The Gormenghast Novels (Titus Groan / Gormenghast / Titus Alone)
by Mervyn Peake
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mervyn PeakeIntroduction: Anthony Burgess
Introduction: Quentin Crisp
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-12-01
ISBN: 0879516283
Number of pages: 1168
Publisher: Overlook Press
Book Reviews of The Gormenghast Novels (Titus Groan / Gormenghast / Titus Alone)
Book Review: "A Fairy-tale with no Fairies"
Summary: 5 Stars
A contemporary of Peake described Titus Groan as "a fairy-tale with no fairies", and nothing could summarize the trilogy more succinctly. I, like so many others, first struggled to wade through the rich text that seemed to develop atmoshere, but little in the the way of plot. Suddenly around the 100th page or so I was gripped by the unfolding events, and hardly able to put the book down. I found the second novel, Gormenghast, to be even more thrilling than the first. There were some episodes that left my heart racing, something I can't remember experiencing with any other book. As others have pointed out, Titus Alone is quite inferior to the first two, but it was an unfinished manuscript at the time of Peake's death. However, Titus Groan and Gormenghast form a complete body on their own, and Titus Alone is more of a glimpse at what could have been.
As an author Peake is a bit of an iconoclast, and does not fit easily into any genre. The Gormenghast Trilogy is generally considered gothic fantasy, but there is nothing supernatural or magical. Even so, the world of Gormenghast rivals Middle Earth or Dune in imagination and exhaustive, richly layered detail. The tragedy is Shakespearean in scale, and the language puts one in mind of Dickens. I believe that anyone who actively engages this book with his/her mind, rather than simply trying to push through it, will come away richly rewarded.
More The Gormenghast Novels (Titus Groan / Gormenghast / Titus Alone) reviews:
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