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The Iron Tonic: Or, A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley
It's difficult to say what The Iron Tonic is about, although it is "known the skating pond conceals a family of enormous eels," and that "the light is fading from the day. The rest is darkness and dismay." Finally, though, The Iron Tonic could be seen as Edward Gorey's version of a winter afternoon in one of the great Russian novels of the nineteenth century.
36 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
About the author
Edward Gorey
484 books2,042 followersBorn 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
April 4, 2025
A gloomy little book for the holiday, with eels, infant death, and obscure objects falling. Who knows what the point of it is, though it looks like a 19th-century novel, illustrated, but oh, without that elaborate and detailed plot. You will think, reading Gorey: Oh! What a sad, tormented childhood he must have had! But by all accounts, he said it was perfectly normal and happy. But in all the gloom, his humor rescues us:
"The rest is darkness and dismay".
Somehow, :)
"The rest is darkness and dismay".
Somehow, :)
January 19, 2016
This is such a slip of a book, and with such a long and strange title (that almost exceeds the word count of the rest of the pages.) "Iron Tonic or A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley."
Iron Tonic isn't mentioned in the book at all and after I read through it and read a bunch of gr reviews which all kind of said, "we love his morbid humor" and such things, I didn't feel any closer to an answer to my burning questions (which may need to be treated with Iron Tonic): Why the strange title? Why the presence of the Iron Tonic only in the title (and whose image is on the title page.) Why the dedication to his Victorian-greeting-card-writing great grandmother, Helen St. John Garvey?
So, I have been sleuthing a little, and thinking about his attachment to a Victorian aesthetic, which I can't fully make sense of, but in wikipedia I saw this:" Victorianism refers to the study of late-Victorian attitudes and culture with a focus on the highly moralistic, straitlaced language and behaviour of Victorian morality."
And in his obituary in The Guardian, I saw this: "a favourite technique [of Gorey's] was to inject unimproving material into the Victorian template of a moral or instructive alphabet." (http://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/...)
And that helped me form a better understanding of some of his work, this book in particular, as it is what I am reading at the moment. He likes the stiffness of the Victorian ideals of propriety, at least to some degree, because it is a great environment and foil for his particular sense of humor. This is probably not news to any Gorey fans, but I had never quite pieced those things together in that way. And, of course, it's brilliant. In a more permissive cultural milieu, his humor wouldn't make sense. And yet, to some degree, as I think he must have felt, he was still living in Victorian times (being a gay man born in the 1920s, he must have had the experience he was living in a Victorian social prison of sorts).
In one of his interviews (I am currently reading Ascending Peculiarity) he says he draws a lot of children because they are vulnerable. Vulnerability is important to his work. I suppose it makes sense then that this book takes place in a kind of haunted sanitarium. "The people at the grey hotel / Are either aged or unwell." There we have it. A bunch of isolated, vulnerable people in a gothically sinister hotel. And on this first page we see both the unfriendly hotel and a smaller image, a circle set off as a kind of magnifying glassed or telescoped view, though this one is very strange because it seems to be in an entirely different place. There are a handful of old and infirm people wandering at night through the woods as if lost. (With an element of comedic surrealism.)
But, before we get to the inside pages, let's look at the cover.
On the cover of the book, the first title, The Iron Tonic, is illustrated in large letters, gothically sprouting roots. To the right of the title, a circle encloses the image of a bottle of Iron Tonic which says on its label "or A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley." This is an intriguing way to introduce the book. Iron Tonic, in Victorian times, was a bit of quackery for the most part. A tonic that was supposed to cure all kinds of ailments.
So to call this book "The Iron Tonic" is basically to say, it's a bit of quackery, which is just the kind of humor he seems to enjoy ("injecting un-improving material"). But in a way, the book is at least purporting to be medicine. He then puts the subtitle of the book on the label of an encircled illustration of a bottle of Iron Tonic floating on a large body of water, which brings the joke from silly territory into surreal territory. For one thing, there is an "or." Iron Tonic OR A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley. But what we get on the cover is Iron Tonic OR Iron Tonic (this particular bottle of which happens to be called "or A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley.") There is something very postmodernly playful about it (affectionately teasing of both Victorianism and Post-modernism all in the same small moment? Somehow comparing them?)
Now I open to the dedication and think, well, I'm curious about that. And try to figure out who he is dedicating it to. And then when I learn who it is, I think, it is kind of funny to dedicate such a darkly comic book to his great grandmother, the writer of Victorian greeting cards. That might be his idea of both a true dedication, and a slyly funny one. So already in the dedication we get this sense of two different things happening on the page. He is creating and unraveling worlds at the very same moment, with a particular kind of grammar or literary approach, which probably has a name. And this is what he does throughout the book.
On each page he has two perspectives, one far away, and one, encircled, close-up, (magnified or telescoped) which are supposedly connected (zooming in on something in the larger picture), though he does strange and interesting things with those connections. It is never a simple zoom in. Each image unravels the other, or twists it in some strange direction.
Well, that is all I have to say for now. Need to go take my iron tonic.
Iron Tonic isn't mentioned in the book at all and after I read through it and read a bunch of gr reviews which all kind of said, "we love his morbid humor" and such things, I didn't feel any closer to an answer to my burning questions (which may need to be treated with Iron Tonic): Why the strange title? Why the presence of the Iron Tonic only in the title (and whose image is on the title page.) Why the dedication to his Victorian-greeting-card-writing great grandmother, Helen St. John Garvey?
So, I have been sleuthing a little, and thinking about his attachment to a Victorian aesthetic, which I can't fully make sense of, but in wikipedia I saw this:" Victorianism refers to the study of late-Victorian attitudes and culture with a focus on the highly moralistic, straitlaced language and behaviour of Victorian morality."
And in his obituary in The Guardian, I saw this: "a favourite technique [of Gorey's] was to inject unimproving material into the Victorian template of a moral or instructive alphabet." (http://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/...)
And that helped me form a better understanding of some of his work, this book in particular, as it is what I am reading at the moment. He likes the stiffness of the Victorian ideals of propriety, at least to some degree, because it is a great environment and foil for his particular sense of humor. This is probably not news to any Gorey fans, but I had never quite pieced those things together in that way. And, of course, it's brilliant. In a more permissive cultural milieu, his humor wouldn't make sense. And yet, to some degree, as I think he must have felt, he was still living in Victorian times (being a gay man born in the 1920s, he must have had the experience he was living in a Victorian social prison of sorts).
In one of his interviews (I am currently reading Ascending Peculiarity) he says he draws a lot of children because they are vulnerable. Vulnerability is important to his work. I suppose it makes sense then that this book takes place in a kind of haunted sanitarium. "The people at the grey hotel / Are either aged or unwell." There we have it. A bunch of isolated, vulnerable people in a gothically sinister hotel. And on this first page we see both the unfriendly hotel and a smaller image, a circle set off as a kind of magnifying glassed or telescoped view, though this one is very strange because it seems to be in an entirely different place. There are a handful of old and infirm people wandering at night through the woods as if lost. (With an element of comedic surrealism.)
But, before we get to the inside pages, let's look at the cover.
On the cover of the book, the first title, The Iron Tonic, is illustrated in large letters, gothically sprouting roots. To the right of the title, a circle encloses the image of a bottle of Iron Tonic which says on its label "or A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley." This is an intriguing way to introduce the book. Iron Tonic, in Victorian times, was a bit of quackery for the most part. A tonic that was supposed to cure all kinds of ailments.
So to call this book "The Iron Tonic" is basically to say, it's a bit of quackery, which is just the kind of humor he seems to enjoy ("injecting un-improving material"). But in a way, the book is at least purporting to be medicine. He then puts the subtitle of the book on the label of an encircled illustration of a bottle of Iron Tonic floating on a large body of water, which brings the joke from silly territory into surreal territory. For one thing, there is an "or." Iron Tonic OR A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley. But what we get on the cover is Iron Tonic OR Iron Tonic (this particular bottle of which happens to be called "or A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley.") There is something very postmodernly playful about it (affectionately teasing of both Victorianism and Post-modernism all in the same small moment? Somehow comparing them?)
Now I open to the dedication and think, well, I'm curious about that. And try to figure out who he is dedicating it to. And then when I learn who it is, I think, it is kind of funny to dedicate such a darkly comic book to his great grandmother, the writer of Victorian greeting cards. That might be his idea of both a true dedication, and a slyly funny one. So already in the dedication we get this sense of two different things happening on the page. He is creating and unraveling worlds at the very same moment, with a particular kind of grammar or literary approach, which probably has a name. And this is what he does throughout the book.
On each page he has two perspectives, one far away, and one, encircled, close-up, (magnified or telescoped) which are supposedly connected (zooming in on something in the larger picture), though he does strange and interesting things with those connections. It is never a simple zoom in. Each image unravels the other, or twists it in some strange direction.
Well, that is all I have to say for now. Need to go take my iron tonic.
February 9, 2019
This melon collic story is about an old home where all the people are old or unwell. It goes on painting all the dreary and hopeless things around these people. Ponds full of eels beneath ice and people trapped in the snow. There is a panel about a dead orphan who escaped the wraith and that dark humor got a chuckle out of me somehow. I don’t know how he did that. I think when everything is so hopeless and horrible and over-the-top, that the humor comes out of how absurd it all is.
Lovely artwork again with this story. I feel like this was a great story. I have come to expect someone dying at the end and that is not the case here. It is about how hopeless it all is. Edward is correct, we will all die somehow.
Lovely artwork again with this story. I feel like this was a great story. I have come to expect someone dying at the end and that is not the case here. It is about how hopeless it all is. Edward is correct, we will all die somehow.
October 8, 2014
Like certain old 70 minute horror flicks and noirs Gorey's illustrated enigmas give you that quick fix of atmosphere and sentiment when you don't have the time or desire to invest in something longer but still want some potent depth and substance. His earlier books are masterpieces of detailed craft, humor, mystery, and genteel shivers. This one is all "about" grey Winters, ominous signs, aging, and infant death. Wonderful!
October 3, 2018
If you've ever been exposed to the work of Edward Gorey, you know how off-kilter he can be. The Iron Tonic is a little slip of a book, illustrated in Gorey's typical disquieting manner. Great fun!
May 18, 2025
The best tourism ad, if you don't want anyone coming over.
I thought it'd all be about a specific hotel, giving me "hotel california" vibes, but then it just started warning o fthe miserable danger anywhere else, and I just love it!
I thought it'd all be about a specific hotel, giving me "hotel california" vibes, but then it just started warning o fthe miserable danger anywhere else, and I just love it!
February 1, 2023
Last time I was at the Edward Gorey House I picked up a copy of a lesser-known work titled The Iron Tonic: Or, A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley. Like many Gorey works, it’s somewhat hard to say what it’s about; it seems to be largely a description of a bleak winter afternoon, 19th-century-Russian-novel style, and no tonics feature in it whatsoever, iron or otherwise. Each page has a long rectangular illustration filling up the page and then a smaller, circular illustration imposed on it; the effect is busy but charming. Overall I don’t think it’s his strongest work but it’s still faux-gloomily silly and absurd.
Originally posted at .
Originally posted at .
August 11, 2008
I think I am not constitutionally capable of giving anything Edward Gorey less than five stars, even when it's a five minute read like this poem on the "joys" of aging.
Grim, grimmer and grimaced.
The usual Gorey formula.
Grim, grimmer and grimaced.
The usual Gorey formula.
July 18, 2022
This book is a grim, offbeat poem in Gorey's signature style. There are creepy black and white illustrations paired with bleak poetry that is, at points, darkly humorous. The concise and illustrative prose carries the reader through this short atmospheric tale. Notably influential to Tim Burton, Gorey began publishing his works in the 1950s, and his significant impact on media since then is undeniable.
Check this book out at the Villa Park Public Library!
Check this book out at the Villa Park Public Library!
October 28, 2021
The illustrations in the book are magnificent. It's like a horror movie scene.
Read
September 16, 2023I really enjoyed the rhyme here & ofc the essence that is everything Gorey
September 7, 2013
"It's known the skating pond conceals a family of enormous eels."The clouds above the grey hotel have no silver linings, and its guests are in dire need of a strong tonic. This brief book evokes a chilling mood that is both stark and hopeless. Certainly one of Gorey's more beautifully illustrated works, its dense imagery is full of grim augury and dismay. Despite the prevalence of infant death, wounded animals and general malaise among the guests, some of the language is quite beautiful.
June 24, 2008
Deliciously dismal, this book is an odd size with equally odd text and illustrations that have so much detail it blows my mind!
The best parts of the text:
'The way the others wish to go Has been obscured by drifted snow.'
'A venturesome but woulded bird Is making an unwelcome third.' (The bird illustration is amazing!)
The best parts of the text:
'The way the others wish to go Has been obscured by drifted snow.'
'A venturesome but woulded bird Is making an unwelcome third.' (The bird illustration is amazing!)
July 6, 2011
This is more like it!
April 16, 2012
Stark, bleak and delightful. Quintessential Gorey.
January 1, 2024
Classic Gorey.
August 18, 2017
The illustrations are wonderful. The story a little less so.
September 30, 2017
No one does bleak like Gorey
April 20, 2018
This book is so strange and so wonderful at the same time. Dark and gloomy, curious and thought-provoking. Just weird. Love it!!
July 10, 2018
Beautifully bleak.
January 3, 2023
Weird and dull; read as part of Amphigorey Too. Each picture has an inset close-up of a detail from the picture, but sometimes the close-up was scarcely larger or more illustrative than the original. Wasn't quite sure the point of this one. I did like the "absolutely useless stone" passage, but that was about it.
(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.)
(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.)
December 16, 2019
I LOVE Edward Gorey’s illustrations and stories. The first book I got of his was The Gashlycrumb Tinies — I love how dark it is!! I think him and John Kenn Mortensen are my favorite illustrators.
I came across this book at The Last Bookstore in LA, flipped through it and bought it. His short books are the quickest reads and I find myself chuckling and thinking ‘that’s dark!’ throughout reading. If you like dark humor and interesting illustrations, check out this book and I’d highly recommend the Gashlycrumb Tinies.
I came across this book at The Last Bookstore in LA, flipped through it and bought it. His short books are the quickest reads and I find myself chuckling and thinking ‘that’s dark!’ throughout reading. If you like dark humor and interesting illustrations, check out this book and I’d highly recommend the Gashlycrumb Tinies.
June 28, 2021
A voice both ungenteel and loud has spoken from a passing cloud.
I absolutely love Edward Gorey. His art, his love for cats, his brilliant off-kilter rhymes, all the weird and wonderful of it. I try to collect as many of his books as I can.
The Iron Tonic, or A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley (first published in 1969) is typical Gorey. Not a hint of tonic in the pages (like the title suggests) but a lovely gathering of dark deliciously detailed art.
Themes: doom and gloom, Victorian aesthetic, you can feed me this with a spoon.
Always 5 Stars
November 18, 2020
The exaggerated horizontal panels lean into the atmosphere of stretching, inexorable loneliness; Gorey's uniquely pointless titles (titles which, in such a short piece, carry a lot of weight) create an appropriate sense of anticlimax. It's an effective, atmospheric little package: lonely, wintery, absurd, quaint--very Gorey, but the particular setting and stylistic experiments, like the inset circular vignettes, make it stand out within his work.
April 1, 2023
I'd never read anything by Gorey before and didn't really have specific expectations.
There's a wonderful mixture of darkness and humor and art all in one in this little book. (It does help I have a dark sense of humor) I love the illustrations. And there are parts that make my writer's brain take off with backstories.
It's intrigued me to wanting to read more of his works. If you like Hilaire Belloc, this may be up you alley--or vice versa.
There's a wonderful mixture of darkness and humor and art all in one in this little book. (It does help I have a dark sense of humor) I love the illustrations. And there are parts that make my writer's brain take off with backstories.
It's intrigued me to wanting to read more of his works. If you like Hilaire Belloc, this may be up you alley--or vice versa.
August 19, 2020
It's known the skating pond conceals
A family of enormous eels.
The lonely valley seems a macabre place indeed! Another wonderful little book by Edward Gorey filled with wintery scenes and poetic descriptions of the strange goings-on around the grey hotel.
A family of enormous eels.
The lonely valley seems a macabre place indeed! Another wonderful little book by Edward Gorey filled with wintery scenes and poetic descriptions of the strange goings-on around the grey hotel.
June 23, 2019
While I love the Amphigorey series, the reproduction is sometimes not the best, and seeing the books in their original format, it's much more intimate, more immersive, and more details! But I wouldn't suggest going to the Lonely Valley, random objects fall from the sky at an alarming rate.
December 27, 2019
I read Edward Gorey and simply say "huh" at the end. Can I pinpoint exactly why I like it or what it really is "meant" to do? Not really...but I like it for what it is. Edward Gorey does a great job with the creepy and the morbid, and that I like.
February 17, 2019
As one reviewer put it, 'deliciously dismal.' The only problem is it's gone before you even realize.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews