Titus Groan was superb.
I simply completed studying Titus Groan. I’m truthfully so blown away by how a lot I loved this e book.
The e book may be very distinctive. It’s a form of gothic, gradual fantasy going down in a weird citadel. The world-building is superb. The citadel is crammed with all kinds of very distinctive characters with totally different quirks. I turned very related to Fuschia because the story progressed, I actually preferred her/was drawn to her for some purpose haha. So, characterization was additionally superb. And the prose is so lovely! Such beautiful flowing descriptions of every little thing. The little character internal monologues have been so attention-grabbing to learn as nicely. There have been additionally some little bits of witty/attention-grabbing humour that made me snicker all through the e book.
For some time now, I had been on the lookout for a e book that’s much like the Grey Home by Petrosyan. I truthfully noticed a number of parallels between these two! I wouldnt be shocked if Titus Groan might have had some affect on The Grey Home.
I am excited to additionally learn e book 2 of the trilogy.
For individuals who have learn e book 3 as nicely, I used to be questioning whether it is definitely worth the learn too? I heard some combined opinions about this one.
Would love to listen to about what different folks considered this distinctive and superb e book!
Comments ( 17 )
I’m retired now but I first read the trilogy as a teenager. They remain my favorite fiction still. Titus Groan and Gormenghast are finished works. Titus Alone is not. It is sketched out notes for a volume Peale died before finishing.
Have lots of fun. I own the hardbacks!💃🏼
I loved it too! I haven’t read Gormenghast yet: I’m saving it slightly because I’m not sure I’ll read Titus Alone. I really like the affectionate irreverence Peake treats his characters with. Agreed on the prose; I thought it was somehow very dense but playful at the same time.
I’ve never heard of the Gray House but I’m going to investigate it!
I tried watching the BBC version and was appalled that the new dialogue failed to capture the voice of the characters correctly. Writers imitating him can pigeonhole Gormenghast into “gothic” and “stark quirky characters with tics and obsession with tradition” and end up doing it a disservice. I wonder how many people feel that way about lines that Peter Jackson rewrote – I know I prefer the way Tolkien wrote about poh-tay-toes.
Book 3 is very different but I think it is worth reading
I love this book and Gormenghast. I didn’t like the third at all, it’s incomplete and the tone/switch of location is extremely jarring. The second book has a complete and satisfying ending so you could read the first two books and consider the story completed.
The Gormenghast books are unique, quite unlike any other books I can think of. I reread them (first two) every few years because the strange, timeless feel of them calls out to me. You’re right about the characters being interesting. Steerpike is fascinating, along with many others. Perhaps the best character of all is the castle itself, cloaked in secrecy and mystery, a timeless ancient edifice as large as a city that holds undiscovered secrets.
The Gormenghast series are a favourite of my dads and were some of the first “big boy” books that I read as a child, I really love how Peake manages to be serious without ever approaching self-seriousness and how his work is in very apparent dialogue with the classics whilst never seeming derivative or overly referential. The late 19th and first half of the 20th century was such an interesting time for fantasy literature and it bothers me to no end that it’s all either erased so that Tolkien and CS Lewis are the forebears of the genre, or flattened so that all of those amazing works are nothing more than influences on the aforementioned, when there’s so much that either preceded them or is part of a lineage that has nothing to do with them.
Also, and this is apropos of nothing, one of my great grandfathers went to the Croydon School of Art (now Croydon College) at the same time as Mervyn Peake in the mid-1920s, which I think is pretty cool.
I agree with the commenters here saying Titus Groan and Gormenghast are amazing, while the change in locale and unfinished nature of Titus Alone make it less special.
I want to recommend the novel that originally led me to the Gormenghast books, though: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Sort of similar in tone and world-building; goth-y, steampunk-y. Unique.
Swelter’s eyes meet those of his enemy, and never has there held between four globes of gristle so sinister a hell of hatred.
i fucking love that line right there, might be my favorite thing ever written
This book is now PD, I think, but I can’t find an online copy.
Titus Groan and Gormenghast are wonderful masterpieces, they’ve stuck with me through the years since reading them. As others have said Titus Alone is unfinished and quite different, but I’d still say it’s worth a read.
The first two books are among my favourites. An amazing display of fantasy gothic worldbuilding.
The third I gave up after a couple of chapters.
Books 1 and 2 are phenomenal, I wouldn’t bother with book 3. It essentially takes a minor character from book 2 and follows him on a journey out of the castle to a deliberately anti-climactic conclusion. It’s more like a weak spin-off than a sequel
My fav book
Anyone who really enjoyed the Gormenghast books should read the Opposing Shore by Julien Gracq. It’s even better honestly
I read the third book. I liked it, not as much as the main 2, as others have said, don’t expect more of what made the first two books so great. I’d say it’s worth trying, but I’d almost come into it with expectations of it being a fresh new book, and being ready to bail if it doesn’t click.
Titus and Gormenghast are my favourite books ever! I mean look at my username lmao. So glad you liked it!
Yes! Agreed. I’m so glad someone else enjoyed this