THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES

The Gashlycrumb Tinies is a witty, disquieting journey through the alphabet.

B is for Basil assaulted by bears. C is for Clara who wasted away. D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh. . . and so it goes on, an A to Z of poor little orphans and their untimely ends. (Right up to the unfortunate ZILLA, who simply drank too much gin.)

The rhyming couplets of this grim abecedarian are familiar, of course, to devotees of macabre humor, but the darkly crosshatched drawings are (as Poe put it) "the soul of the plot."

The Gashlycrumb Tinies - Edward Gorey - 9780151003082