: "The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas" and "The Headless Bust: A Melancholy Meditation on the False Millennium". Both tales star the Bahhumbug and follow him on a series of probing visits to local folk during the holiday season and during the switch from the year 1999 to 2000. These stories are great, and while not my favorites of Gorey by any means, he certainly ended a career with two successes.

I remember going to the Border's book store in Ann Arbor with my folks sometime in the mid 90's, and seeing one of Edward Gorey's books on the shelf. It became the first book of his that I ever owned and it was "The Gashleycrumb Tinies".

The book is a macabre alphabet wherein each of 26 children, all listed alphabetically by first name, meet their demises in unique ways. The words alone are lots of fun, but combined with the drawings, the book becomes even more entertaining.

Look at the expressions on the kids' faces. No emotion at all. No inclination that they are about to die, nor indication that they feel any fear at all either. I'm not trying to make a point about anything except that effect that those expressionless faces have on the work as a whole. "The Gashleycrumb Tinies" becomes about the humor in those awkward situations, and the fun of making the rhymes with all those kids and their alphabetical names.

Gorey's style is wide in its range. For me I can get into the Halloween spirit or the Christmas spirit by looking at his images. There's a simplicity to it that really makes me feel comfortable. Gorey is good for any season, and even though his work won't make your heart grow three sizes larger, it will give you a hard-to-define feeling of pleasure and interest.