The Curious Sofa: A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary

oMG.... I,love the wit, the drawings, I order books with the same titles so I can give them away to people who would appreciate the writer’s delivery .... love Edward Gorey.

Though definitely not for everyone, this is probably the creepiest little thing I've read in a LONG time, this being accomplished entirely by subtle insinuation and suggestion than anything concrete. Pornographic work? Not exactly, if you are expecting the sort of thing all those spam e-mails promise. This is surrealism, enigmatic and dreamlike... the graphic imagery is limited to bizarrely posed and leering maybe-unclothed/maybe-not cartoon figures tastefully obscured behind monstrously large ornamental urns, twisted naked tree limbs, and imposing bamboo screens, with such captions as "That evening in the library Scylla, one of the guests who had certain anatomical peculiarities, demonstrated the 'Lithuanian Typewriter', assisted by Ronald and Rupert, two remarkably well-set-up young men from the village." Over and again through the "story" my reaction was "What the heck is THAT supposed to mean???" while taken together they imply something hideously and repugnantly barbaric and freakishly obscene, with the only possible conclusions (when they can be made at all) not matching the reactions of the characters, until the shocking conclusion where at last the characters react appropriately to an eerie situation that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever... making the entire experience that much more disconcerting. This is the beauty of Edward Gory's surrealism. Though, as I said earlier, it is not for everyone- the horror is too enigmatic and the humor a bit too strange for the taste of most people I know... as one negative review said: "Make sure you want to buy this sort of book... it is not what I was expecting." (What was she expecting? She never said... the statement would make a lovely caption for a Gory cartoon, though, unrelated to the panels directly preceding and following it: [A woman in a fur coat and a pair of sinister tennis shoes marking a calendar, while a strange and ambiguous animal watches:] "I would fancy a cup of tea, but only on alternating Tuesdays."/ [The ambiguous animal stands in a bookstore, frowning doubtfully as a distraught young woman points fearfully at a nondescript and dusty book on the bottom shelf of an antique bookcase, telling the woman in tennis shoes:] "Make sure you want to buy this sort of book... it is not what I was expecting."/ [The distraught-looking woman asks the woman in sneakers while looking out the shop window:] "Is it my imagination, or has that building moved since last I saw it?" [The doubtful animal replies:] "NO.") And I think I should also mention that Gory's little cartoons are probably not a good idea for children. Although, I believe that at 9, 10, or 11 I would have been fascinated by the intricately detailed and strange little creepy drawings and their bizarre captions and though any vaguely "adult" elements would have gone way over my head, the cartoons would nonetheless have sparked my imagination... seeing them again as an adult would have been that much more chilling. A

The first Gorey book I've ever bought, and it's left me panting for more.Subtitled "a pornographic work," The Curious Sofa it is indeed, but for what it leaves out. Readers won't find sex or violence on these pages, merely the titillation of the unseen.Umm... mouth watering!

Sex and death without ever really speaking about either--plant your tongue firmly in your cheek, because Gorey is the master.If you're particularly wicked, give this book to prudish relatives at Christmastime.

A particularly miniature gem from a master miniaturist, The Curious Sofa tells of the delightfully open-minded Alice who, approached one day in the park while she's eating grapes, takes a taxi ride with a young gentleman during which she does something that she's never done before. The story then proceeds to a country house, during which various upper-class folk introduce Alice to a dizzying variety of fun, variously involving a French maid, a Countess, a married couple who each have a wooden leg, numerous "exceptionally well-formed" gentlemen and an enthusiastic Old English sheepdog. You don't actually see anything, thanks to Mr. Gorey's discreet placing of trees, bushes, clothed persons and screens between us and the action, so fans of genuine porn can expect to be disappointed. But this is still a highly titillating book. It climaxes, as it were, when the whole party encounters the eponymous and somewhat sinister sofa, at which point events get rather beyond Alice's control in a way that I'll leave to your imagination. I don't know what kind of tea Mr. Gorey drinks but I'd quite like to try some. If you wanted to explain to somebody what the word "suggestive" means, and were for some reason allergic to dictionaries, you were best off lending them this book. It's all good fun until the last page - which I find extremely worrying. And yet I'm afraid that says more about me than it says about the book.

Every slightly Disturbed Person should have at least one example of Goreyhood on their shelves.. in case your loving relatives find this too distressing to buy for you, here are some sensible reasons to throw at them..*Victorian orgies are cool*It's a party accessory: read it aloud.*It's a storybook for young, impressionable children.*You can hit people with it and it will sting.*Or, Whatever..It's just so droll and vague and cheery. Besides, Victorian orgies are cool.