The Gormenghast Trilogy (Mervyn Peake, 1946-59)

Sitting on my shelf for the best part of a decade, The Gormenghast Trilogy is a 953 page behemoth comprising Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950), and Titus Alone (1959). The page count alone, plus the size of the print on each of those pages, put me off even beginning the book, but determined to read the books that I keep moving around the shelves (in order to get them off my shelves and onto someone else's, via a charity shop) I finally took the plunge. I decided to read all three at once otherwise I'd probably not go back for ages, and so exactly a month after opening the book I'd finished the whole trilogy.

Titus Groan and Gormenghast are easily the best and most satisfying of the three, and they really form one continuous epic across the two, with Titus Alone feeling very much like an unnecessary extension. What I loved about the books was the wonderfully macabre, descriptive and humourous quality of Peake's prose. Featuring only a handful of named characters, the main one is the location, Gormenghast, a vast, sprawling city-like entity that is really a castle that has been expanded and built on over the centuries by the Groan family, of which Titus, born in the opening pages, is the 77th Earl. Titus Groan, the book, surprisingly features its titular protagonist very little for he remains a baby for the entirety. The second book sees him feature much more heavily from ages 7 to 17, and then he's the only original character to feature in Titus Alone. 

It would be hard to sum up the plot of this epic fantasy - even calling it a fantasy is contentious, there's no magic, no wizards, no alien lands. Gormenghast exists in an unspecified time and place but the feel is almost medieval, yet contained within the walls is a library (beloved of Titus' father, Sepulchrave), a school (headed by Bellgrove), and of course Doctor Prunesquallor, one of the most delightful of all the bizarre characters among the uppoer echelons of Gormenghast society. It is in Peake's complete absorption in the place of Gormenghast and it's people that drew me in and had me rattling through the pages. 

The characters are all wonderfully named with distinct personalities and roles to play in the strictly dictated traditions of the castle. There's Fuschia, sister to Titus and somewhat of a free spirit; Irma Prunesquallor, the doctor's sister; Clarice and Cora, Titus' twin aunts who are incredibly dim but also incredible dangerous; Gertrude, Titus' obese mother who loves birds and cats more than her children; Swelter, the grotesque cook; Flay, the spider-like manservant of Sepulchrave... And of course Steerpike (depicted on the front cover by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), the antagonist to Titus' nominal protagonist. Steerpike is a curious creation, he's quite evil, but not in a camp or arch manor, he wishes to rise to the top of Gormenghast society and will stop and nothing including murder to get there. His and Titus' stories are told in parallel and the last half of Gormenghast (the book) involves the hunt to find and end the unmasked menace. It's a heady, exhilirating ride. 

Where Titus Alone falls down is in taking Titus out of Gormenghast and shedding excellent characters (must of whom ended up getting killed or dying somehow in the preceding books though) to replace them with less-well drawn ones with little backstory or motivation. The world Titus finds himself in also feels too modern, with lifts, motor cars and factories, that jars with the timeless, placeless majesty of the first two books. Unfortunately, Peake was suffering from Parkinson's that led to a rapid debilitation and the third book was not absolutely complete before he succumbed. It wasn't that there weren't moments of Titus Alone to enjoy, it just paled in comparison to the epic sweep of what had gone before, although at just 200 pages and 122 chapters it was a swift and painless read. 

I'm pleased that I took the plunge and immersed myself in Gormenghast for a month, I whole-heartedly enjoyed being there and meeting Peake's wonderful creations. The language was a delilcious pleasure to ingest and really brought alive this curious, dark, demented world and it is only a shame that the author's illness curtailed any further adventures of Titus and the citizens of Gormenghast's hallowed walls.