The Doubtful Guest

The Doubtful Guest
by Edward Gorey

The Doubtful Guest
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Book Summary Information

Author: Edward Gorey
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 1998-06-15
ISBN: 0151003130
Number of pages: 32
Publisher: Harcourt

Book Reviews of The Doubtful Guest

Book Review: My daughter cried.
Summary: 2 Stars

I picked up a copy of the Doubtful Guest because I heard Steven Speilberg optioned the rights to turn this into a movie. Not sure how he's going to do it, because there really isn't a story to tell. It's about a weird-looking penguin that shows up at a house and doesn't leave. Big whoop. I love the art. I like the whole idea of the story. And I'm sure at the time, it was what children's book critics would consider 'avant-garde' and a bit dark. But, it just didn't do it for me. I read it to my daughter. She was so angry that she grabbed the book out of my hands, took it over to the fireplace and threw into the fire. Then she went PFFFTHTTPT! Whatever that means! Maybe she was tipsy on the expired-date cow's milk she was drinking. Maybe it was because she was teething. Maybe it was because she's only a year old, but she didn't like it at all. Would I tell someone else to buy this book? Not really. Although, on a personal note, I may check out more of Gorey's work. This guy may have been on to something.

Summary of The Doubtful Guest

Originally published in 1957, The Doubtful Guest serves as a prime example of the beauty, eccentricity, and brilliance of Edward Gorey's work. If the book was read aloud without revealing the accompanying black-and-white drawings, you might guess the tale came from the quirky genius of Dr. Seuss. The rhyming couplets and nonsensical verse (about an even more nonsensical creature) feel familiar, but in Gorey's skilled hands, the experience becomes altogether new.

The doubtful guest shows up unannounced and unwelcome, yet its presence is accepted after only a brief interlude of screaming. The staid, pale, Victorian inhabitants of the mansion alternately stare and glare at the doubtful guest as it tears out whole chapters from books, peels the soles of its white canvas shoes, and broods while lying on the floor ("inconveniently close to the drawing-room door"). Strangely, or rather, typically, as this is a Gorey book, the stymied occupants never ask the guest to leave--and in 17 years it has still "shown no intention of going away." Maintaining a matter-of-fact tone in spite of true oddity is pure, delicious Gorey, and his trademark drawings are not to be missed. The ghostly, stark, and undeniably amusing illustrations make The Doubtful Guest an entrancing tale in which reserved, insular lives meet with the unexpected and bizarre. (Ages 5 and older)


“An artist and writer of genius” (New Yorker) gives us a small-format edition of one of his favorite tales-a deliciously twisted comedy of manners.

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