To stimulate by touching lightly; tickle. To excite (another) pleasurably, superficially or erotically. v. intr. To excite another, especially in a superficial, pleasurable manner: "Once you decide to titillate instead of illuminate . . . you create a climate of expectation that requires a higher and higher level of intensity" (Bill Moyers).

This books hints at, yet never delivers - which is quite often the better of the two.


Pornography, Gorey-style!   April 18, 1998
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

Although the cover states that this is a pornographic tale, the pornography is left to the mind of the reader, just as his famous tots in the Gashlycrumb Tinies are depicted just prior to their gory (pardon the pun!) deaths. Anyone who appreciates the artist's sophisticated satire of the Victorian gothic will love this volume poking fun of Victorian sexual repression. Even Victorian furniture needs an outlet sometimes, as Gorey well knows!


WEIRD!!!   March 16, 1999
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This book is a"pornographic work", but nothing is explicit. For example: "On the floor of the taxi, Alice and Edward did something she'd never done before." The drawings show the edge of a couch here, elbows above a screen there, nothing more. Everything is implied, but the meaning cannot be mistaken. Definitely creepy but witty and humorous.


Um. Well, it's different.   February 11, 2003
 6 out of 50 found this review helpful

That's about all I can say. I was expecting a bit more than this. it's very small and very thin and implies more than it says. It's sort of mocking. The sofa isn't curious in the sense that it want s to know things, it's curious in the sense that there's something different about it.

Definitely rated whatever you would rate your own mind, since most of the dirty stuff IS all in the implications and has little to do with the words or images. Little kids would read it and just not get it, but adults might see it a bit different.

Not for kids.


An original and admirable work, but not entirely typical of Gorey   March 21, 2006
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

THE CURIOUS SOFA: A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary is one of Edward Gorey's works in which the story is told through delightful pen-and-ink drawings with witty captions. A 1961 send-up of Victorian pornography, the book's thirty pages tell the adventures of Alice, a young woman swept into a long series of sexual adventures. THE CURIOUS SOFA's cleverness lies in that on one hand it reveals nothing obscene--one would hardly have to fear if a young child came upon the book. A good example caption is: "Downstairs the three of them played a most amusing game of Herbert's own invention called 'Thumbfumble.' They then sat down to a sumptuous tea", which is accompanied by an entirely innocuous drawing. Yet, for the adult the book is ultimately the most filthiest thing this reader has ever encountered outside of some Cocteau Twins lyrics.

The artwork of THE CURIOUS SOFA is rather spartan: generally just characters and furniture against a white background. It resembles more his first work THE UNSTRUNG HARP than the later works of the 1960s that became typical for him: Edwardian figures with beards and lots of fur coats.

This is an entertaining work, and Gorey does masterfully show that, paradoxically, sometimes horrors and obscenities can be maximally revealed through being concealed. However, I would not recommend it to the Gorey neophyte, as it is not the best example of his work. Instead, try THE LOATHSOME COUPLE or THE BLUE ASPIC. THE OTHER STATUE is also good. Those are all books from his most fruitful style of the late 1960s and highly recommended reading. Save this one for if you've come to enjoy Gorey.