Gormenghast (Gormenghast Trilogy) [Hardcover]

Mervyn Peake (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gormenghast Trilogy | Publication Date: October 26, 1982

Enter the world of Gormenghast...the vast crumbling castle to which the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, is Lord and heir. Gothic labyrinth of roofs and turrets, cloisters and corridors, stairwells and dungeons, it is also the cobwebbed kingdom of Byzantine government and age-old rituals, a world primed to implode beneath the weight of centuries of intrigue, treachery, manipulation and murder – a tour de force that ranks as one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable feats of imaginative writing. Gormenghast is more than a sequel to Titus Groan – it is an enrichment and deepening of that book.The fertility of incident, character and rich atmosphere combine in a tour de force that ranks as one of this century’s most remarkable feats of imaginative writing.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 524 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover (October 26, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879511443
• ISBN-13: 978-0879511449
• Product Dimensions: 20 x 20 x 20 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,326,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A large plateful, but satisfying, April 4, 2002

By 

Paul Beard "pb202" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gormenghast (Gormenghast Trilogy) (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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is one of the best books ever written., February 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Gormenghast (Gormenghast Trilogy) (Paperback)

Peake takes you into a musty world beyond time and space. His descriptions of this world are beyond imagination, as are his characters. You become engulfed in a story full of lies, madness, sadness, and utter mystery. If you like Tolkien try this book on for size!!!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intoxicating., May 26, 2004

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.