The Floating Library checks in with Edward Gorey, author/illustrator of The Unstrung Harp, the book that gave us the phrase “the unspeakable horror of the literary life.”
The Unstrung Harp has the subtitle “or, Mr Earbrass writes a novel” and begins with “Mr C(lavius) F(rederick) Earbrass” contemplating his next book. “On November 18th of alternate years” he selects a “title at random from a list of them he keeps in a little green note-book.” Over the course of the next several pages, we get glimpses of the plot-heavy story he’s constructing, and while his novels have pseudo-serious-sounding titles like “More Chains than Clank” and “The Meaning of the House,” the clues suggest that he’s at work on a highbrow, yet slightly off-center, mystery.
