The Hapless Child

The most depressing and harrowing "children's book" I've ever read. Father killed in war, mother (presumably) commits suicide because she's so depressed, the uncle dies from a brick falling on his head, the child is bullied, robbed, sold in the white slavery/sex work to a drunk, goes blind, stumbles into the street and gets run over by her actually alive father who doesn't even remember what his child looked like. The art is creepy and beautiful. The story is succinct and powerful. But the audience for this book can't possibly be children? I found it in the children's section of the library, but this is just too much. I wonder if it is creepier than original Grimm tales.

I can’t really claim to have ‘read’ this book, as there’s not much to read. Each page contains a simple statement and one of Gorey’s quirky drawings, which is really what makes the book. Warning: if you don’t already know the story and don’t want to know the details, then don’t read the book flap because it gives the facts away. Fortunately, I had some inkling. When finished, which I did in under five minutes, even taking time to study the pictures, the bleakness left part of me harrowed, and part of me wanted to laugh. That could be partly a dark, twisted sense of humour, or a coping mechanism. I’m sure it’s both. One of the dreariest tales, this is perfect to dig out when anyone moans about their lot in life show more because you can remind them of poor little Charlotte Sophia. The type of book Jack Skellington would mistakenly give out to children for Christmas. This makes me think of the original fairy tales, which are darker than many people who haven’t read them believe. There’s something oddly interesting about this little book. show less

Remember those Victorian/Edwardian books in which a beloved and lovely daughter falls into penury as a result of the tragic loss of a parent, and although she's made to work hard and suffer, she's never really put in harm's way and she is eventually reunited with the lost parent with no harm done.? If you love that kind of the book, this is so not the book for you. This is Gorey's superbly dark response to these books. Superb.

"Her only other relative, an uncle, was brained by a piece of masonry", October 22, 2014

This review is from: The Hapless Child (Hardcover)
Lovely little story for an adult or child, telling the story of little Charlotte Sophia, whose life drastically alters from living with parents who were 'kind and well-to-do'...
B/w illustrations portray her awful life; the humour (for the adult reader) coming from the non-arrival of the expected happy end ...

A wonderful and typically bleak and tragic (and darkly comic) affair from Gorey about a child who becomes orphaned, goes blind, and then get killed (accidentally ran over) by her own dad.

This is the perfect book to read to your child when they are going through one of their whiney "It's not faaaaaaaaair" phases. Really? You want to see unfair? Here, let me tell you a little story about poor Charlotte Sophia. If that doesn't shut them up...

Sort of like passively snuggling up to a running brush grinder, in a comforting sort of way.