This wonderful second collection contains 20 highly enjoyable stories:
THE BEASTLY BABY (a definite Gorey favorite!) about an absolutely abominable baby, you'll be glad to see the end of!
THE NURSERY FRIEZE: Features odd strips of rhino-like animals saying words like "Archipelago" & "Quodlibet" which could very well be used as a frieze for a very unique nursery :-)
THE PIOUS INFANT: About little Henry Clump, who is completely unselfish and charitable, and always concerned about the salvation of everyone elses soul!
THE EVIL GARDEN: About a families visit to an ominous garden, where there is no way out!
THE INANIMATE TRAGEDY: A dramatic tale featuring inanimate objects as the characters, such as pins & needles (who appear to represent the chorus) a penpoint, glass marble, two-holed button, thumbtack, & a piece of knotted string (as the villain)
THE GILDED BAT: About a little girl who grows up to be a very distinguished prima ballerina.
THE IRON TONIC: or "A Winter Afternoon"- "The people at the grey hotel, Are either aged or unwell" "The guests who chose to stay aloof, Lie wrapped in carpets on the roof".
THE OSBICK BIRD: About Emblus Fingby and the osbick bird that chooses one day to live with him, as his loyal friend.
Two versions of THE CHINESE OBELISKS, one version that looks like a sketch or rough draft, and then the better known one in typical Gorey style- All about an author who goes for a walk, and the many things he encounters.
THE DERANGED COUSINS (one of my favorites!): About Rose Marshmary, Mary Rosemarsh & Marsh Maryrose, three cousins who all live together in a rose covered house at the edge of a marsh. "Since they were orphans and there was no one to stop them, they were often merry far into the night"!
THE ELEVENTH EPISODE: Starts when a woman hears a scream apparently coming from a well, when she goes to investigate she falls in and enters a world that changes her life.
[THE UNTITLED BOOK]: Charming piece, that features a little child looking out the window as strange creatures come to play in the garden. Hippity Wippity!
THE LAVENDAR LEOTARD: An early Gorey tale, in which the author introduces two small, distant, ageless, and wholly imaginary relatives to fifty seasons of the New York City Ballet!
THE DISREPECTFUL SUMMONS: A tale of the occult!
THE ABANDONED SOCK: All about the saga of a sock that decides it's life is tedious and unpleasant, and goes for an adventure.
THE LOST LIONS: About a handsome man named Hamish, whose life is suddenly changed when he one day opens the wrong envelope!
STORY FOR SARA: A cute story about a slightly wicked little girl, who captures two little birds in her small bag, and her meeting with a very large prowling cat!
THE SALT HERRING: An odd tale written to make all serious men mad, mad, mad!
LEAVES FROM A MISLAID ALBUM: A wordless collection of interesting pictures.
A LIMERICK: Absolutely cute, very SHORT limerick about poor little Zooks, of whom no one was fond.
