Product Description

An alphabetical phantasmagoria in which a succession of infants meet dreadful ends.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4092 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 64 pages

Customer Reviews

Kookily Creepy....Everyone should own a copy.
Well, well, well. What can I say? The Gashlycrumb Tinies is a remarkable book. The combination of humour and horror that these little one liners induce is a joy to behold. "Out-Dahling" Dahl at every turn, Gorey manages to compel the reader to laugh at some of the most grotesque deaths ever to befall a child. His skill as an artist is almost matched by his words, but it is the delicate nature of his sketches that is most satisfying. One of lifes great joys is to watch an unsuspecting reader pick up this book and see their eyes widen by the second page. A true delight and one that realises that children love the horrific more than the twee.

Demented, horrific and I loved every page of it.
Edward Gorey's take on the alphabet is truely twisted as children who's name begins with each letter dies in some horrible way. Even though it's probably not a book that will be appearing in the classroom anytime soon, it's still great fun to read. I think my favourite is "T" is for Titus who flew into bits, where you see this young well dressed boy holding a package one can only imagine is some sort of letter bomb. Gorey's one of my favourite artist's. His style is original, clever and creepy. Something I could definently see Tim Burton using in a film. There are three books I can recommend to those who are just getting into Edward Gorey's work, "The Epileptic Bicycle", "The Doubtful Guest" and this one. My advice is to start off with this one and get the other ones next. Lots of fun.

An A-Z of children dying...
A rhyming A-Z of children dying ("A is for Amy who fell down the stairs/B is for Basil assaulted by Bears"), with brilliantly detailed, sometimes gruesome, often funny pen and ink drawings accompanying each letter/death. Clearly not the book to be given to the young, the uptight, or the mentally stable, but I loved it. With the same macabre sense of humour as The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy -- Tim Burton, this book is endlessly entertaining. It's pretty expensive at £5.99 for such a small book, but it is hard-cover and it will honestly last you for life, getting plenty of use whenever like-minded friends come round. The drawings look like olden days etchings which adds to the strange atmosphere and morbidity. It's fascinating to look at all the detail of the pictures, and the look of melancholy resignation in most of the children's faces. Also good as a psychological insight into an author who was clearly not normal in mind!