![]() ![]() Without a doubt, the castle itself is Peake’s greatest creation: an enormous, rambling mountain of bricks and mortar, imbued with an air of long centuries of neglect, decay and decline, hidebound in tradition and a mere shadow of what it once perhaps was. The novel takes place during the first year in the life of young Titus Groan, a newborn heir to the throne, spread out across the points of view of a dozen of the castle’s more important inhabitants. ![]() Titus Groan takes place in the vast, ancient and isolated castle of Gormenghast, inhabited by the Earl of Groan, his royal family, and a vast retinue of servants. It’s often compared to JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, though I’m not sure why – apart from being weighty tomes written by British authors in the mid-20th century, the only thing they have in common is being fantasy, and they’re very different kinds of fantasy indeed. It seems to be one of those works which is relatively obscure outside literary and academic circles. Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy ( Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone) is apparently a well-known and highly regarded work of British fantasy, although I first heard of it only a few years ago. Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (1946) 367 p. ![]()
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