The Object-Lesson
Cover of first edition (hardcover) | |
| Author | Edward Gorey |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary nonsense |
| Publisher | Doubelday |
Publication date | 1958 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 30 pp |
| ISBN | 0-151-00709-8 |
| Preceded by | The Doubtful Guest |
| Followed by | The Bug Book |
The Object-Lesson (1958) is a picture book by Edward Gorey. A work of surrealist art and literature, it is typical of Gorey's avant-garde style of storytelling, with Victorian and Edwardian-esque line drawings and settings, each described with a sentence fragment which adds to a larger continuous narrative. The pictures and text combine to tell a strange and obscure story. Although internally consistent, coherent, and structured, the story has a disjointed and disorienting quality, with melancholic and morbidly humorous effects.
The book is collected in Gorey's first compilation, Amphigorey.