The Fatal Lozenge
For the most mature of Gorey’s audiences, Edward Gorey wrote The Fatal Lozenge, an essential alphabet book for adults. It is filled with numerous 4-line poems, each with their own classic, Gorey-esque dark hatched illustration. Each poem is a self contained mini-story of sorts, but all of the poems are connected in that their subject matter is dark and surprising, or in other words, quintessentially Gorey.
This story, for the most mature Gorey audiences, gives a look into what a “monster” is for young children and adults.
It is the adult counter to The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Gorey’s other alphabet book. It is veiled as a children’s book, but is geared toward an adult audience. The connection between the two is that it encapsulates their audience's fears and its depiction of monsters. The rhyming is lyrical, reminiscent of a lullaby, which makes the cruel and offensive subject matter even more jarring.
Edward Gorey disguises the adult content of The Fatal Lozenge with a childlike structure: the alphabet book of poems. The content is quite dark, yet is overwhelmingly realistic. Gorey wonderfully highlights in this story that the true “monster” for adults is the worst case scenario.
Gorey plays into the adult’s fear of the possibility of life’s misfortune. Not all of the subject matter is overtly terrifying, but all of the subject matter is truthful in nature.
Gorey illuminates the sad reality that life can be sometimes unfortunate. In doing this, he is targeting an adult audience. The leftmost poem is one of few in the story that the subject is not an adult subject. It depicts one of the "worst-case scenarios" adults face, the fear that their child will grow up to become a thug. Gorey’s ironic writing still holds true in the rightmost image: even the saddest form of life’s misfortune, suicide, has a tinge of humor involved.