Titus Alone (Gormenghast, #3) in The Great Gormenghast Read

Mar 01, 2013 Kyle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

-I'm going to just come right out and say it:

Mervyn Peake is the greatest writer of the English language the world has ever known. There. I said it, and I can't take it back. It's out there now, floating on the interwebs, for the world to disagree with. But at this point, I don't care if the world disagrees with me; I'm tuning the naysayers out with my rightness. Obviously I haven't read every writer of the English language, so there is the possibility that I'm wrong; but, even if I am wrong, I ...more

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May 30, 2008 Cecily rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, series-and-sequels, magical-realism, dystopian-apocalyptic, scifi-future-speculative-fict, gormenghast-peake

Titus Groan and Gormenghast are two of my ten favourite books (reviewed on my Favourites shelf), but despite some wonderful language, I struggled with this one, intriguing as it is. My first reading was not enjoyable – it was so far from what I was familiar with and what I expected. Subsequent readings have endeared it to me.

Peake's illustration of Muzzlehatch

Plot

In this, Titus, seventy-seventh earl of Gormenghast is 22 and wandering unknown lands. He is invariably being rescued, nursed or run ...more

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Feb 13, 2009 J.G. Keely rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, science-fiction, fantasy, novel, reviewed, urban-fantasy, poetry, uk-and-ireland

Mervyn Peake was, by all accounts, a powerful presence, an electric character, and a singular creative force. While Tolkien's poetry is the part everyone skips, Peake's invigorates his books. His voice and tone are unique in the English language, and his characterization is delightfully, grotesquely vivid. As an illustrator, he was perhaps somewhat less precise than Dore, but more evocative than Beardsley.

His life and his vision were singular, from his birth in China to his years on the channel ...more

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Jul 17, 2016 Sumant rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, gormenghast

The last book in the Gormenghast series was sadly a big let down for me, although I loved the peculiarity of first two books in the series, but things got a lot weird and meaningless for me in this book. Also out of the characters introduced to us in the first two, we have only Titus for company, but sadly he also become a completely unidentifiable character in this book.

Some of the weak points of the book are

1.Story went no where.
2.Characters not well cast out.
3.Unsatisfactory ending.

Let me ela ...more

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Dec 03, 2016 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016

A decent wrap up to the trilogy, but it was not as satisfying as the first two books having not taken place within the walls of Gormenghast with all the characters I have come to know and love. But, the weirdness of the new characters and scenes, along with Peake's way with imaginative descriptions, were still all there to be savored. ...more

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Nov 13, 2013 Metaphorosis rated it liked it

Shelves: reviewed, 2013-rev

Titus Groan (the first book) is always the one that has stuck in my mind. I recall that on seeing the BBC DVD (based on books I and II), I was surprised by some of what it contained, and only on my recent re-read of Gormenghast (the second book) did its contents slowly come back to me. I was unable to recall any of Titus Alone, and I now think it was for the simple reason that I never actually got around to it (though I thought I had read the entire trilogy).

It's also possible that I just don't ...more

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Jan 31, 2017 Joseph rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, read-in-2017, writer-peake-mervyn

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I don't have a great deal to add to the discussion of this book that hasn't already been said. I enjoyed this novel. The story wasn't quite on the same level as the other two books, but it's still very much a Titus novel. It is still very much a Peake novel, for crying out - a resource in very short supply. The writing was still amazing and some of the best I'll ever read.

Here is an example. Titus is older now and doing more adult things. It may be somewhat jarring at first like when the childre I don't have a great deal to add to the discussion of this book that hasn't already been said. I enjoyed this novel. The story wasn't quite on the same level as the other two books, but it's still very much a Titus novel. It is still very much a Peake novel, for crying out - a resource in very short supply. The writing was still amazing and some of the best I'll ever read.

Here is an example. Titus is older now and doing more adult things. It may be somewhat jarring at first like when the children at Hogwarts start snogging. I really appreciate how Peake handled this sex scene. In severe contrast, I just read a sex scene in John Scalzi's, The God Engines, that was ghastly, that I shall not reproduce here. If I wanted that, I could just go read Fifty Shades or some other fan fic. Anyway here is the passage by Peake :

"[... ] A wry little smile came to her lips and then withered away. Her sculptured head remained. The lovely room grew soft with evening light as Juno and Titus slid from their clothes, and, trembling, sank to the floor together and began to drown.
The firelight flickered and grew dim; danced and died again. Their bodies sent one shadow through the room. It swarmed across the carpet; climbed a wall of books, and shook with joy across the solemn ceiling."

I could pretty much read Peak's descriptions of a game of golf at this point or something equally as boring. He is a wizard.

My new favorite character was definitely Muzzlehatch. I enjoyed his long-winded and colorful speeches. And for some reason this passage about him stuck with me:

" 'And look at them,' it cried. 'Look at that fool in a bandage. Seventy-Seventh Earl! Ha! ha! There's Gormenghast for you. Why don't you come and prove yourself, my lord?'
Why this particular remark should have got under Muzzlehatch's skin, it is hard to fathom, but it did, and he stalked to the border of the crowd in order to annihilate the man. "

What a great friend to have, that Muzzlehatch. And I love Peak's nonchalance in describing Muzzlehatch's intentions.

What a great book that brought me back into that world for a little while. I wasn't interested in reading the next installment, because it isn't written by Peake, but after reading several reviews, I feel I'm over that. ...more

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Aug 31, 2010 Chas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, 2010, favorites, epic-fantasy

Certainly a strange departure from the last two novels, with Titus leaving Gormenghast, and entering a bizarre, vaguely steampunk-ish landscape. Titus Alone feels unpolished, though the novel opens up endless possibilities for Titus and the world he explores, possibilities that would never be realized due to Peake's tragic death by Parkinson's. ...more

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