The Unstrung Harp; or, Mr. Earbrass Writes a Novel

The Unstrung Harp; or, Mr. Earbrass Writes a Novel by Edward Gorey. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780151004355.

On November 18th of alternate years Mr Earbrass begins writing his new novel. Weeks ago he chose its title at random from a list of them he keeps in a little green note-book. It being tea-time of the 17th, he is alarmed not to have thought of a plot to which The Unstrung Harp might apply, but his mind will keep reverting to the last biscuit on the plate." So begins what the Times Literary Supplement called "a small masterpiece." TUH is a look at the literary life and its "attendant woes: isolation, writers block, professional jealousy, and plain boredom." But, as with all of Edward Goreys books, TUH is also about life in general, with its anguish, turnips, conjunctions, illness, defeat, string, parties, no parties, urns, desuetude, disaffection, claws, loss, trebizond, napkins, shame, stones, distance, fever, antipodes, mush, glaciers, incoherence, labels, miasma, amputation, tides, deceit, mourning, elsewards. You get the point. Finally, TUH is about Edward Gorey the writer, about Edward Gorey writing The Unstrung Harp. Its a cracked mirror of a book, and its dedicated to RDP or Real Dear Person.