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Gormenghast Novels (Paperback)

by Anthony Burgess (Foreword), Mervyn Peake (Author)

4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (85 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 1168 pages
Publisher: Overlook Press; Reprint edition (Jan 13 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0879516283
ISBN-13: 978-0879516284
Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 13.6 x 5.4 cm
Shipping Weight: 921 g

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (85 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #98,090 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories:
#1 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( P ) > Peake, Mervyn
#7 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Burgess, Anthony

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

Mervyn Peake's gothic masterpiece, the Gormenghast trilogy, begins with the superlative Titus Groan, a darkly humorous, stunningly complex tale of the first two years in the life of the heir to an ancient, rambling castle. The trilogy continues with the novels Gormenghast and Titus Alone, and all three books are bound together in this single-volume edition.

The Gormenghast royal family, the castle's decidedly eccentric staff, and the peasant artisans living around the dreary, crumbling structure make up the cast of characters in these engrossing stories. Peake's command of language and unique style set the tone and shape of an intricate, slow-moving world of ritual and stasis:

"The walls of the vast room which were streaming with calid moisture, were built with gray slabs of stone and were the personal concern of a company of eighteen men known as the 'Grey Scrubbers'.... On every day of the year from three hours before daybreak until about eleven o'clock, when the scaffolding and ladders became a hindrance to the cooks, the Grey Scrubbers fulfilled their hereditary calling."

Peake has been compared to Dickens, Tolkien, and Peacock, but the Gormenghast trilogy is truly unique. Unforgettable characters with names like Steerpike and Prunesquallor make their way through an architecturally stifling world, with lots of dark corners around to dampen any whimsy that might arise. This true classic is a feast of words unlike anything else in the world of fantasy. Those who explore Gormenghast castle will be richly rewarded. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

A doomed lord, an emergent hero, and a dazzling array of bizarre creatures inhabit the magical world of the Gormenghast novels which, along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, reign as one of the undisputed fantasy classics of all time. At the center of it all is the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom, unless the conniving Steerpike, who is determined to rise above his menial position and control the House of Groan, has his way.

In these extraordinary novels, Peake has created a world where all is like a dream--lush, fantastical, and vivid. Accompanying the text are Peake's own drawings, illustrating the whole assembly of strange and marvelous creatures that inhabit Gormenghast.
Introductory Essays by Anthony Burgess and Quentin Crisp
Twelve critical essays
Fragment of the unpublished novel, Titus Awakes

"Mervyn Peake is a finer poet than Edgar Allan Poe, and he is therefore able to maintain his world of fantasy brilliantly through three novels. It is a very, very great work . . . a classic of our age."-- Robertson Davies

"[Peake's books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience."-- C. S. Lewis

"This extravagant epic about a labyrinthine castle populated with conniving Dickensian grotesques is the true fantasy classic of our time."-- The Washington Post Book World

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

85 Reviews

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (85 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonder ful fantasy, Jun 1 2004

By	Jackie M. Bachenberg "theoriginaljfmmb" (Canton, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It took me quite a while to get through this, but it was worth it.

Some of the reviewer's talk about all the symbolism, but I'd recommend reading the book just for the fantasy of it and the wonderful prose of Mr. Peake. Some reviewer's talked about how it was slow moving and boring. At times the pace of the book did slow, but in those times read for the beauty of the words and the vivid picture that is painted by those words.

This is a collection of three books, Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone. I will admit that I enjoyed the 1st two books much more than the last, Titus Alone. Titus Alone seemed to take such a departure from the first two that I had a hard time relating it back to the first two.

I'd recommend these for someone who wants to get lost in another world.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Surreal greatness, May 3 2004

By	Megan Lambert "mgraham163" (Pittsboro, NC United States) - See all my reviews

There are many books that I might as well not have read for all that I can remember of them, but Gormenghast remains vividly alive for me years later. The castle is more real in my mind than many places I've visited in reality. The settings and chatacters are so well realized that my imagination hardly had to fill in any blanks.

Grotesquery pervades nearly every passage, but not always of a revolting kind. Moments of great humor, suspense, dread, and outrage drive the story, with an engaging plot threading through the first two installments. The third breaks abruptly from the rest of the trilogy, and I don't pretend to understand why Peake chose to go in the direction he did. This is not to say that the third part is bad - it is quite good - but the continuity with the previous parts is nearly entirely cut. There remain strong thematic connections, and I do perceive an overall relationship and point, but I remain confused by the shift nonetheless. Perhaps you won't be.

I do not recommend this book for anyone looking for a page turner or who is put off by an unconventional style. Gormenghast is like a huge panoramic painting in words. Don't look for a linear, action-driven structure. Just dive in and let Peake's unparalleled prose transport you to one of the most complex and bizarre psychological landscapes around.

This edition also includes some critical essays by prominent writers. I have not finished reading these, but they appear very worthwhile.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A piece of literary genius, April 27 2004

By A Customer

As an avid reader and devourer of English literature, I was prepared to be disappointed in this "classic". I read the reviews, and I thought the story line sounded a bit preposterous, but I was intrigued enough that I thought I'd give Mervyn Peake a try.
I have never been so enthralled by a book before (and for me, that's saying something). I found myself racing through it so I could start reading it all over again. And I didn't just reread this trilogy, I lovingly dissected it.
Mervyn Peake was a genius with language-he painted pictures with his words. His command of the English language was masterful-I had to keep Webster's dictionary next to me as I read his works-he used words I didn't know existed.
The Gormenghast trilogy defies classification. Mere summaries cannot do it justice. This is, by far, the most profound book I have ever read.
Why couldn't I have found this book twenty years ago?

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Needed editing
A good story but needed some editing...has long dry passages that don't seem to add much to the story. Overall a very gothic feeling to the book... Read more

Published on Feb 11 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, Beautiful, Complex and Unforgettable
This book is almost impossible to describe. The Author, Mervyn Peake, is the same man who drew the 'Alice in Wonderland' illustrations that we all grew up with. Read more

Published on Feb 2 2004 by Scott A. Davis

5.0 out of 5 stars The Strangest Book in the World
Actually, this book does have something in common with Tolkiens: they are both "Wierd". (We just forget how bizare the Professors is due to all the Barbara Cartland -... Read more

Published on Dec 15 2003 by Ian Dall

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lost Masterpiece of Dark Fantasy
As other reviewers have pointed out, this novel is compared, somewhat erroneously, to Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, because both fall loosely under the heading of fantasy. Read more

Published on Sep 4 2003