The Insect God

The Vinegar Works #2

by Edward Gorey

The sacrifice of poor Millicent Frastley.

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

15 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

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

[Dream.M · Rating 4 out of 5]

عاشق کارای گوری هستم
اونجور که ووس دارم ترسناک، گوتیک ، دارک و لاوکرافتی 😬😬
درس اخلاقی: از دست غریبه ها چیزی نگیرید بچه ها

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ever thought that making a young person's story about kidnapping and being sacrificed by an insect god, then you would be someone who thinks like Edward Gorey. Amazing art and dark humor make this a good little story of Gorey's. It is such an oddity.

I really wasn't expecting this one and it was surprise and surprise. Thank goodness bugs don't get this big.

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

O what has become of Millicent Frastley?
Is there any hope that she’s still alive?
Why haven’t they found her? It’s rather ghastly
To think that the child was not yet five.

As dark as it gets. From cinnamon balls to unspeakable ritualistic practices.

Jan 7, 21

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

ای وای توقع نداشتم!
البته نمی‌دونم توقع چی داشتم ، اینکه شاید یکم مدل کتب اطفالش کنه؟

البته لذت بخشه سبک نویسنده. بریم که ببینیم سومی رو پیدا میکنیم یا نه.

[Essareh · Rating 4 out of 5]

حقیقتاً من ترسیده‌ام و مادرم را می‌خواهم.
تصویرگریش شاهکاره. حیف کیفیت خوبی ازش پیدا نکردم.
فعلاً تو شوک پایانم و حرف بیشتری ندارم. :))

پ‌ن: یکی از دوستان که نمی‌دونم اسمشون رو چطوری بنویسم، یه ریویوی فارسی خوبی براش نوشته‌ن.

ممنون که خوندید.💙

۱۴ بهمن ۱۴۰۳
همچنان تخت.

[Coos Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Por si aún no se lo figuraron, estoy teniendo mi pequeño momento Gorey, necesitaba recurrir a él luego de bastante tiempo sin apreciarlo. "El Dios de los insectos" es una de las historias más bizarras del artista, y lo amé como la primera vez que lo leí. Realmente nada demasiado elaborado o rebuscado en cuanto a su aspecto literario, lo que principalmente vale, a mi humilde ver, es su arte plástico que deja una sensación fascinante de incomodidad y sorpresa.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Dr Seuss was a psychopath then this would be the sort of book he would write. It's about a young girl no following the rules and talking to strangers, she gets abducted as you'd expect. The ending of the book is very sudden and quite unexpected. Each page is illustrated, nice a colourful and full of the sort of images Tim Burton would create.

Creepy book that was fun to read.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of B+W artwork with ABAB verse. A young girl Millicent Frastley is missing and we follow some theories and people searching for her. It turns out she was snatched by some preying mantis looking creatures and sacrificed the the insect god.

[Harir Heidary · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was way darker than I imagined it to be.

[Windy]

I want to be the insect god.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Oh what has become of Millicent Frastley?
Is there any hope that she's still alive?
Why haven't they found her? It's rather ghastly
To think that the child was not yet five"

We all tell children that they shouldn't take candy from strangers right? The problem is children don't always listen and when your 5, going for a drive with a nice man really doesn't sound that terrifying.

A more effective method would be to have them read this tale.

Poor little Millicent is happily minding her own business and nibbling some grass in the park (as you do). As darkness creeps in a stranger pulls up and offers Millicent a cinnamon ball. As her greedy little fingers move to fish one out she is snatched and taken away to a strange land where she is stripped naked, bundled into a pod and offered as a sacrifice to the Insect God.

So the next time you need to lecture little Billy or Mary on stranger danger forget about strangers. Tell them that they will be taken away and sacrificed to this :

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little book. The story is rather dark - the art is rather dark. One of those twisted little stories that you probably wonder if you should give it to your child or not. I think I would have loved this when I was a young lass.

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is actually a little frightening and the last stanza is a powerful one. Erie, unsettling, and about as fun as child abduction and human sacrifice can be.

[fioo ! ♡ ∗ ˚ ˖࣪ ∗ ‎˖ ݁ . ° · ˚ ₊ · Rating 2 out of 5]

...

[Radwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

another gorey horrible tale of a horrific fate a child meets with.
a child disappears after being kidnapped by giant insects is the sort of gothic tale i like to read.

[Charles Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the many great Gorey books I seem to gravitate to this one and THE LOATHESOME COUPLE. Perhaps it is because those are the two books he autographed for me when I stumbled into him at Gotham Book Mart in New York in the early 1980's. He radiated eccentricity and Goreyness!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is wonderfully sick. I'd never read Gorey before, and now I'm in love.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is my most favorite. I love it so much I have the tattoo on my hand!!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another Gorey child comes to a bad end.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A creepy, morbid little tale.

[Laura]

I learned about this book, and read it, at the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouthport, Massachusetts. Deeply disturbing story; the stuff of nightmares, vivid and horrifying.

[Wetdryvac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Lovecrafian in an understated sort of a way.

[Tiffany Lynn Kramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as poetic as The Gashlycrumb Tinies but still very enjoyable.

[Cail Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool to finally read this, but it’s certainly the weakest of the Vinegar Works trilogy.

[Sol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE Edward Gorey; this has been a recent discovery to me.

I’m not going to say anything about the history because I don’t want to give anything away (it is really short so it’s better to just read it without details). I just want to say that if you like creepy stuff and creepy little histories, E. Gorey is your man.

[Amy (Other Amy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another one that I kind of hated on the first read and kind of loved on the second read. Review to come.

(Reread in Amphigorey; reviewing separately.)

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Creepy

[Quitealice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wherein everything you suspected about insects turns out to be entirely true.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing but not classic

[Kwoomac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another dark one from Edward Gorey. A child is kidnapped by some giant insects, who then present her to the insect god as a sacrifice. Sadly, there was no explanation regarding where the giant insects came from or where they learned to drive.

I did like this part-
The Frastleys grew sick with apprehension,
Which a heavy tea only served to increase;
Though they felt it was scarcely genteel to mention
The loss of their child, they called in the police.

I love that even though their daughter was missing, they still sat down for tea.
Also, not wanting to share private family business with the wretched masses.