The Grand Passion & The Doleful Domesticity

Edward Gorey's The Grand Passion and The Doleful Domesticity were published in 1992 by the Fantod Press. The Doleful Domesticity was first printed in the Yale Review in the Summer of 1991, and the cover has black printing on hot pink card stock (which my scanner shows as white in the photo below). The Grand Passion appeared in The New York Times Magazine in June 1976, and was included in Amphigorey Also. The cover has black printing on yellow card stock.


The two books were issued together as a signed, numbered, limited edition of 500 sets in a printed envelope (see below) and were not sold individually. Each pair of books has the same limitation number. I am showing copies #212/500. The announcement card used to promote this publication is shown at the bottom of the posting.

The Grand Passion is an operatic tale featuring a caricature Oriental couple which could have stepped straight out of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. In 1983, Mr. Gorey created sets and costumes for a production of The Mikado which was presented at Carnegie Mellon University.

In The Doleful Domesticity, what appears to be the same couple are moving house with their baby and young child. Both of these tales are wonderfully disjointed in the best Edward Gorey fashion.