Do not know title or author or even exactly what it was about. I read this book sometime between 1979 and 1982 when I was a preteen, but it may have been published before that. Here’s what I remember: Very dark feel to it. The main character was a boy. It had the feel of Edgar Allan Poe, and there may have been poetry or rhymes but maybe not. It was a mystery perhaps? There may have been a mansion or an iron gate? It took place mostly at nighttime? Most vivid are the drawings — black and white, very similar to Edward Gorey, but I feel perhaps he is not the actual illustrator. I’ve looked through his books and nothing is ringing a bell but it could be him. This may also have just been a short story but I’m not sure. Desperate to find!
This sounds like one of John Bellairs books. House with a Clock in its Walls was the first. Gorey was the illustrator.
Hello, I agree with the first poster. The books are older than when you read them, but I think it was the series that started with House with a Clock in its Walls, about a young, misfit boy who goes to live with his eccentric bachelor uncle in an old Victorian house. He befriends a young girl, and his uncle has a lady friend who is a witch or magic in some way. The series continues with several books and they have all kinds of mildly spooky, weird, slightly supernatural adventures, all enhanced by the Gorey illustrations. I’m happy to say that the library where I work still has these books on the shelves in the Children’s room and I started reading them a couple of years ago.
I agree with the other posters. It sounds very much like John Bellairs.