As the first novel opens, Titus, heir to Lord Sepulchrave, has just been born: he stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that stand for Gormenghast Castle. Inside, all events are predetermined by a complex ritual, lost in history, understood only by Sourdust, Lord of the Library. There are tears and strange laughter; fierce births and deaths beneath umbrageous ceilings; dreams and violence and disenchantment contained within a labyrinth of stone. (2005-01-07)
Titus Groan (Gormenghast Trilogy)
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Review
Mr Peake's first novel holds one with its glittering eye - It has a genuine plot in the strictest sense, and it persuades you to read on simply in order to know what will happen - its gallery of characters is wonderful (Nation)
A gorgeous volcanic eruption... A work of extraordinary imagination (New Yorker)
The Gormenghast Trilogy is one of the most important works of the imagination to come out of [this] age (Anthony Burgess Spectator)
A gorgeous volcanic eruption... A work of extraordinary imagination (New Yorker)
The Gormenghast Trilogy is one of the most important works of the imagination to come out of [this] age (Anthony Burgess Spectator)
Book Description
A brilliantly sustained flight of gothic imagination; the first of the bestselling Gormenghast trilogy. (2005-01-07)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful
By John Ferngrove
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
I first read this when I was 14 whilst recovering from a chill, and I devoured it in a couple of days. I have read it, and its companions, 'Gormenghast' and 'Titus Alone', five or six times since, and hope and expect to read them a few more times yet.
You read these books for their extraordinary prose, which has a flavour somewhere in the region between Dickens and Dali. While the plot is huge, intricate and subtle, plot remains secondary. The reader must allow the dense, intricate prose to paint its vivid pictures in the mind, as strange and idiosyncratic as the illustrations and paintings for which Peake is also famous. As a celebration of the English language he is there alongside the best of writers. Those in search of a good yarn may find such writing tedious, but for those who like to savour language this is a feast.
The books are frequently described as fantasy, but they are fantasy in a sense entirely distinct from the heroic fantasy tradition resurrected from the Norse, by Tolkien, Lewis and their like. In the world of Gormenghast what heroism there is, is bent and twisted and always ultimately futile. There is little space for moral manoeuvre where the roles of most characters are prescribed to a minute degree by an immutable ancient tradition. The world of Gormenghast is a vast crumbling castle, that has stood for time immemorial, isolated from the world outside. It could be anywhere or anytime. It is populated by a cast of characters made exquisitely eccentric by the castle and the entrenched, stifling tradition it represents. The wonderful characters whom we come to love and loathe include;
Dr Prunesquallor, obliged by his position to behave as a buffoon, but the one source of sanity throughout the insane unfolding of events.... Read more ›
You read these books for their extraordinary prose, which has a flavour somewhere in the region between Dickens and Dali. While the plot is huge, intricate and subtle, plot remains secondary. The reader must allow the dense, intricate prose to paint its vivid pictures in the mind, as strange and idiosyncratic as the illustrations and paintings for which Peake is also famous. As a celebration of the English language he is there alongside the best of writers. Those in search of a good yarn may find such writing tedious, but for those who like to savour language this is a feast.
The books are frequently described as fantasy, but they are fantasy in a sense entirely distinct from the heroic fantasy tradition resurrected from the Norse, by Tolkien, Lewis and their like. In the world of Gormenghast what heroism there is, is bent and twisted and always ultimately futile. There is little space for moral manoeuvre where the roles of most characters are prescribed to a minute degree by an immutable ancient tradition. The world of Gormenghast is a vast crumbling castle, that has stood for time immemorial, isolated from the world outside. It could be anywhere or anytime. It is populated by a cast of characters made exquisitely eccentric by the castle and the entrenched, stifling tradition it represents. The wonderful characters whom we come to love and loathe include;
Dr Prunesquallor, obliged by his position to behave as a buffoon, but the one source of sanity throughout the insane unfolding of events.... Read more ›
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
i first read this book 13 years ago and it still exercises a hold over me. the beauty of the prose is similar in many respects to Dickens but Peake has taken the victorian style and mutated it into something fragile. the book is set in a crumbling castle whose inhabitants lives are shored up by an empty series of fantastic rituals, echoing a long lost splendour from which they derived their meaning. the force of change arrives in the shape of the diabolic kitchen boy, Steerpike and the young inheritor of the castle is sucked in by him, as are all the other odd characters that populate the castle. it's like 'name of the rose' meets 'bleak house'. a compelling and beautifully poetic read that will lead you to the other two books (not as good as Peake was to soon die of sleeping sickness - the third book is reconstructed from his notes). after all this time, i still am in love with book and remain convinced that Peake is an unique and under-studied genius
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By michaeli m
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Oh dear. What a shame. I read this book years ago and it is fantastic. I suspect the kindle version has been scanned using some sort of OCR software which has made too many annoying mistakes. Why don't the publishers proof read? Get the paperback...Great book, shame about the lazy publishing.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a simply beautiful, wonderful book. It affected me deeply when I read it.
It's also a unique book, in my experience, in that this is a fantastical, farcical and impossible world (Gormenghast Castle is seemingly as big as a small city; the existance of a 77th Lord Groan would be a near impossibility in our unstable world), yet there is (almost) nothing supernatural here. Our own physical laws apply. This is actually part of our world. At one point a character opens a bottle of French wine. This is not a different reality.
The writing is rich and overblown, like a massive fruitcake. Somehow this works superbly well; normally I would dislike such books, but here the complexity of the writing builds up a claustrophobic, frightening atmosphere of horror and absurdity. One slip, and it would collapse into twee Tolkeinesque or bloat into swords-and-sorcery; Peake never slips.
One thing I loved about this book is that most of the characters seem hard to like at first, but as they become more distinct, you start to see the subtle, loving relationships between some of them - mostly around Fuschia, daughter of Lord Groan.
The names of the characters are wonderful - the cook Swelter, the bone-thin dried-up old servant, Flay, Nanny Slagg, Doctor Prunesquallor (my personal favourite). Scenes from the book, with their mad vividity, linger in your mind. The Hall of Bright Carvings, which opens the book, with wooden carvings each representing the creative pinnacle of a peasant's life, forgotten under layers of dust in the Groan's castle. The fight to the death between Swelter and Flay; the meeting between Steerpike and Fuschia; the absurdity of Lord Groan being obliged by tradition to eat his dinner while a dwarf capers on the table in front of him.... Read more ›
It's also a unique book, in my experience, in that this is a fantastical, farcical and impossible world (Gormenghast Castle is seemingly as big as a small city; the existance of a 77th Lord Groan would be a near impossibility in our unstable world), yet there is (almost) nothing supernatural here. Our own physical laws apply. This is actually part of our world. At one point a character opens a bottle of French wine. This is not a different reality.
The writing is rich and overblown, like a massive fruitcake. Somehow this works superbly well; normally I would dislike such books, but here the complexity of the writing builds up a claustrophobic, frightening atmosphere of horror and absurdity. One slip, and it would collapse into twee Tolkeinesque or bloat into swords-and-sorcery; Peake never slips.
One thing I loved about this book is that most of the characters seem hard to like at first, but as they become more distinct, you start to see the subtle, loving relationships between some of them - mostly around Fuschia, daughter of Lord Groan.
The names of the characters are wonderful - the cook Swelter, the bone-thin dried-up old servant, Flay, Nanny Slagg, Doctor Prunesquallor (my personal favourite). Scenes from the book, with their mad vividity, linger in your mind. The Hall of Bright Carvings, which opens the book, with wooden carvings each representing the creative pinnacle of a peasant's life, forgotten under layers of dust in the Groan's castle. The fight to the death between Swelter and Flay; the meeting between Steerpike and Fuschia; the absurdity of Lord Groan being obliged by tradition to eat his dinner while a dwarf capers on the table in front of him.... Read more ›
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Rod Bryans
Format:Paperback
I first read this book back at college in the 70's. To re-read it was a joy. I remembered the visceral pleasure of reading something disconnected from the world I inhabited with a scope of language I'd never encountered before.
Later moving to Jersey I visited Sark, where Mervyn Peake had written a good part of the book, and was picked up at the harbour by a horse drawn carriage there being no cars on Sark. This lean, long, angular figure turned to speak to us and I was immediately confronted by a character straight of Gormenghast. The shock of that sensation still lingers with me.
This is a beautiful dark book whose characters are so distinctly drawn and the writing still glistens on the page.
Read the book. Visit Sark.
Later moving to Jersey I visited Sark, where Mervyn Peake had written a good part of the book, and was picked up at the harbour by a horse drawn carriage there being no cars on Sark. This lean, long, angular figure turned to speak to us and I was immediately confronted by a character straight of Gormenghast. The shock of that sensation still lingers with me.
This is a beautiful dark book whose characters are so distinctly drawn and the writing still glistens on the page.
Read the book. Visit Sark.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
So Far
So far it's fine. I'm about quarter of the way through.
Wouldn't say I can't put it down, but i do go about 5 chapters at a time. Very discriptive. Read more
Wouldn't say I can't put it down, but i do go about 5 chapters at a time. Very discriptive. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Rosie Bird
4.0 out of 5 stars
very much a neglected classic
A great novel that illustrates the intricacies of life without opinion or bias. Very humorous and always poetic. Highly recommended.
Published 12 days ago by Frankswilde
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Read
Enjoyed the story but it took me a little time to get into the story. Had to read the first few chapters again but then I was hooked.
Published 22 days ago by Angela Rothwell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Titus Groan
Mervyn Peake at his querkiest best and what vocabulary
book in great condition as if never been read
very enjoyable read if you have the querk of mind to like that sort... Read more
book in great condition as if never been read
very enjoyable read if you have the querk of mind to like that sort... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lin
3.0 out of 5 stars
Poor quality ebook
Titus Groan is a great read. Peake's descriptions are evocative, enchanting, disturbing and downright weird. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mary Pollard
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deeply complex and well-crafted, this haunting gothic masterpiece is a...
Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy is a work of literary genius, containing such exquisitely detailed and stunningly beautiful narrative. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lucinda
4.0 out of 5 stars
Titus Groan (Gormenghast)
I gave Titus Groan 4/5 stars because, having begun reading with low expectations (this was all for a school project) I was pleasantly surprised to find quite the opposite. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Morgan Hoskins
3.0 out of 5 stars
Different but in a Good way
synopsis isn't an easy task for such a book as this, as not a lot seems to happen plotwise, but there is a huge interaction between characters and things are always in the offing... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Ste to the J
5.0 out of 5 stars
brilliant!!
I was very wary of this CD as I had previously read and thoroughly enjoyed the Gormenghast trilogy. But Rupert Degas
has proved to be a wonderful narrator. Read more
has proved to be a wonderful narrator. Read more
Published 9 months ago by jenny Cee
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good reading, but abridgement is frustrating
This is one of my very favourite works of fiction. I really wanted to like this audio version more.
The reading itself has a lot going for it - Degas characterises... Read more
The reading itself has a lot going for it - Degas characterises... Read more
Published 18 months ago by A. Reed
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