The Epiplectic Bicycle is quite possibly the most Mind-Screw enduing of Edward Gorey's books. Of all of his books, this one best showcases him as a nonsense writer.
This work contains examples of:
- Animate Inanimate Object: The titular bicycle is alive, can drive on its own, and can even feel pain.
- Exactly Exty Years Ago: The end of the book has a mysterious obelisk that apparently arose from the childrens' home 173 years ago, around the time they embraced on their quest.
- Mind Screw: This book has this in full force. This is especially apparent when the childrens' surreal bike ride apparently took them 173 years with no passing of time being shown.
- Perfectly Cromulent Word: The title of the book contains Gorey's most famous example of this trope, epiplectic. The word was apparently derived from the Greek word "epiplexis", which was repurposed to refer to a gentle chiding towards an audience to convince them of something.
- The Quest: The book centers around two children traveling to various places over the span of 173 years.
- Sibling Rivalry: At the start of the book, Yewbert and Embley are shown to be aggressive to one another, as they hit each other with croquet mallets.
- Time Skip: The book ends exactly 173 years after the children discover the strange bicycle. This is also indicated in the numbering of the "chapters". For example, the book skips from "chapter two" to "chapter four".
