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.

[1] Gorey began sketches and notes for The Doubtful Guest around 1955, referring to the story as "A Peculiar Visitor".

Wilson described the "black-bearded, towering" head of the family, the Master, whose authority comes into conflict with the visiting creature, "a kind of flat-headed bird, with short legs and penguin wings".

[5] In 1976, Michael Mantler included a musical version of The Doubtful Guest on his avant-garde album The Hapless Child and Other Inscrutable Stories, with Robert Wyatt singing the lead vocal.