Books Read in the Past:

My parents owned [b:The Fatal Lozenge|1356533|The Fatal Lozenge|Edward Gorey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327567873s/1356533.jpg|1346257] in this alternately titled edition. I prefer it to [b:The Gashlycrumb Tinies|47558|The Gashlycrumb Tinies|Edward Gorey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327933644s/47558.jpg|3211551] for two reasons:

1. It is less cute (though I recognize that "cute" is a relative term when applied to Gorey's non-cat oeuvre);

2. The verses are quatrains rather than couplets rhymed across two letters. This gives the present volume a less sing-songy cadence (and thus a less funny presentation, but in a good way) and, with 104 lines rather than 26, imparts more substance.

I learned a great deal from this alphabet:
--the verse for "the Cad" may have been the first enjambment I ever noticed; --I learned what "fetishist," "ennui," "truncheon," "kohl," and "xenophobe" meant;
--as a therapist in training, I thought frequently of the Nun and the Suicide;
--as a Tourist, I, too, often "[find] a certain fascination/In knowing all the trains are gone";
--and the Zouave was the first illustration I ever saw of an adult harming a child. I stared at it for hours trying to understand it.

You may watch it read, though without much inflection, on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEcWz3XiYd8 ( )

Only 26 letters in the alphabet, and Ed Gorey finds some sad situation to define each. His illustrations reinforce the text. No one but he would choose the reaction of the stranded tourist, I'm sure! ( )