History Creator / EdwardGorey

* RecycledPremise: Both ''The Hapless Child'' and ''The Abandoned Sock'' both have very similar premises.

* SpiritualSuccessor: Many, from Creator/TimBurton to Creator/JunjiIto.

* CelibateEccentricGenius: Gorey professed to be asexual and to find the whole question of sex "tiresome", and devoted his life to his work and his hobbies (like attending every performance of the New York City Ballet for about two decades straight) -- not that this stopped him from producing works that treated sex in a satirical manner, most notably ''The Curious Sofa''.

* ''Literature/TheDoubtfulGuest'' (1957): [[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins A strange penguin]]...[[UglyCute thing]] takes up lodgings in a stately mansion and [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave stays there for 17 years]].

Born in Chicago, he spent World War II manning a desk in Utah, attended Harvard (where he majored in French rather than art), and lived a large chunk of his life in New York City. He evidently was never terribly fond of that last city, seeming to consider it a sort of necessary evil that allowed him free access to his artistic commissions and far more importantly his cultural interests, most especially the New York City Ballet under the direction of the genius of George Balanchine; Gorey religiously attended every performance for years. With the death of Balanchine in 1982 and a steady income from the royalties for his more popular works, Gorey relocated to the small village on Yarmouth Port on Cape Cod, where he lived the rest of his life in semi-retirement (his house has since been turned into [[https://www.edwardgoreyhouse.org/ a museum]]), showing rather more interest in mounting various (rather bizarre) amateur theatrical productions than continuing his career as an author and illustrator. He died of a heart attack at the age of 75.

Edward St. John Gorey (1925–2000) was an American writer and illustrator best known for writing several short tales, often told in rhyme (usually couplets) and very surreal and macabre in tone. Gorey experimented in a wide variety of art-styles over the years, but his trademark look was a very distinct and meticulous style of cross-hatched ink drawing that could be described as Victorian or Edwardian. He admitted that his own professional art training was "negligible", but he did illustration work for a wide variety of media, ranging from book covers and illustrations, to the animated opening for the Creator/{{PBS}} show ''[[Series/{{Masterpiece}} Mystery!]]'', to creating the sets for the 70's smash hit Broadway production of ''Theatre/Dracula1924''.

Gorey had a fondness for anagrams, jumbling up his own name to make several pseudonyms. He also liked [[AuthorAppeal ballet, silent movies, fur coats, vintage tennis shoes and cats]], all of which were featured in his work. During his later years, he belatedly discovered television, and [[JustForFun/OneOfUs developed an affection for some of the darker shows of the era]], including ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''Series/TheXFiles''.

Born in Chicago, he spent World War II manning a desk in Utah, attended Harvard (where he majored in French rather than art), and lived a large chunk of his life in New York City. He evidently was never terribly fond of that last city, seeming to consider it a sort of necessary evil that allowed him free access to his artistic commissions and far more importantly his cultural interests, most especially the New York City Ballet under the direction of the genius of George Balanchine; Gorey religiously attended every performance for years. With the death of Balanchine in 1982 and a steady income from the royalties for his more popular works, Gorey relocated to a small village in Cape Cod, where he lived the rest of his life in semi-retirement, showing rather more interest in mounting various (rather bizarre) amateur theatrical productions than continuing his career as an author and illustrator. He died of a heart attack at the age of 75.

[[folder: Notable Books published by Edward Gorey, in order of release:]]

* ''Literature/TheCuriousSofa'' '': A Pornographic Novel by Ogdred Weary'' (1961): A grape-loving woman marries an aristocrat, and all kinds of sex related mishaps ensue.

* AuthorAppeal: To say that Gorey was an ballet enthusiast during his years living in New York City is something of an understatement, and its influence filtered throughout his work. In particular, ''The Lavender Leotard'' and ''The Gilded Bat'' pay homage to the art.

--> ''They were soon joined by Donald, Herbert's' singularly well-favored sheepdog, and many were the giggles and barks that came from the shrubbery.''

* ExtremeOmnivore: The title character of Literature/TheDoubtfulGuest eats all of the toast and syrup in a Edwardian family's house, along with part of a dinner plate.

* TheGhost: ''The Sinking Spell'' repeatedly mentions the presence of a flying creature that is steadily descending until it eventually phases through the ground. Said creature is neither named, nor is it ever shown in the book.

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: Compared to his older books, the artstyle of Gorey's more recent books (Most notably everything after ''The Unknown Vegetable'') is considerably more simplistic. Characters also appear to be more bug-eyed and spindly in appearance.

* LoonyFan: ''The Blue Aspic'' has Jasper Ankle, who is utterly obsessed with the fictional opera singer Ortenzia Caviglia. Throughout the book, he is shown to obsessively wait to buy tickets to her shows, collect various newpaper clippings that mention her, write long letters to her that go unanswered, walk onto the set as she was performing, get sent to an asylum for his obsession, and finally fatally stabbing her in the throat before he stabs himself.

** In-Universe, a lot of characters in Gorey's works also have these. For example, the surname of character, Ortenzia Caviglia, is actually the Italian word for "ankle", much like that of her stalker, Jasper Ankle.

* NoodleImplements: In ''The Willowdale Handcar'', what is going on with Nellie, Dick and the man in the canoe?

* QuicksandSucks: In ''The Evil Garden'' one of the characters die by being sucked into a bubbling pond. Quentin, in ''The Gashlycrumb Tinies'', meets his end the same way.

* WalkingTheEarth: ''The Willowdale Handcar''. Three cousins, bored of their small town life, find an old pumpcart at the railway station and decide to take it for a whirl. Their travels take them further out of the town, and they write back to their families, not sure of when they'll come back, and spend their time visiting odd curiosities before [[GainaxEnding entering a train tunnel and never appearing from the other side.]]

* AuthorAppeal: To say that Gorey was an ballet enthusiast during his years living in New York City is something of an understatement, and its influence filtered throughout his work. In particular, ''The Gilded Bat'' is his homage to the art.

They've discovered a head,\\

* BookBurning: Henry Clump from ''The Pious Child'' does this to every book which has lines that could potentially be interpreted to rebel against God. Though this is downplayed, as he does not so much burn the books, as much as cross off and blot out the allegedly heretical lines from said books.
* CelibateEccentricGenius: Gorey professed to be asexual and to find the whole question of sex "tiresome", and devoted his life to his work and his hobbies (like attending every performance of the New York City Ballet for about two decades straight) — not that this stopped him from producing works that treated sex in a satirical manner, most notably The Curious Sofa.

* ExcessiveMourning: Defied in ''The Osrick Bird''. The titular bird becomes good friends with a man named Emblus Fingby for many years. After he dies, the bird mourns his death for several months, sitting on his tombstone. It then decides to move on and flies off. The wording gives the event a bit of a cynical edge.
--> He was interred, the bird alone
--> Was left to sit upon his stone.
--> But after several months, one day
--> It changed its mind and flew away.

* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The worshippers of The Insect God does this to the child they kidnapped]].

* {{Irony}}: When told his cordless phone's battery cost $22, Gorey threw back and moaned. The speaker thought he was reacting to the price of the battery, but no, he'd died of a heart attack. His death was straight out of one of his books.

** Embly and Yewbert from ''The Epiplectic Bicycle''
** The titular ''Loathesome Couple''

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: Compared to his older books, the artstyle of Gorey's more recent books (Most notably everything after ''The Unknown Vegetale'') is considerably more simplistic. Characters also appear to be more bug-eyed and spindly in appearance.

* OurMonstersAreWeird: Many of Gorey's works are chockful of surreal creatures, especially in ''The Utter Zoo''. Examples include the Ulp, which is so small it can "hardly be seen at all", the Ombledroom which is considerably large and white, and the Scrug which is "unusable for cooking".

** Averted in ''The Gashlycrumb Tinies'' with "X is for [[AwesomeMcCoolname Xerxes]] [[CruelAndUnusualDeath devoured by mice]]."

* {{Gamebooks}}: ''The Raging Tide or The Black Doll's Imbroglio'': Not a game, exactly, but this Edward Gorey's non-linear story uses the Choose Your Own Adventure technique.

* StaticCharacter: You won't find very much character development in most of Gorey's books.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: The entry for "X" in ''The Fatal Lozenge'', features a waitress in a cafe with this look who seems blissfully unaware of the fact that a racist customer (the eponymous Xenophobe) is silently fighting the urge to beat her up.

* BigCreepyCrawlies: The primary inhabitants of ''The Evil Garden''.
** Let's also not forget the famous Bahum Bug, a giant anthropomorphic bug.

* GardenOfEvil: ''The Evil Garden'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin obviously]].%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* BearsAreBadNews: The titular ''Evil Garden'' in the book of the same name had ferocious bears that guard its fruit.

* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The Insect God does this to the child they kidnapped]].

* TheGhost: ''The Sinking Spell'' repeatedly mentions the presence of a flying creature that is steadily descending until it eventually phases through the ground. Said creature is neither name, nor is it ever shown in the book.

* BlackBeadEyes: Traditionally, almost every character in Gorey's books has these. On some occasions, characters will have {{Skintone Sclerae}} instead. Some of his books avert both of these entirely.

* SpeechBubbles: Gorey usually uses these whenever he wants to make a character in his stories talk.