''The Object-Lesson'' (1958) is a
picture book
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images.
The ima ...
by
Edward Gorey
Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an Americans, American writer, Tony Awards, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for book ...
. A work of
surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
art and literature, it is typical of Gorey's
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
style of storytelling, with
Victorian and
Edwardian
In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...
-esque
line drawings and settings, each described with a
sentence fragment
In grammar, sentence and clause structure, commonly known as sentence composition, is the classification of sentences based on the number and kind of clauses in their syntactic structure. Such division is an element of traditional grammar.
Typolog ...
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''.
Title
Object lesson
An object lesson is a teaching method that consists of using a physical object or visual aid as a discussion piece for a lesson. Object lesson teaching assumes that material things have the potential to convey information.
Description
The ob ...
s were a
teaching
Teaching is the practice implemented by a ''teacher'' aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience in the of an educational institution. Teaching is closely related ...
method popular in the Victorian era, where an example of a physical object is used when teaching facts and speculation about that class of object.
Story
The story begins with a search for an
aristocrat
The aristocracy (''from Greek'' ''ἀριστοκρατία'' ''aristokratía'', "rule of the best"; ''Latin: aristocratia'') is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the ...
's
artificial limb, a search that, implicitly, has endured for days by this point. Another man then leaves the house and gives "the Throbblefoot Spectre" a length of string, before going to the statue of "Corrupted Endeavour" to wait for autumn. After this, the story stays outside the house, and we see several characters enacting their own obscure dramas (including a woman who throws herself from a parapet, and three people in a dinghy on a lake to whom
Echo
In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...
(not depicted) speaks), in a panoramic and seemingly endless rural landscape.
The story ends as three people visit a "kiosk" (depicted much like a
bandstand
A bandstand (sometimes music kiosk) is a circular, semicircular or polygonal structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an ornamen ...
) for tea and cakes. The tea urn, however, is empty, save for a card on which is written the book's last word: "Farewell". (In the last picture, the three stand facing a setting sun.)
Adaptations
In 1976
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
composer
Michael Mantler
Michael Mantler (born August 10, 1943) is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music.
Career: United States
Mantler was born in Vienna, Austria. In the early 1960s, he was a student at the Academy of Music and V ...
released the album ''The Hapless Child'' (Watt/
ECM) with
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945) is an English retired musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming para ...
,
Terje Rypdal
Terje Rypdal (born 23 August 1947) is a Norwegian guitarist and composer. He has been an important member in the Norwegian jazz community, and has also given show concerts with guitarists Ronni Le Tekrø and Mads Eriksen as "N3".
Career
Rypd ...
,
Carla Bley
Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936 – October 17, 2023) was an American jazz composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she gained acclaim for her jazz opera ''Escalator ...
, and
Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette (born August 9, 1942) is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer.
Known for his extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians including Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, B ...
, containing a musical adaptation of ''The Object Lesson'' and six other Gorey stores. The track has been described as "a recitative laid on an extraordinary altar of guitar, bass, and drums".
[https://ecmreviews.com/2020/04/19/michael-mantler-the-hapless-child-watt-4/]
References
External links
LibraryThing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Object-Lesson
1958 books
Books by Edward Gorey
Doubleday (publisher) books