Edward Gorey: The Broken Spoke Dust Jacket Cover

The dust jacket illustration for Edward Gorey's The Broken Spoke—that's one catchy, alliterative title—plays with our expectations of perspective. This composition would ordinarily call for a simple one-point perspective, but the bricks on the ground fail to recede towards a vanishing point on the unseen horizon, instead making a vertical pattern that doesn't in any way establish a realistic foreground. The broken bicycle is possibly too small while the urn immediately behind the wall is way too large. The two urns create the illusion of receding into the distance, but the three figures violate the rules of perspective, getting a bit larger the farther they get from the viewer. The trees, however improbably, seem to reside in the same plane. The colors overall are muted, but the straw hat reveals a varied palette.

What is unseen is somewhat unsettling too. The two figures beyond the wall must be on bicycles obscured by it, while the cyclist on the right is giving all his attention to something behind him out of the frame. 

This is copy 56 of 250 numbered copies, plus 26 lettered copies:

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks listing accessed July 14, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Broken-Spoke-GOREY-Edward-Dodd-Mead/31165815400/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

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