The Evil Garden

It will take you less than five minutes to read this book, even if you dawdle over the pictures a little. This book is so short that the publisher doesn't number the pages, but it contains one of Gorey's best stories, with his classic line about Great Uncle Franz--although, for the first time in this reading, I did notice that Great Uncle Franz appears in a later illustration, so perhaps he got away from the snake after all. In any case, things still look pretty bleak as the book comes to an end. To enjoy Gorey requires both a high intellect and a real appreciation for very dry black humor. I think this book would probably be the perfect relationship test. So if you're thinking about popping the question soon, first pop this book into show more the hands of your intended. If they don't get it or find it "sick!", seek your soulmate elsewhere. show less

More accurately, this is "Eduard Blutig's 'Der Böse Garten' in a translation by Mrs Regera Dowdy with the original pictures of O Müde"

For as big a Gorey fan as I thought I was, apparently there are gaps in my knowledge. The Evil Garden appears in the one Amphigorey collection I don't have, and I hadn't come across the story anywhere else over the years. So it was with great anticipation that I sliced open the shrinkwrap to revel in a new (to me) Gorey creation.

From the slightly ominous plants against the vignetted green backdrop on the cover, you know you're in Gorey's darkly humorous world. Told in rhyming couplets - a common Gorey style - this is the tale of an outing to the Garden. Entry is free, but odd things inevitably befall show more the various members of the group - remember, this is Gorey. There are odd creatures, carnivorous plants, mysterious sounds, disappearances, and a bit of screaming & swooning. Each couplet is paired with one of Gorey's trademark crosshatch ink drawings.

Without giving too much away, favorites included the baby being carried off, the daughter watching somewhat impassively at the aforementioned carnivorous plant at work, the drowning (again with onlookers), and the back-of-the-hand-to-the-forehead at various other events.

This is an excellent addition for anyone who collects Gorey's works. And if you know anyone with a vivid imagination, an oddly skewed funnybone, a touch of Victorian drama & Georgian-through-flapper fashion sense, do them a favor and introduce them to the world of Gorey. show less

now i'm married to an american, we've found we're both a bit prone to trying to fill in aspects of each other's youth. i've introduced her to johnny morris, oliver postgate, molesworth and the uncle stories... and she's introduced me to mr rogers and especially john bellairs. how poorer were british childhoods for not knowing either mr rogers or john bellairs? the unbelievable warmth and wisdom of the former and the deliciously grim horrors of the latter. the clincher for bellairs is that this meant my wife pretty much grew up with edward gorey as a significant part of her childhood. me? it wasn't until i read a sunday supplement article about him by a massive fan of his (who i in turn was a massive fan of), stephen appleby. i show more desperately needed to find more by this man and slowly but surely i did

in many ways gorey is the flipside of dr seuss. where seuss is full of the wisdom and wonder of childhood, gorey takes a delicious pleasure in the dark corners of it. only really ronald searle in the UK approaches his style. but now he's almost ubiquitous in the UK - we've finally caught up with his jet black humour and absurdist vision. and it's a wonderful thing

however i'd always known gorey through the amphigorey volumes. wonderful things they are, and brilliant gateways to the genius of the man as writer and artist, but somehow the context is so very different when you hold a single volume in your hands rather than a compendium. when combined you obviously look for shared ideas and a vision that holds the whole thing together. you see different part of gorey as a writer... but by itself you have to read it for itself. no context at all

which in this volume, one of his darker more absurd volumes, kind of makes sense because there's no real context to any of the madness that follows. plot description? there isn't one really. some people go to a free garden and soon it turns very dark and very unpleasant for all concerned. it's gorey at his most playful too - claiming to be "eduard blutig's "der bose garten" in a translation by mrs regera dowdy with the original pictures of o mude" (the dedication is pretty much the place where lemony snicket gets his entire schtick, by the way). it's closest in british sensibilities to, say, hillaire belloc's cautionary tales (without any of the morals) and "the lion and albert" (but bleaker). it also reminds me of a recently discovered classic my wife and i found on archive.org called "the story of horace" - i delight in this blacker comic side of children's literature. to me it's like the detail of hatemouse in the uncle books by j.p.martin attacking people with a skewer

and story aside - the art? well it's gorey isn't it. how can you criticise gorey? details and cross hatching when needed and then big, blank spaces also when appropriate. it's easy enough to come up with ideas like this - now i'm writing my own stuff, i'm forever coming up with ideas for things - but it's all about the delivery. and gorey's genius is to make the pictures *just* uncluttered enough to make the horrors(my favourite? "some tiny creature, mad with wrath/ is coming nearer on the path" - what is best in this? how tiny the creature is? the look of abject confusion on the people? knowing their inevitable fate?) seem ridiculous and to thus blunt the fact that by the end of it everyone is dead. it's like "the ghastlycrumb tinies" - it works there because gorey just uses the mordant, comic misery in as deadpan a nature for it to be palatable. there's a genius in that, i can tell you

finally: the package itself. it's nice enough that pomegranate are reissuing some of the odder, undiscovered gems in the gorey catalogue, but the volume is a lovely thing in and of itself. it's a lovely artifact and - yes, i suppose i am gushing a little here - the bookmark and catalogue it came with make it less of a nice free review copy of a book, but more the sort of package you expect for a birthday. although, it's typically goreyesque that such a present has such a morbid content. a wonderful thing. cannot recommend it enough... show less

On the text:
Just to set the record straight, I LOVE Edward Gorey! His art and text are a touch spooky, a touch funny and totally off- the-wall! The Evil Garden is nominally for children (as are most of his books) but find me an adult who won't enjoy it too. As far as I'm concerned it's a classic!

The story starts with Free Admission(!) to a lovely garden for a dapper Edwardian family. What a lovely treat, eh? Or maybe not.... There is that remnant of a human foot peeking from under a large boulder.

And as the story progresses... insects large enough to carry off a family member or two, an uncle-squeezing boa constrictor, an aunt-eating plant, quicksand that swallows a dear nanny, Such dire happenings!

The absurd, fantastic and show more presumably deadly doings look as if they provoke at most,, an "oh my" or "dear me" from the various family members. Gorey's illustrations and his verse are the very definition of deadpan humor. I adore it.

It amuses me to imagine The Eagles using the 1965 edition of this title as the inspiration for the last lines in their 1977 Hotel California...
"You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!"

On the edition:
Pomegranate did a very nice job on this re-issue. Sturdy hardcover with dustjacket and illustrated endpapers. One couplet per page is matched with a full page illustration. A keeper!

[Disclaimer. Book received as an Advance Reading Copy in exchange for book review] show less

Edward Gorey at his most grimly humorous. This is the tale of a happy little family visiting a garden (Admission Free!), the deadly flora and fauna of which dispatch the family members, one by one, until the remaining few are left to vainly seek escape in the gathering darkness. The beautifully drawn pictures are each accompanied by merrily sombre couplets, charting the inevitable tragedy of this doomed family outing. Originally published in 1965, this is a very welcome Gorey reissue from Pomegranate Communications, who are doing a wonderful job of gradually releasing the late, much lamented, Mr.Gorey's gloriously macabre creations to a wider audience.

Edward Gorey takes a road
The one of which you were forebode
To travel on when you were young
But a new day has sprung
You follow him
Cautious, intrigued, and on a whim
He beckons you, come and play
You are with him all day.
But now the road is dark and murky
You're feeling ill, unwell, less perky
The garden swallows you up whole
And Edward Gorey won't tell a soul.

Victorian stock characters get attacked by carnivorous plants and animals. The drawings have a simplicity matched by the rhyming couplets that explain the terrors illustrated for our enjoyment. The poetry conjures up nursery rhymes and like nursery rhymes, they veil the fangs and claws of Nature. Gorey's slim volume is reminscent of the playful chaos of "Alice in Wonderland" and has a curdled humor like Max Cannon's "Red Meat."

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