Rating: 
Summary: yeh bebbe
Review: i find it funny that most of the people who dont like this havent read it all the way. i love mervyn peake, he has a vision of another world that is astounding , this is a cartoon for the mind. at times i got a clear animated picture in my head just from reading his descriptions: steerpikes walk, the millions of cats, etc. it is freaking hard to read, yes, but oh so rewarding if you follow through to the end. gormenghast is good too, but alas i havent read titus alone yet.
Rating: 
Summary: Flawed, but genius
Review: I found the first 2 volumes very absorbing. There's something indefinably readable and addictive about the writing style, despite the oppresive, grotesque air around the whole novel. The flaw is that I found volume 3 very disappointing. But how else could the story continue, given that virtually EVERY character had been killed off by the end of the 2nd volume? Having recently seen a documentary about Peakes life, I found some insight into why Gormenghast was as it was. The stifling Victorian upbringing with it's obsessive ideas of 'proper behaviour' casts it's shadow over Gormenghast. As does the grotesqueness of Peakes work as a war artist in the death camps at the end of world war two. It's not surprising that Gormenghast is not a story with a clean, happy ending. Good doesn't triumph over evil or any other such Tolkein-esque nonsense. Real life is just not like that.It's interesting that Peake often gets compared with Tolkein. Apart from that one word 'fantasy' there works are as different as Mozart and U2 (both 'music'). There are no mythical beings in Gormenghast, no hobbits, elves, no wizards. All are creatures recognisable in our everyday world. There is absolutely no magic in Gormenghast, no spells, no objects of power. Yet Gormenghast is ultimately far more alien to me than Middle Earth. It's a shame that he appeared to have written himself into a cul-de-sac with the startling death rate of the major characters. For me, though, the first two volumes contain some of the finest writing ever. Many have tried to emulate, but Gormenghast remains unique in it's achievement.
Rating:
Summary: A treasure, hang in there through vol. 1, you won't be sorry
Review: I have never read anything quite like this! The first book revolves loosely around a newborn Titus Groan that is heir to the earldom of Gormenghast and it's Castle, an archaic, monolithic, stiffly-traditioned place. Throughout the first volume, we meet various members of the castle staff, the royal family and even a few commoners. You'll love Peake's unique way of portraying characters with his hilarious attention to detail. I don't think I'll ever forget the eccentric Mr. Flay or the effeminate Dr. Prune... The Antagonist, Steerpike, has got to be the most villainous, calculating creature I've come across in any book. He's someone you'll love to hate, but also admire. Since this is one of those rare books in which you can easily become attached to the characters, I'll warn you, Peake is not hesitant to dispose of them! At first, there doesn't seem to be a definitive plot to follow. But, as the story progresses and Titus matures, you begin to see that he is feeling more and more strangled by this static castle life. But, Titus and nearly all of the castle's dwellers are ignorant of what lies beyond Gormenghast. It's important to note that the reader is also kept in the dark. You get the impression that Gormenghast "Was, is and always shall be." And if it's inhabitants have ever dreamed of lands beyond, it is doubtful that any could consciously imagine any other place. The truth is revealed in book 3. Believing there is nothing left for him, Titus does the unthinkable and abandons his castle, his people and more importantly, his duties as the 77th Earl. The world Titus finds is quite unlike his own. So different in fact that he begins to doubt it ever existed. Even as the reader, I couldn't help wondering if Titus imagined it all during some delirious state of mind. But, the ending satisfies... I highly recommend this trilogy to lovers of fantasy and haters alike. This work is not classifiable fantasy in a strict sense, as there aren't any mythical beasts or obvious magics. It's kind of a mish-mash of fantasy, sci-fi and drama. But make no mistake, you'll reserve a spot for this classic epic right next to Tolkien. (Though I'm not comparing the two, each is a classic in it's own right).
Rating:
Summary: It never leaves you
Review: I just want to endorse the reviewers who used words like 'haunting' and 'hallucinatory'. I am planning to re-read the trilogy after a 15 year gap, and the images still crowd into my mind. The terrible kitchens, poor lovely Fuchsia, menacing Steerpike, the Hall of the Bright Carvings, Flay's knees cracking as he stalks the corridors. If you're not enjoying it, stop reading. But how sorry I am for you!
Rating:
Summary: Gormenghast Trilogy is in print in the UK
Review: I read and loved the Gormenghast trilogy many years ago, but
lost my copies of all the books by lending them out to "friends." I recently had a chance to go to the UK on business and made a point of looking there for the Peake
books. Surprise! They're all in print over there and have been more or less continually. The copies I bought
are copyright 1989. Mandarin Paperbacks, an imprint of
Reed Consumer Books Limited, 81 Fulham Road, London, SW3
6RB and Auckland, Melbourne, Singapore and Toronto.
Reprinted in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994. There's also
an edition that binds all three books together, but I found
the large format with extra long text lines hard to read.
Rating:
Summary: The subtle and patient reader will be rewarded
Review: I read the Gormenghast Trilogy for the first time when I was in high school, some eighteen years ago, and while many of the scenes and the overall mood remained in my memory, I completely missed most of the humor and beauty in the writing itself, as I discovered when recently rereading Titus Groan. The sonorous, skewed beauty of the language demands to be read slowly and savored as prose poetry -- I read only a few pages a day over several months. Take a passage like the following: "Suns and the changing of the seasonal moons; the leaves from trees that cannot keep their leaves, and the fish from olive waters have their voices! ... Stones have their voices and the quills of birds; the anger of the thorns, the wounded spirits, the antlers, ribs that curve, bread, tears and needles. Blunt boulders and the silence of cold marshes -- these have their voices -- the insurgent clouds, the cockerel and the worm. ... Voices that grind at night from lungs of granite. Lungs of blue air and the white lungs of rivers. All voices haunt all moments of all days; all voices fill the crannies of all regions." If you find this sort of thing boring, by all means skip this book. This has almost nothing to do with either Tolkien or his less skilled successors who churn out a 500-page volume every six months. I think it has more in common with a book like Moby Dick (which I have been advised not to read until I reach forty years of age), in that it demands that the reader relate the text to his own experience of life and literature. Many of the characters are grotesque parodies, but as with other masters of satire, Peake's exaggeration rings truer to life than a more "realistic" depiction would. The characters are neither good nor evil -- even Steerpike, though ambitious and unscrupulous, is not the evil villain of so many fantasy epics, but is in many ways a sympathetic character. Perhaps the main character is the castle Gormenghast itself, the concrete embodiment of the venerable yet often dysfunctional traditions under which the human characters labor. Mervyn Peake has here created a true fantasy -- a unique vision with its own consistency and texture, sometimes stifling and febrile, morbidly comic, but with glimpses of pathos and tranquility, sustained by an amazing elasticity of language and poetry.
Rating: 
Summary: It is going nowhere....
Review: I read this book because it was frequently mentioned to be (together with the Lord of the Rings) one of the books that are at the root of modern fantasy. In my opinion this book could be placed in other categories as fantasy. It has nothing to do with the sort of novels i consider fantasy. Yes, mister Peake can describe things in an excellent way, and his world does keep some promise. But in this first novel he does very little with it. So i guess i won't read the next (unless i am completly without other interesting books to read). this definitely is not my cup of tea and if you like books written for example by Tolkien, Jordan or Martin, you should get this from the library and try it for free instead of buying.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting Lyrical and Nearly Completely Mad
Review: I stumbled across this truly unique book in a used book store and by true serendipity decided to read it. The pace of it may turn some people off, give it a chance, to me it read it not so much as story but as an experiment in language and imagery. A true and deserved
classic.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: I'm drunk. I'm tripping. I'm hallucinating on the images created by Mr. Peake. I've never read anything quite like this. I wish I could compare it to something else in literature but nothing comes close. Titus did however remind me of some images from films: Terry Gilliam(Brazil, Time Bandits), David Lynch(Twin Peaks) and the french fellows that did Delicatessen and City of Lost Children. But even these share only some of the aura. A very dark and brooding book with some very black English humor thrown in. Recommended for those who like their literature in the fantastic (Maybe Poe? Robertson Davies? Patrick McGrath?) - NOT fantasy. The Swelter and Flay confrontation gave me nightmares.
Rating:
Summary: Underrated Masterpiece
Review: I've read "Titus Groan" twice, just as I've read "Gormenghast" twice. I read them as a reaction to Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings". I actually enjoyed Mervyn Peake's story more. The characters are good because they are not cliches, nor are they heroic. I could relate to Steerpike more than Frodo Baggins. (I mean that in a good way.) In "Titus Groan" the title character is a new-born baby, 77th heir to Castle Gormenghast. In Gormenghast everything revolves around pointless tradition. In our own world we're obsessed with tradition, what with anniversaries, Easter, Christmas, New Year's Eve, etc. We don't reach the same excesses they do in Gormenghast, however. I think one of Peake's messages was that "tradition" is another word for "excuse" - an excuse to keep things the same (as tradition is the natural enemy of change), or an excuse to do things that look really stupid (slavery, trial by ordeal). The people of Gormenghast have rather empty lives, and find ways to fill their time with ancient, obscure ritual. They're obliged to follow old values, even though they don't understand them. Yes, there are a lot of unfamiliar words, but this broadens your vocabulary. The strange names of the characters make them oddly endearing. My favourite characters were Steerpike and Dr Prunesquallor. I like the way Steerpike charms the bitter twins Cora and Clarice, and cynically exploits them for his own plans. It's true that "Titus Groan" is leisurely-paced. But the castle is so fascinating and Peake's writing so descriptive, I felt like I was actually walking through those crumbling corridors. My favourite part is when Steerpike escapes Mr Flay and climbs to freedom, making his way across the "roofscape". Mervyn Peake is also one of Robert Smith's favourite writers. (Robert Smith from "The Cure", that is.) I think one of Smith's songs might have been about Fuschia actually. On his "Faith" album. If you haven't read "Titus Groan" and the other books, try them out and see what you think.
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