Rating: 
Summary: Incomparable
Review: Comparison is futile. I first read these novels as a fifteen year old and am reading them through again ten years later. What was an earth-shaker as an adolescent is an earth-shaker now. I don't care much for fantasy novels in general. Mervyn Peake's novels thankfully defy genre and allow us a panoramic vision of a world at once fascinating and abominable, expansive and stifling. Gormenghast presents itself to the reader again and again, long after the words are spent, in half-waking images that reek of childhood bogeys and birthdays. All of this praise expended, the Gormenghast series is not for the weary-eyed. The third of the trilogy differs from the first two a great deal and presents its own challenges. Perhaps the first two are were more perfected. However, as a reader you must dedicate yourself to this work and see the race to the end to judge the finish.
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Summary: A wonderful work that brings a far away world into yours.
Review: The Gormenghast Novels are works that are in a class of there own. The rich words bring a texture that is not accomplished by many. The story is captivating and keeps your attention. It is hard to describe it and is better read than told. If you like Anventure mystery fantacy and background that is accomplished by few (exe J.R.R. Tolken) then you will thuroughly enjoy these books. Review by: Thomas C. Ryan
Rating: 
Summary: amazing series
Review: densely poetic. creepy, but perfectly envisioned environs. quirky fantasy. important character archetypes.
Rating:
Summary: A world unto itself
Review: Of the three novels collected in this, the first two are peerless. Think Bruno Schultz or Kafka, filtered through Anglo culture and, more importantly, a Post-WWII consciousness (Peake was employed as an Allied sketch artist in the liberated Concentration Camps after Germany's defeat. Dark, sprawling, with a cast of characters as singular as anything Dickens ever came up with, this is the story of a mad, dead world which refuses to look itself in the eyes. The third novel in the series, Titus Alone, is not nearly as rewarding, but Peake was extremely ill by then, and in a way, it doesn't matter, the end of book 2 (Ghormenghast) is truly the end of Ghormenghast. Buy it, persevere, and you'll be duly rewarded for your labors.
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Summary: I challenge the greatest cinema directors to film this
Review: The is the story of how a boy Earl, heir to the crumbling and limitless expanse of Gormenghast castle, evolves from innocent schoolboy to homicidal exile. Even as he faces the lethal murderer genius, he knows that he will betray all he has ever known and believed in. You will know the characters well. Bellgrove, the headmaster, Dr Prunesquallor the ebulliently camp physician, Fuschia the enchanted yet unfullfilled princess, the melancholy Lord Sepuclhrave. You may even cry at the utterly soul destroying poignany of tiny, tiny Nannie Slagg's un-appreciated devotion. Peake's characters are biblical parables in themselves. They go further than people can go, and some fail, some are destined to fail - and they must be like this. As a reader you cannot help calling on God him/herself to intervene because even as you know it is fiction, it is unbearable that certain situations exist, and worse, actually unfold right before your eyes. Be it for their exquisite beauty or their tragic bleakness. But what superb scope for cinematographic excellence. Lighting shots described down to the last, flickering, mote of dust. Pans across nature that combine the most majestic sweeps of China with progressively deteriorating archeological accumulata; intricate close-up vignettes from an Attenbrough documentary; and the random heaven or hell of conscienceless weather in its glorious range of power and subtlety. This is not merely a series of books. It is a rendition of the most striking events in a life. Or in many lives. What else can I say? There is so much rich vocabulary, that I shall have to re-read these tomes as I would a dictionary. And if I read them even one more time (I was read them when I was 12 years old, and since I have read them twice), I will re-double my literary dexterity. "You don't say!" as you might say. Check it out now.
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Summary: Dark, but excellent!!
Review: Tolkien meets Dickens. This isn't your Jordan/Goodkind fluff!! This is serious fantasy that challenges your senses. Like a fine wine it is to be sipped and enjoyed slowly. A classic!!!!
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Summary: Spellbinding, gripping masterpiece
Review: What can I say about the triology about Gormenghast. The books were fantastic. After enjoying the books for so long I saw a production on it By A group in Nowra. The Charectors came alive. A tribute to the world of litrature
Rating:
Summary: pure magic,literary lyricism at its best.
Review: Mervyn Peake has,with this spectacular trilogy,claimed a place in the hearts of all readers of fantasy novels.Beautifully written,Peake weaves the tale of gothic fear and extraodinary heroism with consummate skill and ease.One of the great literary masterpieces,able to hold its head high in any collection of books. Mervyn Peake can truly rank along side Tolkien and Le Guin,now he has completed this pure work of literary art.A beautiful novel.One to read time and time again.
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Summary: Hard work but highly rewarding.
Review: "Swelter collapsed in a cataclysmic mass of wine drenched blubber". Just one example of the lyrical language used by Peake.This novel is dark: very dark. The characters are trapped in the habbit of ritual. However, when Steerpike escapes from Swelter's grasp, and slides his way into the trust of the master of rituals, the world slowly starts to dissolve... I loved the book. If you try it, keep going. It is worth it.
Rating:
Summary: A Deliriously Good Read!
Review: Reading The Gormenghast Novels feels like trudging knee-deep through cold mud on a hot summer day. Very exhausting yet immensely refreshing! Mervyn Peake writes beautifully; lyrical, descriptive and with a hint of the whimsical. The atmosphere was so thick with a sense of intrigue, I sometimes wonder if any of the characters are indeed sane! Everyone is so delirious, they blend right into the damp, moss-covered walls of the gothic castle. Read it and read it again to completely savour a truly good book.
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