Rating: 
Summary: 'There should be no rich, no poor, no strong, no weak,' ...
Review: .... said Steerpike, methodically pulling the legs off the stag beetle, one by one as he spoke. 'Equality is the great thing, equality is everything.'
Extravagant? Yes it is! But what a wonderful type of extravagance. This is a fantasy novel like no other. I first read this novel many, many years ago and shared it with some of my special friends. And then, when I got married, I so loved reading it to my wife. Since then I have seen the television series ('Gormenghast' - based on this novel and its sequel). Now I picked the book up again and it's as enthralling, fascinating, captivating as ever.
Many novels introduce us to one or two memorable characters and detail their interaction - the tensions and the bonding. But in 'Titus Groan' Mervyn Peake creates a whole galaxy of characters - all extravagant and extreme - and then constrains them in such a tight environment. You could compare Gormenghast to another isolated society; that described in W H Hudson's 'A Crystal Age', but these worlds are very different. The interactions are thus intensified. For all their extremeness I wondered if Gormenghast and the people living there were no more than an analogy of a family - a group of people that allows itself controlled intimacies that it does not offer to the wider world.
'Titus Groan' separates itself from that other great fantasy world of 'Lord of the Rings' by its constrained boundaries. This is not a travel story ranging across wide horizons. It is a travel story of the human mind. It has horror, it has madness, it has dedication, and above all it has the most extraordinary vision and humour. There are four great scenes not to be missed - the burning of the library, Titus's first Birthday, the battle between Flay and Swelter, and the earling.
Other recommendations:
'Gormenghast' by Mervyn Peake
'Titus Alone' by Mervyn Peake
'Peake's Progress' which contains plays, short stories, drawings and wonderful poems all by Mervyn Peake
'A Crystal Age' by W H Hudson
'Lord of the Rings' J R R Tolkein
Rating: 
Summary: Don't be fooled by the ratings.
Review: After an hour and 40 minutes I had to shut the tape off. Seems as though the writer has forgotten that the plot is the most important piece of a book. Total torture. Goes nowhere. Dont do it and dont EVER compare this to Tolkien.
Rating:
Summary: Titus Groan
Review: Castle Gormenghast is a monstrous edifice, steeped in ritual and decay. The seventy-sixth Earl of Groan, Sepulchrave Groan, follows the intricate customs of his daily life; he is the embodiment of Groan, the black heart of the castle. Today, his son, the seventy-seventh Earl of Groan is born.
And so opens the first book of The Gormenghast Trilogy. More books were planned after the third, but the fourth remained unfinished and however many else there would have been were not even begun after Peake's mental breakdown and subsequent removal from the world of literature. The Trilogy has, some fifty years after first publication, attained a legendary status within the realms of fantasy, and after reading this first book, it is not hard to see why.
The characters in the novel are few, and the action is almost entirely located within the dark walls of Gormenghast. Thanks to the oppressive, slightly mad nature of the castle, each of the characters has a quirk, or an oddity that makes them stand out, enhancing the oppressive nature of the story. No character is completely normal - in fact most of them are caricatures of a particular emotion or fault - but because of the rigidity and monstrosity of Gormenghast - a point that is rammed home at every possible occasion - we can accept this. Thus Flay's character being little more than of mix of Devotion and Taciturn with a dash of Creaky Knees, we are able to identify and even feel sympathetic with the pathetic man. Fuschia, the neglected and only daughter of Groan, is teenage-angst personified, but again, thanks to the skill and grace with which Peake writes, we are able to look past these stereotypes and instead appreciate the characters for who they are. As the story unfolds, we are allowed deeper into the minds of the primary characters, and while they never really stray from the broad strokes with which they are initially painted, they do develop and grow, the plain shades of archetype deepening to the lush hues of characterisation.
Peake has an exceptional talent with words. Sentences and whole paragraphs are marvels of literary concentration. While writing Titus Groan, it is clear that he picked a primary theme - despondency, oppression, darkness - and these unhappy emotions cover the narrative like a dark, heavy cloak. Yet - and herein lies his skill - the writing never degenerates into third rate, melodramatic angst. It always manages to remain of a very high quality. Peake is an author who manages to capture the sick beauty of darkness with grace.
The story involves the first few years of Titus Groan's life. In the steady, unending ritual of Gormenghast life, the birth of a new Groan is a major event, and this sets the castle in motion. Perhaps unused to change, the characters are slowly presented with an increasing number of new and dramatic events, and some of the stalwarts are unable to handle such times. Steerpike, a young upstart - in every sense of the word - takes advantage of the events at Gormenghast, insinuating his way up through the ranks of the major servants and minor Groan family members with horrifying efficiency. While his story is not resolved within the first book, it is clear that the cunning young man will play an important part in the trilogy.
What Peake has created with the first book of his trilogy is a crumbling edifice of decay and torment, a monstrous, dark epic that is harrowing in its beauty. While the genre of fantasy may turn off literary purists - I myself had trouble at first - there is really no excuse for not plunging yourself into the disturbing halls of Gormenghast.
Rating:
Summary: I give this book six stars. I don't care if you only go up 5
Review: Dear Sirs, I commend your excellent service, but upon reading your reviews on the Gormenghast trilogy I can only express my absolute outrage AND DISGUST at some of the comments. Why? Quite simple. You have allowed critiques to appear from persons who have NOT READ THE FULL BOOK - NEVER MIND THE TRILOGY! Gormenghast is for adults, intellectuals even. It is not meant for the faint hearted. I read one page of ULYSSES by Joyce and decided I did not want to read the rest of the book. Does this give me the right to criticise it as a book not worth reading? Of course not. I fully recognise my own laziness or unwillingness to give the book a decent chance. I understand that you may want to convey the difficulty of the novel but it is TOTALLY WRONG to allow those who have not even finished the tome to pass comment which you then publish. Maybe what you are doing is illegal? I would be very careful if I were you, there are many very wealthy people in this country who may litigate on the late Mr Peake's behalf. How would you feel if I told everyone I met that Amazon.Com was useless, after having never done anything more than glance at the title page? I would like to finish by saying that Amazon.Com is not useless, it is an excellent service and the best thing is that I actually have a response mechanism to you. In case you were wondering, I have read everything by Mervyn Peake (all the way through!) and I am happy to admit that Titus Alone and Mr Bliss were no more than average. Anyway PLEASE DON'T PRINT BOOK REVIEWS BY THOSE WHO HAVE NOT EVEN READ THE WHOLE BOOKS - it will encourage laziness & illiteracy and will ultimately damage your business!
Rating:
Summary: Titus Groan
Review: How can you describe Gormenghast? I don't really think that you can... All I can do is kind of give an overview over what it's all about...There's a kitchen boy named Steerpike. It's like hell in the kitchens... believe me. Even description wise... so Steerpike, at his first oppurtunity runs away. He escapes into the castle's upper stories, and then onto the roof... where he stumbles into Lady Fuschia's private rooms. What follows is his conniving struggle to achieve power by stepping on anyone that happens to be in his way. First, by apprenticing himself to the resident doctor, Prunesquallor, then by becoming the 'reverant subject' of the two twin sisters of the reigning monarch, Clarice and Cora. He persuades them to burn down their brother's library, and they do... and, as Steerpike planned, the entire royal family is in the library, with locked doors, when the fire is started. To gain favor, Steerpike saves everyone from the fire, and afterwards is declared assistant to the new librarian. (Since they don't have a library, he's also called the Master of Ceremonies... Gormenghast HATES change. They do everything the same way, all the time...)
Rating: 
Summary: It gets absolutely no where
Review: I admit I never finished it, as I picked it up I thought it looked interesting but it never gets anywhere, and it is VERY boring, the characters seem stupid and if you are looking for an INTERESTING book I heartily recommend you look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps my expectations were too high.
Review: I began this book eagerly, after reading several reviews. Ultimately, it was a disappointment. One blurb described the castle as full of "Dickensian grotesques". I just don't think they were interesting enough to deserve even the label "grotesque". I found I was disdaining any scene involving Irma and the twins, and the "reveries" during the Breakfast were just plain tedious. Peake's attempts at creating a brooding intensity too often fell flat. The battle between Swelter and Flay was the most interesting part of the book, but it wasn't enough to save it. I have seen so many comparisons with "The Lord of the Rings", yet it is ludicrous to compare the two. They may both be classed as fantasy, but they are very different. Tolkien may be a bit lighter, but he is also a much more interesting read. As for me, I found myself comparing Peake's often over-the-top descriptive style with Eco's in "The Island of the Day Before". Although the latter took a while to get going, it ended up being, in my opinion, satisfying and enjoyable. Peake, unfortunately, can never quite seem to wrench his feet from the quagmire of his own creation. Individual patches of vivid lyricism, even in great number, do not make for a successful novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Do you really like fantasy?
Review: I certainly won't say that "You don't REALLY like fantasy if you don't like this book." However, giving this book a try will help you self-identify, as to whether you want "The same again, please" as a fantasy reader, or, instead, might be ready to explore a new world of the imagination that exploits the freedom inherent in the genre. There's hardly a more slowly-paced book in the language; perhaps the best way to approach it is in the expectation of a long series of vivid, strange scenes. I hesitate to use the word "surrealistic," because that often has the connotation of sexual neurosis (real or pretended). The comparisons with Dickens are apt, but the closest analogue known to me might be Gogol's masterpiece (read it in the delightful Pevear-Volokohonsky translation), DEAD SOULS. In both books you have the idea of people who live in isolation (the Gormenghasters in various nooks of the Castle and its environs; Gogol's oddities being residents of isolated Russian estates before the abolition of serfdom). Both authors enjoyed concocting weirdly funny names for characters. Both authors "withhold" -- Peake keeping the narrative pace so slow that Titus is only 1 1/2 at the end of the book; Gogol keeping us in the dark about Chichikov's scheme. Both authors have deceptive rogues as main characters (Steerpike, Chichikov). Both did relish a kind of bizarre vividness. Finally, Nabokov's little book on Gogol says that the Russian concept of "posholost" is central for Gogol: meaning that something is outwardly impressive or charming, but really is second-rate or worse, is empty, is life-diminishing. That fits the Gormenghast rituals. Frankly, if you've never read Gogol's comic masterpiece, you should consider giving that one a try; but if you love fantasy, you ought to look into Peake, too. There are a few places where Peake's imagination doesn't seem engaged: the Keda-Rantel-Braigon thing is not successful. But that takes up maybe 25 pages at most.
Rating: 
Summary: got patience?
Review: I do like this book. However, I don't think it should even be considered as being on par with Tolkien. It is descriptive writing at its best--Peake creates some incredibly gorgeous imagery, and if you like character studies...this would be a great book. It is however sorely lacking in plot development and in terms of themes etc it doesn't gives you much to consider. It's a rich book with a lot of icing but contains precious little cake.
Rating:
Summary: got patience?
Review: I do like this book. However, I don't think it should even be considered as being on par with Tolkien. It is descriptive writing at its best--Peake creates some incredibly gorgeous imagery, and if you like character studies...this would be a great book. It is however sorely lacking in plot development and in terms of themes etc it doesn't gives you much to consider. It's a rich book with a lot of icing but contains precious little cake.
|
