Edward Gorey's picture of Dr. Termite and Perdita from "Arsole Fantüme"

My mother had lots of old magazines laying around when I was growing up. One of them was called "Look," and some time in the late 1960s they published some drawings by the great cartoonist, Edward Gorey. One of them was the drawing you see to the left.

All the Gorey drawings intrigued me, but this one probably most of all. I was haunted by the mysterious "Dr. T." What was he a doctor of? What did the "T" stand for? Why did he always carry a poodle with him? And, why was he wearing what appeared to be a mask?

I thought "Dr. T" was just a figment of Edward Gorey's strange imagination. It wasn't until years later, and quite by accident, I happened to be reading a book on obscure French horror that I came upon a passage about the novel "Arsole Fantüme, Gentleman Immoralist," that described one of the characters as a veil-wearing psychiatrist who never went anywhere without his faithful poodle, Perdita.

A bell went off in my head, as I recalled the Gorey drawing that had so unsettled me as a child. If, in fact, I'd ever really forgotten it.

I've been reading the new English translation of the Arsole Fantüme book (which can be ordered from amazon here), and I'll have some thoughts ready soon, I think. The book itself is strange, exciting, scary, and hilarious. But I'll need a few more days to get my thoughts into some kind of order.