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The Gormenghast Novels: Titus Groan / Gormenghast / Titus Alone [Paperback]

Mervyn Laurence Peake (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: Nov 1995
A doomed lord, an emergent hero, and a dazzling array of bizarre creatures inhabit the magical world of the Gormenghast novels which, along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, reign as one of the undisputed fantasy classics of all time. At the center of it all is the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom, unless the conniving Steerpike, who is determined to rise above his menial position and control the House of Groan, has his way.

In these extraordinary novels, Peake has created a world where all is like a dream--lush, fantastical, and vivid. Accompanying the text are Peake's own drawings, illustrating the whole assembly of strange and marvelous creatures that inhabit Gormenghast.
Introductory Essays by Anthony Burgess and Quentin Crisp
Twelve critical essays
Fragment of the unpublished novel, Titus Awakes

"Mervyn Peake is a finer poet than Edgar Allan Poe, and he is therefore able to maintain his world of fantasy brilliantly through three novels. It is a very, very great work . . . a classic of our age."-- Robertson Davies

"[Peake's books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience."-- C. S. Lewis

"This extravagant epic about a labyrinthine castle populated with conniving Dickensian grotesques is the true fantasy classic of our time."-- The Washington Post Book World

Product details

  • Paperback: 1168 pages
  • Publisher: Overlook Press; Reprint edition (Nov 1995)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0879516283
  • ISBN-13: 978-0879516284
  • Product Dimensions: 13.9 x 5.5 x 20.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 806,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon Review

Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy has grown out of its reputation as a cult classic and into the mainstream of fantasy, as a book no reader interested in Gothic dare to miss. It is one of the most distinctive, absorbing and wonderfully strange books ever written. The story concerns Titus, heir to and afterwards 77th Earl of Groan and his adventures in the sprawling, crumbling castle of Gormenghast. Gormenghast is an entire world and Titus comes to grips with his prime antagonist, the sinister kitchenboy Steerpike, amongst a brilliant profusion of characters and vivid detail. Peake's work is rarely compared with that other great fantasy trilogy to come out of the immediately post-war years, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings but in ways the two works do go together. Although Tolkien is plain and expansive where Peake is elaborate, poetic and inward-looking, both authors nonetheless use a detailed imaginative escapism in order to talk about the concerns of their day--specifically the passing of the old certainties of traditional England and the coming of something new. "'Equality is the great thing', said the sinister Steerpike, pulling the legs off a stag beetle and preparing to take on the whole hierarchy of Gormenghast, 'equality is everything'." This is why the short, surreal oddity of Titus Alone, the third novel, is the best: finally leaving his castle home Titus finds the larger world stranger even than his birthplace.

The new television series, with which this edition ties in, promises great things but the best part of Mervyn Peake is to be found in his ornate, poetic writing; his grasp of the Dickensian oddities of character and the utterly unique atmosphere of the books. --Adam Roberts --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

His novels, said Burgess, are 'aggressively three-dimensional... showing the poet as well as the draughtsman. It is difficult in post-war English fiction to get away with big rhetorical gestures. Peake manages it because, with him, grandiloquence never means diffuseness' there is no musical emptiness in the most romantic of his descriptions. He is always exact. . [Titus Groan] remains essentially a work of the closed imagination, in which a world parallel to our own is presented in almost paranoiac denseness of detail. But the madness is illusory, and control never falters. It is, if you like, a rich wine of fancy chilled by the intellect to just the right temperature. There is no really close relative to it in all our prose literature. It is uniquely brilliant.' Anthony Burgess Dark, dense, baroque and hauntingly beautiful. Peake's lush prose and imagery are a pleasure to any lover of the beauty of the written word. A word of warning, however: this one takes its time. Most readers are used to more watery offerings - this is thick, creamy and extra-rich -- Carlos Ruiz-Zafron Guardian A master of the macabre and a traveller through the deeper and darker chasms of the imagination The Times I discovered it at 15 and have been rediscovering it ever since. It's a profoundly enchanting world, but there are no elves or spells the magic is purely in the writing Joanne Harris I started reading it and did not stop.The images conjured up the most weird visions. Images that I had not encountered since absorbing my first introduction to the world of William Blake. It is a fantastic, almost surrealistic flow of vision -- Ronald Searle
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Great story, still lots of typos 2 Aug 2011
By Bruce Mardle
Format:Hardcover
I won't go into detail about the stories themselves except to say that I think that the 1st 2 books of the trilogy are in my top 3 fictional books in modern English.

The 2011 hardback Vintage Illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy is an improvement over Vintage's previous edition (which was Meridian's beforehand) in that they've got rid of some of the flagrant typos that were such a blight. Unfortunately, a lot still remain. They seem to be the result of bad optical character recognition (and inadequate proof-reading), e.g. "torn cat" instead of "tom cat", "day" instead of "clay", "splinteririg" instead of "splintering"! That doesn't explain "corosive", though. Don't these people have a spelling checker? I'm sure the edition I gave to a friend in 2001 didn't have nearly as many typos; alas, I can't remember the publisher.

Those who've seen previous editions will be familiar with many of Peake's illustrations. This edition has more of the same (though, for some reason, the picture of the starving girl, whom Titus takes home to Juno, has gone).
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Fantasy 4 Sep 2003
By Florence Montgomery
Format:Paperback
I have never read anything like this before. I am a huge fan of fantasy, but Mervyn Peake's style is truly unique. The trilogy is epic in proportion even though the first two books are set almost exclusively within the confines of Ghormenghast Castle. The characters are fascinating, complex and mad as badgers, every one. I loved these people. Peake writes with such descriptive love that you care about the characters and what happens to them. He creates such sympathy between you and the characters that you care despite their many flaws. My favourite character was Steerpike, and in anyone elses hands this character would have been odious, but I found myself on his side! The last book is perhaps the weakest, mainly because it is the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Castle that creates alot of the tension and atmosphere in the book, and having moved to pastures new in the last the tension is somewhat lacking. That said still a great read.
A deep, dark enthralling story which will keep you turning pages, and leave you with a slight aching sadness when you finish it.
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136 of 141 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed! 22 Jun 2011
By Mrs C Savage
Format:Hardcover
I had pre-ordered this and having recently seen a stunning exhibition of Peake's drawings, was eagerly looking forward to its publication. I have to say that I am sadly disappointed though. The paper quality feels cheap and horrible and does not do the illustrations justice. I was also expecting the pictures to be more central to the volume but I do not feel they have been made the focus as I would expect in an "Illustrated" version. The prints seem pale against the page. Many are quite small and even the full page plates lack any impact at all. Such a shame.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunately not what I'd expected...
This tome is unfortunately not what I'd expected in terms of the art of the publishing-craft. I'd say Vintage Books has done Peake and all readers a dis-service with this one by... Read more
Published 14 days ago by Mark
3.0 out of 5 stars It was added for holiday reading.
There were no problems down loading it and when I have read it should there be any problems. Hence the OK level
Published 1 month ago by Mary Campbell-Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular
Mervyn Peake's book is a hard one to pigeonhole. It's often called 'epic fantasy', but somehow that makes me think of dubious writing involving dragons, and 'Gormenghast' couldn't... Read more
Published 1 month ago by atrociful
3.0 out of 5 stars Good read - bad edition.
Peake's prose is astonishing in its attention to detail. His turns of phrase are surprising and for that reason I am enjoying it. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Maya
2.0 out of 5 stars Only the 2nd book held any interest
Bought this on reading reviews and having watched the TV programme which was enjoyable.
The first book bored me to tears as Peake's descriptive narrative goes on and on and... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ms. K. Barlow
4.0 out of 5 stars good
again; this is NOT a book review. it's about the physical product.

good quality print, besides some printing errors. Read more
Published 4 months ago by perishedinflames
4.0 out of 5 stars Words of wit and quaint wizardry
This book holds the distinction of making me laugh out loud from simply looking at the words on the page (as opposed to reading them in my head). Read more
Published 13 months ago by Alexander J. Dunn
5.0 out of 5 stars A great classic
This is essential reading for anyone who likes fantasy - though it's not fantasy in the strict sense. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Stephanie Boucher
3.0 out of 5 stars A Bit Dark
Whilst the author Mervyn Peake was a master of the English language and was able to paint vivid pictures with expert knowledge of vocabulary and literary devices I felt smothered... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Avid Reader
2.0 out of 5 stars Great writing but poorly produced book
I agree with the comments made by other reviewers about the quality of production of this book as regards the paper used and the reproduction of the illustrations. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Bear
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