The second volume in the timeless fantasy trilogy that begins in "Titus Groan" is now available to a new generation of fantasy fans, who are sure t...
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Sep 13, 2011
Paul
rated it: 
(Vaguely spoilerish remarks follow).
Stripped to the bone, Titus Groan and Gormenghast tell a simple story of pre-socialist revolution and why it will inevitably fail. Steerpike, the ostensible villain, the agent of historical transition, is the working class boy from the kitchens who fails to achieve full political consciousness, seeks no solidarity from his co-workers, and decides to infiltrate the system from within, working alone. The toadying middle-classes (Prunesquallor and h More...
Stripped to the bone, Titus Groan and Gormenghast tell a simple story of pre-socialist revolution and why it will inevitably fail. Steerpike, the ostensible villain, the agent of historical transition, is the working class boy from the kitchens who fails to achieve full political consciousness, seeks no solidarity from his co-workers, and decides to infiltrate the system from within, working alone. The toadying middle-classes (Prunesquallor and h More...
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Nov 22, 2010
Suna
rated it:
I continuously swing backwards and forwards between this being my favourite, and Titus Groan being my favourite.
In Gormenghast, we are inexorably drawn beyond recall into the deeper machinations of the castle and its inhabitants.
We are introduced to completely new areas: The school with its rigid boarding school set-up, the professors, wonderfully quirky buggers one and all, continually locked in more-intellectual-than-thou one upmanship.
Titus is a young boy and we have a bri More...
In Gormenghast, we are inexorably drawn beyond recall into the deeper machinations of the castle and its inhabitants.
We are introduced to completely new areas: The school with its rigid boarding school set-up, the professors, wonderfully quirky buggers one and all, continually locked in more-intellectual-than-thou one upmanship.
Titus is a young boy and we have a bri More...
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Aug 25, 2011
Keely
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The Gormenghast books are considered to be the beginning of the 'mannerpunk' genre, and along with Tolkien, Moorecock, and Howard, Peake is one of the fathers of the modern Fantasy genre. Mannerpunk is a genre typified by complex psychology, plots driven by character interaction, and a strong sense of mood.
It is also notable for the characters rather than the world being fantastical. In this sense, mannerpunk, and certainly the Gormenghast books, work in the vein of surrealism (mean More...
It is also notable for the characters rather than the world being fantastical. In this sense, mannerpunk, and certainly the Gormenghast books, work in the vein of surrealism (mean More...
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Feb 25, 2008
Phil
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Nov 25, 2008
Marilyn
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The Gormenghast Trilogy is amazing. I don't know whether it's because it was written by an artist, but it is without a doubt the most painterly novel I've ever read. Peake's use of language incredibly beautiful and visual. Steerpike becomes so malignantly evil in the book, at some points I could only read short bits at a time. And the operative word is "becomes". Peake draws Steerpike not merely as a one dimensional character, but allows you to see his mental and physical disintegratio
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Mar 19, 2011
Nicholas
rated it: 
The second book of the famous trilogy, in which the evil Steerpike's plans to dominate Gormenghast Castle are resolved in vicious single combat with Titus Groan, the 77th earl. When I first read this, at least a quarter of a century ago, the two scenes that really stuck in mymind were the grotesque deaths of Deadyawn the headmaster, killed in a bizarre incident where his wheelchair intersects with a dealy schoolboy game, and of the twin aunts of Titus and Fuchsia, locked away by Steerpike to die
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Dec 03, 2009
James
rated it:
More entertaining than book one. The series reaches near perfection with this second book. Titus grows up and decides he doesn't want to become a slave to the insane traditions of Gormenghast, which is not only an enormous castle but an obsessively compulsive society. He tries to break away. Steerpike's wicked deeds continue. Dear, sweet Fuchsia meets her end in one of the most poetic death scenes ever (so much so that it inspired a really good song called "The Drowning Man" by the Cur
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Nov 10, 2011
Deadly
rated it:
Gormenghast and Titus Groan are two of my favourite books in the world. To read them is to lose yourself in the dusty, crumbling and moss-grown shadows of a magnificently decaying grand world.
Mr Peake creates an aging castle so real you almost feel like blowing the dust from the pages before you read them.
The characters, with names that wrinkle the nose, furrow the brow or make you raise your chin when you say them out loud, are freakish, bizarre and eccentric but oddly lovable. Eve More...
Mr Peake creates an aging castle so real you almost feel like blowing the dust from the pages before you read them.
The characters, with names that wrinkle the nose, furrow the brow or make you raise your chin when you say them out loud, are freakish, bizarre and eccentric but oddly lovable. Eve More...
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Aug 15, 2011
Jim
rated it:
As ever, as good a read today as it was when I first found it in the late 1970s. Everything I said about 'Titus Groan' still holds true - language is detailed, vivid and descriptive (I read another review in here that described Peake's style as 'painterly', and when I thought about it that was pretty spot-on), the setting of the castle, its surroundings and the strange inhabitants still gripping, byzantine (or is it baroque?) and funny by turns - I particularly like the Schoolmasters, and the in
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May 07, 2011
Anne
rated it:
The fabulous enchanted macarbre world of Gormenghast opens out to you like a vast dream that wends it's tendrils around your imagination until you are well and truly hooked, pulled under and throttled with a club of pure audacity. I read this as a teenager and it opened a world of mystery and imagination to me that laid a foundation of inky surrealist humorous horror to my literary loves. Mervyn Peake, a master of language, paints a beautiful but fragile world around Titus Groan, heir to the cru
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Jun 09, 2010
Yngvild
rated it:
Gormenghast is the second of Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan trilogy and by far the best. Where Titus Groan (#I) is quirkily clever but rather erratic, Gormenghast (#2) is beautifully written, has a real narrative, and finishes with several chapters of cliff-hanging suspense and a satisfying ending.
The pity is that Gormenghast is not a standalone book. All the characters are introduced in Titus Groan. If you begin the Titus Groan books with Gormenghast, it is just like starting a book in More...
The pity is that Gormenghast is not a standalone book. All the characters are introduced in Titus Groan. If you begin the Titus Groan books with Gormenghast, it is just like starting a book in More...
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Sep 13, 2009
I didn’t enjoy this novel as much as I did the preceding one (Titus Groan). It wasn’t bad, necessarily, and in parts I was fairly captivated, but overall it just lacked the spark. I think it’s mostly because this novel is a coming of age story for a heroic character as opposed to a villainous one, and hence, structurally, just a lot less fun. The sub-plot about Irma Prunesquallor and Belgrove took up a lot of space in the novel as well, but as far as I could tell went nowhere and did no More...
Jun 03, 2010
William Herschel
rated it:
If I could afford to judge people by their opinion of a book this one just might be it.
This was 10x better than Titus Groan. Or perhaps I was simply more adapted to the setting and writing style this time around. But this definitely had a better balance of description, characters, action, grimness, humour...
The first two books of the Gormenghast trilogy center around a vast castle governed by monarchy and strange, symbolic rituals (rituals in which even the inhabitants ar More...
This was 10x better than Titus Groan. Or perhaps I was simply more adapted to the setting and writing style this time around. But this definitely had a better balance of description, characters, action, grimness, humour...
The first two books of the Gormenghast trilogy center around a vast castle governed by monarchy and strange, symbolic rituals (rituals in which even the inhabitants ar More...
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Apr 06, 2010
Esther
rated it: 
Wanted to like this. Tried hard to read it. Realized I couldn't force myself to slog through this self-indulgent wallowing in shabby-romantic blather. And yet! I thought it was a great idea - why did no one ever tell Mervyn to Keep It Simple? Somebody should have introduced him to Hemingway. That would have been funny. Anyway, we all know how THAT would have ended - Hemingway would shoot any man named Mervyn, just for the principle of it. Man! Now I'm getting all sorts of great ideas for rewriti
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Jan 05, 2012
Megan
rated it: 
How to rate this one? Three stars or four? Well, I'm unlikely to read this again, so I guess three. Or am I? Maybe I'll try it again some day. Four?
I find the Gormenghast books a bit exhausting, and they fall under the category of books that I respect, but that I don't particularly like. The characters are all too distant, the writing too ornate, the world too much like a painting by someone who can capture moments, but not depth of feeling.
And yet I found the second volume More...
I find the Gormenghast books a bit exhausting, and they fall under the category of books that I respect, but that I don't particularly like. The characters are all too distant, the writing too ornate, the world too much like a painting by someone who can capture moments, but not depth of feeling.
And yet I found the second volume More...
Jul 28, 2011
Kerry
rated it:
I read this, taking an excruciatingly long time, when I was really sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and it was perfect - a scenario that was even more depressing than the one I was living thorugh.
Recommended for those with an extremely black sense of humour, or else an abilty to survive endless descriptions of colourless, bleak, aristocratic morons. Helps if you don't like the English upper classes!
It is, having said all that, a classic of gothic fantasy literature, and quite snidley takes a More...
Recommended for those with an extremely black sense of humour, or else an abilty to survive endless descriptions of colourless, bleak, aristocratic morons. Helps if you don't like the English upper classes!
It is, having said all that, a classic of gothic fantasy literature, and quite snidley takes a More...
Dec 18, 2008
q
rated it:
Peake's highly visual style is captivating. The books are a marvelous, sprawling exploration of vivid characters and themes.
Well, that's what I wrote about the trilogy. Unlike that omnibus edition, this Ballantine has a section of litho plates (I guess — I'm no printer), detailed portraits of Bellgrove, Irma, Gertude, Fuchsia, Steerpike, Swelter, Dr. Prune (with Fuchsia), and the twins. I'm very happy I dug it up. The Swelter portrait is as scary as it could/should be, and the on More...
Well, that's what I wrote about the trilogy. Unlike that omnibus edition, this Ballantine has a section of litho plates (I guess — I'm no printer), detailed portraits of Bellgrove, Irma, Gertude, Fuchsia, Steerpike, Swelter, Dr. Prune (with Fuchsia), and the twins. I'm very happy I dug it up. The Swelter portrait is as scary as it could/should be, and the on More...
Feb 08, 2012
Pedro
rated it:
Segunda entrega de la trilogía. Este libro es mucho mas negro que el anterior, aunque sigue teniendo grandes momentos de humor. Es un gustazo ver como el autor te lleva por los pasillos del castillo, sus habitantes, tan dispares, las costumbres de un mundo imaginario.... todo ello perfectamente descrito y sin descuidar a unos personajes que ganan en matices tal y como avanzan las páginas. Muy buen libro este segundo, incluso mejor que el primero. Lástima que me ha pillado una época de mucho trab
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Nov 29, 2011
Graham
rated it:
I'd heard so much about this book but had never read it, or any of the others in the series. I was waiting for them to become available from someone on Bookmooch but as it happened the first on offer was this one rather than the first in the trilogy - Titus Groan. So, it was with some trepidation that I started reading Gormenghast, not knowing if it would be a mistake to do so as it had been trying to read one of Stephen King's Dark Tower series out of order. I needn't have worried.
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Aug 01, 2011
Jayne
rated it: 
There seemed to be a lot more scope for entertainment in this, the second book in the trilogy. For a start, we are introduced to the staff of the local school for the first time. This leads to surely the funniest single scene in the entire series - where the teacher wakes up having fallen asleep in the middle of a lesson to see.......well, I can't spoil it, but it was well worth reading. On the other hand, some parts of the story seemed to go on much too long (in particularly the will-he-or-won'
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May 16, 2011
Ticklish Owl
rated it:
If you liked this book, you might also enjoy Foundling, Lamplighter, and Factotum by D.M. Cornish.
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Jan 13, 2011
Rabenfrau
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 08, 2012
Alexis
rated it:
This books follows the adventures of young Titus Groan, the seventy-seventh Earl of Gormenghast--a role to which he is by no means reconciled. As Titus resents (and occasionally rebels against) his lordly responsibilities, the cleverly malevolent Steerpike plots his own advancement, by whatever means necessary. His schemes take him through the vast expanse of Gormenghast--a sprawling, decrepit castle of truly mind-boggling dimensions. But Steerpike's subtle machinations have not gone unnoticed,
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Feb 04, 2012
Harmonybites
rated it:
Gormenghast is the middle part of a trilogy, and you should read Titus Groan first if you haven't already. It took me a long time to warm up to Titus Groan and I only got hooked about half-way through. At first I didn't like any of the characters, and Peake's style is forbidding at times. The pace is beyond leisurely--Peake takes his time. He was a visual artist and at times you can practically feel the detailed brush work in his word pictures that use a rich, sometimes abstruse vocabulary. It's
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Jan 31, 2012
S--
rated it:
DW post.
Why I Started: As a birthday present for a friend, although I also enjoyed the first book well enough and wanted to see where it headed.
Why I Finished: Sheer determination and stubbornness. I really don't like Peake's style, even if I enjoyed the story that lies underneath the style. His style meanders and sprawls and is, okay, a little purple prosey every now and again, but it works when Peake does it. My problem is that he also requires a lot of attention to read an More...
Why I Started: As a birthday present for a friend, although I also enjoyed the first book well enough and wanted to see where it headed.
Why I Finished: Sheer determination and stubbornness. I really don't like Peake's style, even if I enjoyed the story that lies underneath the style. His style meanders and sprawls and is, okay, a little purple prosey every now and again, but it works when Peake does it. My problem is that he also requires a lot of attention to read an More...
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May 04, 2010
Michael
rated it:
(Update: After reading this book last year, I chose to give it 4 stars, my argument being that I was detracting one star for the slow pacing. Then at the beginning of 2010, I determined that Gormenghast was #2 on my "10 Goodest Reads From 2009" list. (China Mieville's The Scar came in #1.) So, umm, I'm retroactively giving this'n five stars, because I was clearly on crack when I didn't give it 5 before. Below is the review of the book, which hasn't been changed.)
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Aug 03, 2009
Stephen
rated it:
Gormenghast – a word that fills the mouth, that undulates with waves of
hard and soft, that tricks the tongue into thinking it can escape with a fading
sibilance, only to be brought to heel hard fast with that final 't'. It is a
magnificent word for the sprawling thing Mervyn Peake calls a "castle"
in the book of the same name.
In the foreword, Tad Williams describes the castle as a character in-and-of
itself. He is right to do so. As a place, as a series of tr
Feb 21, 2009
Isil
rated it:
Après avoir été complètement happée par l’atmosphère de Titus d’Enfer, j’ai retrouvé le château de Gormenghast et ses personnages fantasmagoriques avec le même plaisir. A tel point que je n’ai pas grand-chose à ajouter à ma chronique du premier tome de la trilogie. On est dans la même ambiance et l’histoire est la suite presque directe (si ce n’est que quelques années ont passé depuis les événements de Titus d’Enfer.
Il y a deux parties relativement distinctes dans ce tome. Le début s More...
Il y a deux parties relativement distinctes dans ce tome. Le début s More...
Jan 27, 2009
Jonathan
rated it:
"'Let us take it that you *are* in pain,' continued Shred, 'Let us work on that hypothesis as a basis: that Bellgrove, a man of somewhere between sixty and eighty, is in pain. Or rather, he *thinks* he is. One must be exact. As a man of science, I insist on exactitude. Well, then, what next? Why, to take into account that Bellgrove, supposedly in pain, also thinks that the pain has something to do with his teeth. This is absurd, of course, but must, I say, be taken into account. For
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Jul 13, 2011
Cecily
rated it:
The sequel to the wonderful Titus Groan. At his christening, Titus, heir to the earldom of Gormenghast (accidentally) ripped the ancient book of ritual and at his earling (aged 2) he blasphemed again by removing sacred objects and casting them into the lake. That congenital rebellion comes to fruition in this book.
It starts by summarising the ghostly demise of key characters from the first book and the mark they have left on Titus. Then it does a similar update of key characters who ar More...
It starts by summarising the ghostly demise of key characters from the first book and the mark they have left on Titus. Then it does a similar update of key characters who ar More...
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