Customer Reviews

Titus Alone

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is a serious mistake to discount Titus Alone as merely the weakest of Peake's magnificent trilogy. It is an expansion and development of his earlier themes, and considering the circumstances under which it was written (Peake was suffering from premature senility that eventually lead to his death, he could barely lift a pencil.) it is an extraordinary and painful novel. Leaving Gormenghast and its (surviving) inhabitants behind, the novel centres on the character of Titus, and crucially puts the earlier novels in context. Despite his mother's warnings at the end of Gormenghast, there is indeed a world beyond the walls, and a world which has progressed beyond the ritual and claustrophobia of the castle itself. There is technology here. And - most extraordinary of all - no one has ever heard of Gormenghast itself. Suddenly Titus is accused of insanity (among other things) and even begins to doubt the existence of his home himself. As disturbing and beautiful as anything that went before, Titus Alone was never meant to be the end of the series. Peake was planning to take Titus even further afield, but as merely a glimpse of the outside world, the novel is an essential part of an extraordinary work of literature.

This is the third and last volume of the Gormenghast trilogy (after Titus Groan, and Gormenghast).

In this book, we follow Titus, now almost twenty, as he escapes from the Castle, flees its oppressive Ritual, and becomes lost in a sandstorm. Helped by the owner of a travelling zoo, Muzzlehatch, and his ex-lover Juno, he ends up in a big city. Of course, no one there has ever heard of Gormenghast, and the general opinion is that the boy is deranged, and with no paper, he's soon arrested for vagrancy.

Hopefully, there are a few people who believe in his story, or at least who are intrigued by it, and they try to help him. And now Titus, the deserter, the traitor, longs for his home, and looks for it all the time to prove, if only to himself, that Gormenghast is truly real.

I don't know how closely Titus Alone actually follows Mervyn Peake's intentions before mental illness struck him, but this final volume is indeed chaotic. Its characters and style, its setting and atmosphere have little to do with both previous books. Or maybe it's just me who didn't understand anything, but nevertheless, all I felt was bitter frustration.

I enjoyed this book very much but it IS rather different from the preceding novels (Titus Groan, Gormenghast), which are really complete as a pair. Though related it is not necessary to have read them in order to follow the action of this story.

Young Titus Groan, Lord of Gormenghast after his Father's assassination and the death of the villainous Steerforth, decides to set out to see something of the world beyond the eccentric traditions of his decayed and moribund realm. He finds a decaying and eccentric city, where he makes some allies as he becomes a nine-days wonder.

Peake excelled at depiction of a monstrous and decaying world filled with wierd eccentrics. If you like that kind of thing, you'll love this book!

It is important to note that although Robert Whitfield does an excellent reading job on this and the other two Titus novels, the source material for this audiobook is NOT the current preferred text of "Titus Alone" that was restored by Langdon Jones. The source material for this audiobook is the Ballantine Books paperback edition, which included substantial alterations and cuts to Mervyn Peake's original manuscript. This version is substantially different (and not in a good way) from the "director's cut" (for lack of a better term) version of "Titus Alone" that was published later by Overlook Press, and which also appears in the deluxe Folio Society edition.

Mervyn Peake's magnum opus began in Titus Groan, and continued in Gormenghast, two brilliant (though door-stopping) books that explored the lives of those that exist in a self-contained, self-sufficient edifice known as Gormenghast: a labyrinthine world of towers, mansions, slums, and the corridors that connect them all. It is ruled by ancient and meaningless ritual, something that the titular character of Titus, Seventy-Seventh Earl of Gormenghast, has rejected. In the final passages of "Gormenghast," Titus chooses to abandon his home and seek out the world that lies beyond his its borders.

It was an exciting, rewarding finish to the colossal two-part novel, and its sequel opens with our protagonist alone for first time in his life, wandering in the world that he never knew existed. Having left his entire world behind, and carrying only a flint as a reminder of his home, Titus is on a quest for...what? He himself isn't sure, but it becomes clear enough to the reader that he's looking for self-knowledge and a sense of who he is outside his past, his home and his title as Earl of Gormenghast. The ritual and history that has informed his entire existence is now gone, and Titus struggles to understand himself and his place without it. The fact that no one in his travels has ever heard of Gormenghast and suspect Titus of insanity and vagrancy, only adds to his identity crisis.

For Titus, the mere fact that a world exists outside of Gormenghast is astounding. Gormenghast was a world of its own that seemed to exist in some unspecified time period (it really could have been at any point from the Middle Ages to the Victorian Era), but outside the walls there are factories, cars, airplanes, helicopters and even what seem to be technologically advanced spy-crafts. The move from Gothic fantasy to science-fiction may be jarring for some readers, but one can't help but be fascinated at Titus's shock and exploration of this new city of glass and concrete.

The story is, quite frankly, bizarre and erratic. Titus is washed up on a riverbank and taken in by the indescribable Muzzlehatch, the owner of an exotic menagerie of animals, and who seems to take an odd interest in Titus's wellbeing. Titus goes on to experience his sexual awakening with a beautiful, middle-aged woman, as well as its antithesis (lust and indifference) with a young woman his own age, who engineers an elaborate scheme against him once she realizes his lack of sincere feeling toward her. These are the most easily-described aspects of the story; it also includes two helmeted men that are tracking down Titus, a range of characters who live in the darkened world of Under-River, and an ominous factory that seemed to run on human lives. These portions of the story feel erratic and nonsensical, though this is only to be expected considering Peake's declining health at the time.

Mervyn Peake was writing "Titus Alone" in the midst of the early stages of Parkinson's Disease (as well as a history of depression and nervous break-downs), and though it was published *before* his death, there were examples of careless editing and several inconsistencies that suggest it wasn't completed to his satisfaction. In 1970 Langdon Jones reconstructed several chapters of the novel, working from three separate versions of the manuscript as well as new material in Peake's notebooks in order to reach the edition that most readers will be familiar with. Yet even with this meticulous care, one cannot shake the sense of incoherency in "Titus Alone." There is a lack of structure and continuity here: introduced characters that drop in and out of the story, plot devices that go nowhere, and several moments of sheer weirdness. Peake worked through his illness, and the language is as beautiful and rich as always, but it does seem as though this is a draft that still needs extensive polishing.

It poses a problem when it comes to a recommendation. On the one hand, readers of the first two books will be somewhat uncomfortable at the change in tone and setting; on the other, this book will mean virtually nothing to newcomers. The first two novels form a complete story, with an open but satisfactory ending. For those pressed for time, or not particularly involved in this saga, "Titus Alone" is not strictly necessary, and "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast" make up the best that Peake has to offer (in fact, the BBC's miniseries of the show adapts these two initial novels, but doesn't even touch "Titus Alone.")

As other reviewers have mentioned, is not the third and final book in a "trilogy" - it is the latest installment in a series that sadly was cut short due to the author's death. Titus's story was originally designed as a series that would have followed Titus's life from infant to grown man (it shouldn't be too difficult to track down the opening segment of Peake's proposed forth novel: "Titus Awakes" on the internet) and it's heartbreaking that we'll never get Peake's complete vision. As it stands "Titus Alone" will appeal mostly to completists or fans; those who come into this novel knowing that it is, in a sense "incomplete."

Peake's own unique style and gift with language are still present here, as are some interesting new characters. Titus is a young man now, seeking his identity while exploring a new world, previously unknown to him. It is amazing that Peake maintained such an original vision for all 3 of these books, and that his beautiful pictures with words are never diminished. Perhaps because of the consistent quality and style, the effect and freshness of the language and characters are somewhat diminished by this third book. It may have been approaching too much of a good thing. It's hard to find any fault with such an achievement as these books, however, which I have so far found nothing to compare to in the science fiction/fantasy genre. Like them or not, these books largely created their own genre, and are a rewarding reading experience.

Mervyn Peake's vast Gormenghast series is often mischaracterized as a trilogy - a crucial inaccuracy that is seen in several of the reviews here. Actually Peake meant for the saga to be an open-ended series covering the life and times of the protagonist Titus. Also, this third installment was apparently incomplete at the time of Peake's death and was written under less-than-ideal conditions during an illness. Thus, this third installment is an abrupt and initially unpleasant departure from its two predecessors, the vast and moody gothic epics "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast." In "Titus Alone," young Titus has escaped his claustrophobic and isolated existence in the dreary Gormenghast castle and has wandered into a bizarre dystopian sci-fi society where nobody has heard of his kingdom, thus throwing his entire self-image and even his sanity into doubt.

Fans of the first two novels in the series might be disappointed, or just plain flabbergasted, by this installment's abrupt shift in mood and setting. The vaguely-defined science fiction setting and gadgets, especially, don't mix too well with the rest of the series. On the other side of the coin, this installment probably will make no sense as a stand-alone story, which is not necessarily the case with its two predecessors. However, readers with open minds will still find reasons to love this installment on its own merits, as it is really a unique coming-of-age story, with Titus questioning his very existence as he escapes a society in which he is a worshipped leader and ends up anonymous in a city of indifference and danger.

So the problem with "Titus Alone" is that it is inextricably linked to its two predecessors but is a radical departure from them. That will cause trouble with many fans of the series, but other fans will be able to stomach the abrupt shift and appreciate this story's uniqueness. Fans will have to take their chances, but a good percentage of them will eventually feel rewarded. [~doomsdayer520~]

While this review isn't for this particular edition of the book, I thought it best belongs here, as a review of the third novel itself:

Firstly, I was surprised that no one else had corrected the notion (that even the product review implies!) that this book is the final installment to a trilogy: it is not. It is simply the third book in a projected series about Titus, and the novel in which the focus shifts from the world of Titus's childhood (Gormenghast) into Peake's broader fantasy world. So, if you loved the first two books because of the world of Gormenghast, be warned that this book is different.

This is the story of Titus going out into the wider word, a definite a coming of age story (closing line of the third-to-last paragraph: "He had grown up. What a boy had set out to find a man had found, found by the act of living.") and the story of what happens to someone when they leave a place like Gormenghast behind completely (even to the point of other people being thoroughly ignorant of its existence).

It is not a particularly structured novel, but I think that its crazy meanderings, beautiful writing and marvelous characters (especially Muzzlehatch) are its greatest strengths. It reminds me of nothing so much as Petronius's Satyricon, and contains all at once a heart-breaking sadness, a horrifying picture of the dangers of the modern world and deliciously bizarre humor.

It's not a book for everyone, especially people who are caught up in the neat story of Gormenghast in the first two novels, but I have a great respect and deep love for this book. A perhaps challenging read but one infinitely rewarding that will engage the imagination and the mind.

If you like battle of good and evil in a fantasy setting this is for you. Dense plottimg, full characters, language intense.

Titius Alone is the last, and admittedly weakest, of Peake*s great Gormenghast trilogy. In it, the self-exiled young Lord Titus Groan now confronts the world he desired to see. Before, the brooding pile of the Castle, a character in its own right, had influenced everyone, everything within it, even the spirited Titus. Its absence already throws this book out of kilter with the first two; it really is necessary to read the others first to uncerstand this one. The world Titus enters is still no less macabre, a city of spires and airships (it is never clear just when the era is). The people, animal lover Muzzlehatch, tragic Black Rose, no less compelling. Yet the story appears incomplete, there exists rebellion, fights, illness, Titus is bewitchingly betrayed by the girl who once loved him--but all throughout, whatever Titus, and the book, is seeking, still remains elusive. He had sought to be free of his dark home Gormenghast, yet carries his title nonetheless, a name mocked by nearly everyone he meets. I have not personally read this edition, but actively seek it, as it contains Peake*s notes and further ideas, that may have fleshed out Titus in adulthood. The ending of this book is abrupt--all but within site of the Castle, he yet turns and leaves once again--a scene rather disappointing, certainly puzzling. While it is too much to ask that someone take up a sequel (it is like trying to add on to CS Lewis), this reader yet wonders, *What happened after......* Not for everyone*s taste, or even for all who enjoyed the depth of the first two, but a thoughtful last look, a final postcard from a twisting, tangled journey.