The Haunted Looking Glass: August Heat (25-34)

The second story in Edward Gorey's The Haunted Looking Glass, "August Heat" by W. F. Harvey, is a day in the life of James Clarence Withencroft, a forty-year-old artist. The following is a description of the subject of a picture he sketches over lunch:

It showed a criminal in the dock immediately after the judge had pronounced sentence. The man was fat - enormously fat. The flesh hung in rolls about his chin; it creased his huge, stumpy neck. He was clean-shaven (perhaps I should say a few days before, he must have been clean-shaven) and almost bald. He stood in the dock, his short, clumsy fingers clasping the rail, looking straight in front of him. The feeling that his expression conveyed was not so much one of horror as of utter, absolute collapse. (28)

This passage is notable for the imagery created to describe the appearance (specifically the corpulence) of the convict, as well as his expression. One can just imagine the forlorn countenance that would accompany this pathetic figure as he seemed to wilt in the brutal heat - melt in the uncaring sun. This "character" later plays a crucial role in the story, one that I will not share. That would take all the fun out of it!

Harvey, W. F. "August Heat." The Haunted Looking Glass. Ed. Edward Gorey. New York: The New York Review of Books, 1959. 28. Print.