Titus Groan

Titus Groan features incredible language and tremendously unusual and interesting characters. The setting- a vast, gloomy castle bound up in ancient and obscure traditions- is also a highlight of the book. Unfortunately, the story moves along very slowly, and there isn't much action. Though I enjoyed Peake's poetic descriptions and Halloween imagery, in the end I decided the book was a bit too boring to convince me to read the rest of the trilogy.

Another book, like Sea of Poppies which is a set up for the rest of the trilogy. We meet the fascinating characters of Gormenghast whose lives revolve around ritual so much so that most seem to pull back from personal relationships into art or nature in order to sustain their concentration on the senseless ritual that keeps their society functioning. From the burning of artwork to the deaf Grey Scrubbers, to the Machiavellian Steerpike, the creaky Flay, the Countess with her white cats and wild birds, petulant Fuchsia, pitiful Nannie Slagg, owl-like Lord Sepulchrave, tittering Doctor Prunesquallor and the needlessly haughty sister Emma and twins Cora and Clarice culminating in the "Earling" of little Titus, Peake's characterization and world building keep the reader engrossed and delighted.

Wow! Wow!This is some of the most impressive prose I've experienced in a while. And the book itself is unlike any other I've read. The use of the language kept me hooked throughout. The plot is enigmatic and entangling. The characters are numerous and frequently, hilariously described in detail.The language consistently moves the reader along with a poetic rhythm that is often humorous, satiric, loving, mystical, evocative, lyrical, terrifying, seductive and always intoxicating.There is no other book to compare this to; nor is there a genre in which to place this. This is its own genre.This is not fantasy. This is not Gothic. The only word I can think of is "Gormenghastean", a word I just made up. But that's ok, Mr. Peake frequently used words of his own invention.Mervyn Peake admired Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevensen; he was friends with Dylan Thomas and Graham Greene. But he is unlike these writers, except that he is, also, a master. China Mielville has openly expressed his own admiration. But these two writers are not alike except that both define their own creations.Give up your expectations for any genre; but do yourself a favor, and read this book.

Gormenghast - actually a trilogy - is one of those stories that I have heard about but never wanted to try, until Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange novel gave me the taste for 'fantastical' (what I would consider not strictly 'fantasy') and Sebastian Faulks discussed the trilogy in his Faulks on Fiction essays. So I downloaded the first in the set, and gave Steerpike and the others a try.For the first half of the novel, I was enchanted, both with Peake's word building and world building. The characters are wonderfully eccentric - my favourites being Flay the butler and the Countess ('I would like to see the boy when he is six') - and the setting of Gormenghast Castle is staggering in its detail. But then, right around the point of uppity kitchen boy Steerpike's great scheme to destroy the old regime, something changed, perhaps in the style - and I lost interest. Getting through the rest was a struggle. Peake's Dickensian language turned purple, and the characters, especially Fuchsia the miserable daughter, had a sort of personality transplant. I'm sure that, after a break, I will go onto read the other two novels in the trilogy, but I can't say I enjoyed Titus Groan.

This is a deeply weird book it is difficult to describe or categorize. In the introduction, Anthony Burgess, who calls it a "modern classic," comparable to other celebrated British works of the 1940s such as those by Orwell or Waugh, says there "is no really close relative to it in all our prose literature." I actually bought the trilogy this is part of years ago because it was recommended on the "Seven-League Shelf" of "the cream" of modern fantasy works. But there's nothing supernatural in it. Only it's set in an imaginary world not quite ours, a Gothic Downton Abbey or Upstairs Downstairs about a decrepit warren-like castle and its grotesque inhabitants bound by elaborate and arcane ritual. The era is hard to place historically and the feeling of the book very claustrophobic. There doesn't seem to be a world outside Gormenghast Castle for its inhabitants. The title character, Titus, destined to become 77th Earl of Groan and Lord of Gormenghast Castle, is only just born when the 500 plus page novel begins and when it ends he's not yet two-years-old. The characters have such Dickensian names as Sepulchrave, Steerpike, Sourdust and Prunesquallor and no one in the first hundred pages seemed likeable. Titus' mother tells the nanny to take away her newborn son and she'll see him when he's six--then calls her cats to her. The relationship between servants such as Manservant Flay and Chef Swelter and the machinations of kitchen boy Steerpike are positively Byzantine. Lady Fuchsia and Dr Prunesquallor did grow on me though--there was more to both of them than first met the eye and by the middle of the book I was hooked. The language is baroque and the pace defines "leisurely" except that makes it sound too informal and light. Mind you, the prose is, if over-descriptive, aptly descriptive. Everything is vividly painted. And I mean everything from the glass grapes on Nannie Slagg's hat to the cutlery, plates and napkins "folded into the shapes of peacocks" set out for breakfast in Stone Hall. I get why a friend of mine abandoned the book before she reached 100 pages. There is a black humor threaded throughout, but the overall atmosphere is oppressive because all but a few of the characters are some combination of stupid, malignant or mad. I found the book more readable though as I got used to Peake's style and grew more fond of a few of the characters. I certainly will be reading the sequel, Gormenghast.

This really is an exceedingly verbose book, woven from figured cloth, embroidered, beaded, appliqued, embroidered some more, resulting in a mad tapestry of convoluted, highly descriptive, poetic prose. It is not for the faint of heart. Do not try to read in short bursts, definitely keep this one for bedtime, rainy afternoons, long train journeys. It is an experience.