# The Recently Deflowered Girl, by Edward Gorey **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630 "2009-01-10T03:21:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/1 "2009-01-10T03:21:56Z")
[This is an interesting find.](http://community.livejournal.com/found_objects/3699822.html?page=1) It is a burlesque on etiquette books which purports to detail what a female should do when she is deflowered in various ways: By a marimba player, by a famous crooner, and so on. I love Edward Gorey and it’s a shame he didn’t create more. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/2 "2009-01-10T06:23:15Z")
Passing it along to my wife, who is both a Gorey and advice book fan. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/3 "2009-01-10T07:23:22Z")
The book is one of my favorites and a great work for passing around in a party. Fortunately I picked up my copy incredibly cheaply. There never was a second printing so it’s a real rarity. Gorey did over 100 books, so I’m not sure what your comment meant. And your link doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/4 "2009-01-10T07:25:57Z")
Link doesn’t work for me… ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/5 "2009-01-10T07:39:07Z")
It must have been taken down. Such are the risks, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/6 "2009-01-10T07:43:54Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > by a famous crooner, and so on. I read that as coroner. I guess Dr Quincy must have been quite the Lothario 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/7 "2009-01-10T08:17:11Z")
> [@](#): > > …what a female should do when she is deflowered in various ways: By a marimba player, by a famous crooner, and so on. …by a laudanum addict, by a passing dustman, by an epileptic plasterer, by a half-man-half-housefly… I used to read Gorey. Used to. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/8 "2009-01-10T14:06:32Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Gorey did over 100 books, so I’m not sure what your comment meant. I’m presuming he meant it was a shame that Gorey didn’t create more etiquette-book satires. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/9 "2009-01-10T15:41:35Z")
I didn’t know about this book and I love Edward Gorey. I still remember when my dad took me to see the play Dracula when it was redone yet again, but this time with Frank Langella as Dracula. Edward Gorey designed the set and costumes and the whole thing was in black and white and shades of gray. His books rock, too. My favorite of all his story cartoons was “The Hapless Child”. It was like a cross between a twisted, unhappy version of the book A Little Princesss by Frances Hodgson Burnett (one of my favorite books as a kid) and the silent movie “Broken Blossoms”. The best line from the Hapless Child story was when the Drunken Brute grabs Charlotte off the street and spirits her back to his hovel. The line was : “He took her to a low place.” A low place! I still don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read this story. I am going to try and find the Deflowered book. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/10 "2009-01-10T17:06:07Z")
> [@Creaky](#): > > I am going to try and find the Deflowered book. If you’ve got a couple of hundred bucks to spend on it, I found it on Amazon. If a trip to Boston is more your speed, their library system has [exactly one copy.](http://catalog.mbln.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?term=The+Recently+Deflowered+Girl&menu=search&aspect=basic_search&profile=bpl1&index=.GW&sort=&npp=10&ipp=20&submit=go&se=catalog#focus) Can’t check it out, though; evidently it’s a part of a collection that was bequeathed to the library by some old dead rich guy. Contact their reference desk to find out if it’s available for actual vewing. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/11 "2009-01-10T17:16:03Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > If you’ve got a couple of hundred bucks to spend on it, I found it on Amazon. Thank you! 🙂 Now I need to figure out how much I want the book. I almost never buy books so probably not. Maybe I can keep looking. I’ll set my friend Jeff on this project. He’s the cheapest goddamn New England Yankee I ever met and if anybody could find that book for a bargain he could. (I’m serious; I’m glad he’s on my side because he’s relentless.) Thanks again! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/12 "2009-01-10T18:57:19Z")
When I go to Amazon I get a no books available message. But always go to [bookfinder.com](http://bookfinder.com) first. The cheapest one there is 50.00 plus shipping. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/13 "2009-01-10T23:51:08Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > … always go to [bookfinder.com](http://bookfinder.com) first. The cheapest one there is 50.00 plus shipping. Thank you! 🆒 The Goddamn Cheap Yankee is coming over for dinner tonight and I am sending him there first to look for this book. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/14 "2009-01-11T00:17:12Z")
If he’s that cheap, he’ll just visit the Boston Public Library with a digital camera when he gets home. To New England. Where Boston is. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/15 "2009-01-11T00:52:27Z")
Bwahahah!! Dude, you are so very right. He is from Mass (Springfield and a long-time Amherst resident before he moved here. He does have Boston relatives as well.) And that would actually be so totally like him to go to a library and do that, seriously. If I don’t suggest it no doubt he’ll think of it himself. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/16 "2009-01-11T01:19:15Z")
[Good link](http://www.joeydevilla.com/2009/01/10/the-recently-deflowered-girl-1965-illustrated-by-edward-gorey/) (for the moment). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/17 "2009-01-11T02:18:06Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Good link](http://www.joeydevilla.com/2009/01/10/the-recently-deflowered-girl-1965-illustrated-by-edward-gorey/) (for the moment). How do we shut him down for his blatant copyright infringement? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/18 "2009-01-11T02:21:18Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > How do we shut him down for his blatant copyright infringement? Do you have standing to bring suit? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/19 "2009-04-18T21:19:02Z")
Just zombifying this thread to crow about finding an excellent condition copy of this book at a garage sale today for a buck. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630/20 "2009-04-19T02:28:19Z")
I’ve had a copy for a long time, I love Gorey and have tried to collect his works since I first discovered him (in 1965 or so.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recently-deflowered-girl-by-edward-gorey/480630.md?page=2)