The Gilded Bat

by Edward Gorey

With his typical dark, droll humor, Edward Gorey tells how Maudie, a girl given to staring at dead birds, is transformed into Mirella, a chic and mysterious prima ballerina. This woeful tale chronicles her ascent to the peak of fame, followed by her unexpected and dreadful demise. Gorey's exquisitely crafted illustrations of magical ballets, dubious barons, and stark apartments set the stage for this lonely drama of a slightly peculiar heroine.

Genres: Fiction, Art, Graphic Novels, Picture Books, Horror, Humor, Comics

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 25, 1966

About the author

Born in Chicago, Gorey came from a colourful family; his parents, Helen Dunham Garvey and Edward Lee Gorey, divorced in 1936 when he was 11, then remarried in 1952 when he was 27. One of his step-mothers was Corinna Mura, a cabaret singer who had a brief role in the classic film Casablanca. His father was briefly a journalist. Gorey's maternal great-grandmother, Helen St. John Garvey, was a popular 19th century greeting card writer/artist, from whom he claimed to have inherited his talents. He attended a variety of local grade schools and then the Francis W. Parker School. He spent 1944–1946 in the Army at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, and then attended Harvard University from 1946 to 1950, where he studied French and roomed with future poet Frank O'Hara.

Although he would frequently state that his formal art training was "negligible", Gorey studied art for one semester at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 1943, eventually becoming a professional illustrator. From 1953 to 1960, he lived in New York City and worked for the Art Department of Doubleday Anchor, illustrating book covers and in some cases adding illustrations to the text. He has illustrated works as diverse as Dracula by Bram Stoker, The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. In later years he illustrated many children's books by John Bellairs, as well as books in several series begun by Bellairs and continued by other authors after his death.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I love this story of Gorey’s. It’s about a girl that gets into Ballet. It’s a dreary life for her as it’s the same day after day and still, she becomes the prima Ballerina for a company. They create a story for her where she plays a bat in the production and she becomes famous for this role.

She actually gets a good life, but one night she is flying and a bat flies into the propellor of her plane. Such irony.

This is some of my favorite art of Edward. It is stunning and the costumes are lovely and I like the ballet poses he uses. I think this is one of my favorite stories of his and I would love to own a copy of this story. It’s wonderful.

[ke-sha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just started having flashbacks to:




....Although this chracter didn't have as much intesity for ballet so I don't know why I keep thinking about it Lol

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in Amphigorey Too, wanted to separately rate the story.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edward Gorey's THE GILDED BAT is the grim yet hilarious tale of a diva ballerina in thirty sentences alongside Gorey's superb ink drawings. It's difficult to describe Gorey's work to a general audience, one really must see his art in order to know what he's all about. THE GILDED BAT does have all the trademarks of Gorey at his height: a setting sometime in the Edwardian era, odd children, deadpan humour, violence, and seedy goings-on that have to be read between the lines (a shocking account of lesbian rivalry is communicated by little more than a glance between two depicted women). To fully get the humour in this particular volume, you must have some knowledge of French, and just a bit of the genre such as Stravinsky's popular ballets. The way Gorey pokes gentle fun at ballet is rather similar to his opera-themed book THE BLUE ASPIC.

The book was originally published in 1966. Gorey first editions are collectors items and difficult to find for cheap or in good condition. This Pomegranate reprint is beautiful and very appropriate for giving as a gift. If you want Gorey for yourself, however, the most economical way to read his magnificient oeuvre is through the Amphigorey anthologies. THE GUILDED BAT, for example, is in AMPHIGOREY TOO.

[Benja · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with The Blue Aspic, the story charts the rising stardom of a vampy diva, who looks a lot like Theda Bara and Musidora but was probably modelled after Isadora Duncan, considering her career as a dancer, her Soviet background and her bizarre demise. The starlet in question is orphan Maudie, who grows up to be a ballerina of international acclaim, even though her life - the narrator insists - "remains rather tedious".

If you've read any thing Gorey, you know the drill. If you haven't, it's as good and ominous an intro as any.

[Lollipopwater · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first Edward Gorey book I ever came upon. I was probably about 15, and was strolling through some arty giftshop in Boston, and found this little book to be incredibly dark and beautiful. I thought it surely had to have been written during the Victorian Age, but Gorey is just amazing like that.

[Kellie Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminded me of the dreary beauty I was obsessed with in the 2nd grade (Lydia's suicide note from "Beetlejuice"). It tells the story of little Maudie, then Maud, then Mirella, a legendary ballerina. Amazing drawings similar to Wes Anderson's sets, but with sparing text. I will read again on rainy days.

[Ana Matute · Rating 3 out of 5]

El murciélago dorado es una historia corta en la cual vemos como aveces los sacrificios que se hacen por alcanzar la gloria no sirven de nada, incluso cuando esta se ha alcanzado, porque el vacío absurdo de la vida que estos producen no pueden darle sentido alguno al existir.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down, my favorite Gorey. I don't know what, exactly, touches me so deeply about this little tale, but it's so haunting and delightfully melancholy that I treasure it.

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Own this hard bound copy. Beautiful illustrations.

[Catherine Corman · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Federojenska did a grand jete into the wings one matinee and was never seen again, Maud took over Oiseau de Glace to great acclaim.

-Edward Gorey, The Gilded Bat

[Brian DiNitto · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Gotey book. Great atmosphere, sparce and powerful writing. Great book if you know ballet history.

[Adriana Mora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un libro sublime

[Wetdryvac Wetdryvac · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like the art is this one.

[Tiffany Lynn Kramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Subtle, unnerving, and engrossing.

[Radwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

- the gothic art is extra gorgeous in this one
- all of gorey's stories are tragic, but this one had me having some hope ath the beginning, and I knew it would break me, and that's what made the ending even sadder.

[Tizire · Rating 2 out of 5]

El murciélago dorado es una pequeña obra exquisitamente editada por Libros del Zorro Rojo, que viene a hablarnos, una vez más, del auge y caída de una muchacha que nunca pensó que su camino iba a tomar tantos vericuetos inesperados. Más que un libro ilustrado, esta obra parece casi una de aquellas películas mudas de principios del cine, pues vemos la acción a modo de fotogramas acompañados por breves frases que nos explican lo que sucede. Las imágenes tienen un punto gótico que combinan perfectamente con una historia que parece sencilla, pero que se va volviendo más oscura a medida que nos adentramos en ella… Lo que no quita que tenga cierto punto de humor, eso sí, tan negro como todo lo que rodea a este libro de engañosa apariencia amable, que sin duda, acabará sorprendiendo a todos aquellos que se acerquen a él.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-read as part of Amphigorey Too. One of the better tales in this collection (actual characters! A plot! Some semblance of meaning). This is the one (in case I forget) about the ballerina. I feel he could have pushed himself a bit more with the illustrations ... they are illustrative of the text displayed, but I like when he brings a little more to the table than simply mood.

(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)

[Huda m · Rating 3 out of 5]

The drawings are fascinating and beautiful to look at, and the story's eerie and haunting just like all Gorey's works.

Maybe because I don't have enough knowledge about ballet, I didn't get all the puns intended so I was kinda lost at some points.

[Schmacko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit I don't know ballet history very well, but I believe I got most of the references. This story jumps several years at a time, and I tend to like his tighter stories. Of course, the illustrations are brilliant.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a ballerina with a tragic end. I spent minutes looking at some of the drawings...it's amazing the atmosphere that Gorey can create with pen lines!

[Margrét · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the pictures all right, but I don't really get it.

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in amphigorey, and i cannot help wishing this book had more gilding

[izzy strazzabosco · Rating 5 out of 5]

maybe my favorite gorey storey <3

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark and macabre story with rich illustrations.

[Maria Azpiroz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Otro libro de Gorey que encuentro y compro. No puedo resistirme a comprar cada libro de Gorey que encuentro por el camino. Me sorprende la excelente crítica que ha recibido este libro, aunque, sinceramente, no es mi favorito.

El arte es maravilloso como siempre. El ballet, una de las pasiones de Gorey , ocupa un lugar central en esta obra. Sin embargo, la historia no me ha cautivado tanto. No logro ver la conexión entre la búsqueda de la excelencia en la danza y la vida lúgubre y monótona de la bailarina. A mi parecer, la monotonía de la vida depende demasiado de la singularidad de cada persona y de cómo experimenta esta experiencia tan compleja que es vivir, ya sea como bailarina en el primer ballet de Rusia o como dueña de un quiosco en un pueblo olvidado.

Sin revelar demasiado del cuento, el final tampoco me convenció. Reconozco que Gorey era un genio y que quizás yo no haya entendido completamente la historia. Es posible que la traducción también haya influido, aunque hasta ahora las ediciones de Zorro Rojo han sido fantásticas. Pero no importa, seguiré leyendo a Gorey con la misma fascinación de siempre.

[Guilherme Semionato · Rating 4 out of 5]

So vivid and moving. Gorey stops the story several times to tell the reader the lovely ballerina is leading dreary life. Her unhappiness comes as a shock af first, then the repetition becomes slightly funny, then it's unbearably moving. The final spreads are glorious. What a precious book, with stunning artwork.

Open Library.

[Juushika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this, but with no particular enthusiasm. It's still Gorey, still tragic and satirical, therefore still satisfying. But the ballet aesthetic is what makes it unique, and so it's eclipsed by The Lavender Leotard, which uses it to greater and wrier effect.

[Abigail Escobar · Rating 4 out of 5]

No esperaba nada de un librito pequeño con el mínimo de texto, pero la verdad que es una historia realista y con pensamientos profundos en párrafos pequeños, además los dibujos lo son todo, con ese arte clásico de pintura, me ha gustado demasiado.

[Canavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

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