The Doubtful Guest

The Doubtful Guest
AuthorEdward Gorey
LanguageEnglish
PublisherDoubleday
Publication date
1957
Publication placeUnited States
Preceded byThe Listing Attic 
Followed byThe Object-Lesson 

The Doubtful Guest is a short, illustrated book by Edward Gorey, first published by Doubleday in 1957. It is the third of Gorey's books and shares with his others a sense of the absurd, meticulous cross-hatching, and a seemingly Edwardian setting. The book begins with the sudden appearance of a strange, penguin-like creature in a turn-of-the-century manor house. An aristocratic family struggles to coexist with the creature, who is by turns despondent and mischievous. By the final page, the guest has stayed for seventeen years, and shows "no intention of going away".