EDWARD GOREY HELPLESS DOORKNOB

The possibilities for enjoying Edward Gorey’s The Helpless Doorknob are nearly endless. As Gorey himself explained in the original edition, this shuffle story is “made up of 20 cards which can be read in 2,432,902,069,736,640,000 different ways.” Each card features an illustration with a declarative sentence, usually featuring a character whose name begins with A (Agatha, Amanda, Andrew, Adela, Angus, Alfred, Ambrose, Alethea, Arthur, to be precise), each of whom does something notable or not (wrote a note, vanished from a picnic). Shuffle these cards to reveal a story that may or may not make sense to you—but will entertain you every time, nonetheless.

20 black-and-white cards to shuffle into a story in a small, decorative box.