- Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Classics; New edition edition (Mar 10 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 074939482X
- ISBN-13: 978-0749394820
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 3.2 x 19.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 381 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #926,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
Enter the world of Gormenghast, to which the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, is Lord and heir. It is a kingdom of Byzantine rule and ancient ritual weighed down by centuries of intrigue, treachery, manipulation and murder.
About the Author
Mervyn Peake was born in 1911 in Kuling, Central Southern China, where his father was a medical missionary.His education began in China and then continued at Eltham College in South East London, followed by the Croydon School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools.Subsequently he became an artist, married the painter Maeve Gilmore in 1937 and had three children.During the Second World War he established a reputation as a gifted book illustrator for Ride a Cock Horse (1940), The Hunting of the Snark (1941), and The Rime of The Ancient Mariner (1943).Other books include Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland and Grimm's Household Tales (both 1946) and Treasure Island (1949).Titus Groan was published in 1946, followed in 1950 by Gormenghast.Among his other works are Shapes and Sounds (1941), Rhymes Without Reason (1944), Letters from a Lost Uncle (1948) and Mr Pye (1953).He also wrote a number of plays including The Wit to Woo (1957), which was met by critical failure.Titus Alone was published in 1959.Mervyn Peake died in 1968.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intoxicating.,
By Stephanie Noverraz "crooty" (Lausanne, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gormenghast (Paperback)
This is a review of Gormenghast, that is, the second part of the Gormenghast trilogy (after Titus Groan, and before Titus Alone).After a somewhat slow beginning, in which Mervyn Peake first briefly summarizes Titus Grown by drawing up a list of which characters have died or gone missing, then introduces the reader with the plethora of new characters that are the teachers of Titus, the now seven-year-old seventy-seventh Earl of Gormenghast, the pace hopefully picks up again. And as the pages turn, the story becomes more and more exciting. Irma Prunesquallor's party, and then her romance and the way the whole affair eventually backfires on Wellgrove, although it does not push the plot further, were fun to read. Titus's growing love for his sister Fuchsia, and at the same time his attempts at shunning both the physical prison that is Gormenghast castle and the mental cage that is its sacrosanct ritual, attempts that lead him into the mysterious forest where lurks the Thing, and to the grotto where Flay has taken shelter, were passionating. Finally, Steerpike's mischievious, murderous ambition, and the others' suspicions that gradually turn into evidences, and the memorable chases in the shadowy maze of the fortress that ensue, were purely mind-boggling. Mervyn Peake's characters are so complex that in the end you like the ones you despised and hate the ones you loved in the first book. His words give life to such an amazing imagery, it vibrates and dazzles, it's intoxicating. This is magic.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews) 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A large plateful, but satisfying,
By Paul Beard "pb202" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Gormenghast (Hardcover)
It's not really possible to review Gormenghast out of context with the other two books that sandwich it: Titus Groan leads you into the world of Gormenghast and Titus Alone makes you wonder how Gormenghast, the place, exists.This second volume continues to follow the adventures of the murderously ambitious Steerpike, the maturity and self-awareness of Titus Groan, with some colorful side-trips into a courtship, the revelation of a creature completely antithetical to all that Gormanghast stands for, and a natural disaster that heightens the intensity of the conclusion. I would heartily recommend starting with Titus Groan (it seems the only available edition has all three volumes in one), and working through them in sequence. But make sure you avoid all the scholarly apparatus that follows Titus Alone until you've finished all three: there are a few spoilers there. As for the comparisons to Tolkein, I'm afraid I don't see it: they as different as can be. This is not a hero's quest and where it does come down to good versus evil, it's more to do with survival: the world of Gormenghast is a world of murk and shadows, with no clear delineations or values. Titus Groan's self-awareness and the choices he makes are what drive the story. In The Lord of the Rings, there's a sense of destiny to the decisions and actions: Gormenghast is much more personal, with Steerpike's ambition, Sepulchrave's sense of duty, Flay's vigilance, Titus's maturity all helping to propel the action. Now go read this monster. 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intoxicating.,
By Stephanie Noverraz "crooty" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Gormenghast (Paperback)
This is a review of Gormenghast, that is, the second part of the Gormenghast trilogy (after Titus Groan, and before Titus Alone).After a somewhat slow beginning, in which Mervyn Peake first briefly summarizes Titus Grown by drawing up a list of which characters have died or gone missing, then introduces the reader with the plethora of new characters that are the teachers of Titus, the now seven-year-old seventy-seventh Earl of Gormenghast, the pace hopefully picks up again. And as the pages turn, the story becomes more and more exciting. Irma Prunesquallor's party, and then her romance and the way the whole affair eventually backfires on Wellgrove, although it does not push the plot further, were fun to read. Titus's growing love for his sister Fuchsia, and at the same time his attempts at shunning both the physical prison that is Gormenghast castle and the mental cage that is its sacrosanct ritual, attempts that lead him into the mysterious forest where lurks the Thing, and to the grotto where Flay has taken shelter, were passionating. Finally, Steerpike's mischievious, murderous ambition, and the others' suspicions that gradually turn into evidences, and the memorable chases in the shadowy maze of the fortress that ensue, were purely mind-boggling. Mervyn Peake's characters are so complex that in the end you like the ones you despised and hate the ones you loved in the first book. His words give life to such an amazing imagery, it vibrates and dazzles, it's intoxicating. This is magic. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A tragic tapestry of visual enchantments!,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: THE GORMENGHAST TRILOGY - The Titus Books: Book (1) One: Titus Groan; Book (2) Two: Gormenghast; Book (3) Three: Titus Alone (Paperback)
The Gormenghast trilogy (yes, it is a trilogy) is by far a brilliant achievement in the exploration of the imagination. It draws the thick, musty curtains of the brain's preoccupations to reveal a fantastic world of marionette-like carricatures, parading before you in a story that defies the constrictive realm of fantasy literature. Mervyn Peake's talents as an illustrater take on a completely different medium to paint these vistas before you. The only real tragedy of this beautiful, innocent tale is that these books are harder to find than Sourdust's hairbrush.
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