The Gormenghast Novels: Titus Groan, Gormenghast, Titus Alone

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Summary: A review from a latin american reader
Review: Well, I have read only the first book of the trilogy, and I found it very interestely gothic, and with a very dense atmosphere. I think all that surrounds you while you read it, and takes you intimately close to the human esence

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Summary: Pure Gold
Review: These books are a tresure. No one have EVER done caricature as well as Mr. Peake (see FLAY esp.) Titus Alone was scarred, but then again, he died before he could finish. What a treasure we missed when "Return to Gormenghast" was lost.

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Summary: A magnificent flight of Gothic imagery, superbly written.
Review: The sheer richness of the imagery is staggering, the characters strange and compelling, the writing of a level I have almost never seen. Peake creates a satirical world of such depth, vision and creativity that it is hard to imagine a book that could be its parallel. Of a style so unique and wonderful that you must read it to believe.

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Summary: Gormenghast in a Folio edition
Review: Although the paperback edition of the trilogy is indeed out of print, a magnificent boxed and illustrated hardbound edition is available from the Folio Society.

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Summary: An epic work of profound tragedy and astonishing beauty.
Review: I first read The Gormenghast Trilogy ("Titus Groan", "Gormenghast" and "Titus Alone") nearly 20 years ago as a teenager, after it was recommended to me by a friend. Having tried unsuccessfully to penetrate the posthumous Tolkein novel "The Silmarillion", I had almost given up on the fantasy genre. Thank God for Mervyn Peake. As I fell deeper and deeper into the trilogy it became my favorite work of literature, and a far, far supierior work to "Lord of the Rings". I have since read it 3 or 4 times and have not changed my mind. The first novel, Titus Groan, introduces the reader to a world that is at once mesmerizing and horrible. Very few of the characters are even remotely likable, but the reader is drawn to them nonetheless. It is Peake's triumph, then, to bring the reader to tears when these characters eventually meet their inevitable fates (all save the villainous Steerpike). The burning of the Library and it's consequences in "Titus Groan"is as violent as a rape. Titus' loss of the Thing in "Gormenghast" is more tragic than "Romeo and Juliet", "Othello" and "Oedipus" put together. Even the Countess commands total respect by the end of the second novel. The unspeakable blasphemy committed by young Titus leading into "Titus Alone" leaves us hollow with the loss of the monstrous castle, but it takes Titus into a world so far removed from his own that we hardly have time to notice. This is the story of Titus as an adult, in exile from all he has ever known, trying to come to terms with his irreversible actions. He enters a world that has more malevolence than Steerpike ever dreamed of, but also more real emotion, a first for Titus. His final (near) return to his birthplace triumphantly puts him on a new path, much the same way Britain and the world changed direction forever following World War II, and the way English literature changed forever following the publication of The Gormenghast Trilogy. It is one the finest peice of fiction ever written, and worthy of much more popular exposure than it has received in the 50 years since it was first published. I am proud to own a boxed (!) set of the Penguin paperback editions, complete with all of Peake's original illustrations.

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Summary: A Virtuosic Achievement; A Triumph of Imagination
Review: Why is this book not given the recognition it deserves? Those who have read it cannot fail to be impressed by its power; Anthony Burgess hailed it as one of the best books of the century, and deservedly so. Peake has a virtuosic imagination. He is one of those few, remarkable writers who write with such sensual clarity that the reader reads 'through' the words on the page into an eidetic experience of the depicted world: that phenomenon uniquely capable in great literature in which writing is magically transparent to experience. He is arguably the best descriptive writer in literature, which makes his achievement all the more remarkable for being a work of pure imagination. For instance, to arbitrarily pick one example out of a book in which every scene is so imagined, the battle between Flay and Swelter in the spiderweb filled attic is a masterpiece of an imaginatively observed reality, rendered with such intense immediacy that one is there, observing every step, every parry, every iota of anxiety and tension moment to moment. And all in grand and beautiful language. (Truly gorgeous language. It may sound ridiculous, but I don't think I exaggerate when I say Peake's use of language is to 20th century english what Gibbon's was to the 18th: grand, sublime, precise, graceful, hypnotic, in love with words and language.) And though his characters are largely grotesques, he writes of them with such sympathy and with such spot-on characterization that he makes them credible living breathing entities. But his skill is not limited to description or characterization. He is able to capture complex and subtle relationships with surgical precision. To arbitrarily pick another example, the courtship scene between Bellgrove and Irma must rank as one of the most brilliantly comical set pieces in literature due to its farcical accuracy. To classify this work as fantasy is a disservice to his achievement. 'The Gormeghast Trilogy' transcends genre just as 'Moby Dick' transcends a fishing tale. Because while Peake's remarkable technical prowess alone should guarantee his place in the pantheon of great 20th century writers, it's his profound, and profoundly subtle, exploration of the motives behind--and effects of--power, complacency, ritual, and decay that puts him squarely in the center of the 20th century. If authors are the products of their history, then the Gormenghast trilogy provides an existential snapshot of the postwar years as only a handful of other works do (eg, Catch-22). The first book, as another reviewer here said, is like the appetizer for the second. The second book is the heart of the trilogy. The third book, as has also been remarked here, is the weakest. It is a great loss to literature that Peake lost his powers so early to illness in what should've been a long career. There are few books that can provide such ample rewards to the receptive reader. Once one enters Peake's world they never forget it. Though it is currently one of the unknown great works in world literature, I hope it will one day find its rightful place in the catalogue of literary masterpieces. It is a unique book, a triumph of imagination. Often a work of fiction is called 'an experience'; 'The Gormeghast Trilogy' is one of the few works in which such an ascription is not perjorative.

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Summary: Dark & complex - don't deserve the 'fantasy literature' tag.
Review: The first two are brilliant. Titus Alone I felt was stretched a bit thin. Gormenghast & Titus Groan, though, are dark, complex and impossible to put down. I think it does them down to label them 'fantasy novels'. They are classics. A shame the publishers don't see this as the packaging is awful (the old Penguins were much better).

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Summary: fantastic and totally hypnotic - amazing discription
Review: next to lord of the rings, this collection of books has to be the best fantasy/fiction i have ever read. it leaves you mezzmorized. the characters are completily unbelievable. i wish these books were more widely known.

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Summary: Not Nearly Enough of This Work
Review: When I think that Peake had more Titus novels left to realize, I could cry. The language is gorgeous and awe-inspiring; the dense beauty of poetry combined with relentless story-telling. I feel (and I must use presente tense because one is never entirely done reading these works) riveted to scene after scene, hypnotized by the sheer beauty of the images, and yet compelled to move on and watch the story unfold. Lord of the Rings is juvenile compared to this. MYST is a child's crayon sketch compared to this. It is the most hauntingly beautiful work I have ever read

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Summary: It still haunts me to this day
Review: I discoverd this wonderful ( in the original sense of the word ) book in the late 1960's and it still remains the most powerful book I have ever read. No other book has stretched and remained inbedded in my imagination as has this one. The characterizations are unmatched in fantastic literature and rank among the best this reviewer has ever read in any genre. I still recall vividly the special combination of enchantment, mystery and horror which reside in the brooding castle of Gormenghast. The death of Fuschia moved me as no other scene in any book has been able to, and the completely bizarre characters who reside in the castle epitomize the word unique. If you are seeking a book that will grab you by the mind and lead you into a world you never thought ( but always hoped ) was possible, then I implore you to read this book. I was poring through Amazon Books in the hopes of finding a hardback edition, as mine have become tattered from frequent, loving readings. If you are a true afficianado of fantasy, I cannot give any higher recommendation than this. It will haunt you forever