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The Unstrung Harp by Edward Gorey
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The Unstrung Harp

by Edward Gorey

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394624,777 (4.2)6
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    The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar (nessreader)
    nessreader: both graphic novels are playful high camp victoriana
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I understand that this was Gorey's first book and, like his heroine Agatha Christie's creation of Ariadine Oliver seems slightly autobiographical as well as universal. There's a great deal more prose than I would usually expect from the master, but it doesn't matter, the illustrations are superb and Gorey's dark humour is evident. ( )
  riverwillow | Aug 19, 2012 |
My first Gorey. It seemed a true true when I got it, and is still endearing. ( )
  Esta1923 | Nov 1, 2011 |
The Unstrung Harp is classic Edward Gorey, full of Victorian Gothic trappings, a vaguely sinister plot, and (in this case) "the unspeakable horror of the literary life". As always, Gorey's protagonist is nervous, isolated, and endlessly full of doubt - few authors capture the notion of lives lived in "quiet desperation" as well as Edward Gorey does. But there's enough humor and absurdity in these pages to keep it all from being too melodramatic. In the end, this is classic Edward Gorey, and every bit as rewarding as the very best of his work. ( )
  dr_zirk | Nov 28, 2009 |
amazon PD: Perhaps one of his most autobiographical works, "The Unstrung Harp" is a look at the literary life and its 'attendant woes: isolation, writer's block, professional jealousy, and plain boredom.' But as with all of Edward Gorey's books, "TUH" is also about life in general, with its anguish, turnips, conjunctions, illness, defeat, string, parties, no parties, desuetude, fever, tides, labels, mourning, elsewards. Finally, "TUH" is about Edward Gorey the writer, about Edward Gorey writing "The Unstrung Harp". Originally published in 1953, it's a small masterpiece. He asldo illustrated the book.
  edella | Jul 28, 2009 |
Gorey at his most verbose. He never did any other long work. We can be grateful for the one long form he did. The subject is a writer with writer's block of the eponymous book (TUH). At one point, after a lot of moping, he takes a tram into town and absently rummages through some used books hoping to run into one of his own books discarded, perhaps by someone to whom he inscribed it. I wonder if Mr.Earbuss would have the wit of George Bernard Shaw who, when he found a book of his signed to someone, "With compliments, GBS", bought it and sent it back to the guy, writing "With renewed compliments, GBS" below the original dedication..

In the art you encounter strange figbash looking things in glass belljars which he buys for no good reason.

Mr.earbuss is certainly Gorey's alter ego. ( )
1 vote sthitha_pragjna | Jun 7, 2006 |
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Mr. C(lavius) F(rederick) Earbrass is, of course, the well-known novelist.
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0151004358, Hardcover)

On November 18th of alternate years Mr Earbrass begins writing 'his new novel.' Weeks ago he chose its title at random from a list of them he keeps in a little green note-book. It being tea-time of the 17th, he is alarmed not to have thought of a plot to which The Unstrung Harp might apply, but his mind will keep reverting to the last biscuit on the plate." So begins what the Times Literary Supplement called "a small masterpiece." TUH is a look at the literary life and its "attendant woes: isolation, writer's block, professional jealousy, and plain boredom." But, as with all of Edward Gorey's books, TUH is also about life in general, with its anguish, turnips, conjunctions, illness, defeat, string, parties, no parties, urns, desuetude, disaffection, claws, loss, trebizond, napkins, shame, stones, distance, fever, antipodes, mush, glaciers, incoherence, labels, miasma, amputation, tides, deceit, mourning, elsewards. You get the point. Finally, TUH is about Edward Gorey the writer, about Edward Gorey writing The Unstrung Harp. It's a cracked mirror of a book, and it's dedicated to RDP or Real Dear Person.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:38:10 -0500)

(see all 2 descriptions)

Explores the nature of the literary life and its isolation, writer's block, boredom, and anguish, in the story of Mr. Earbrass, who, on November 18th of alternate years, begins writing his new novel

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