Gormenghast

Image credit: Belper Book Chat

There’s nothing like returning to a familiar landscape –regardless of how decrepit, dusty, and uninviting it might be. While the sun shines, the clouds swell and nature meanders onwards the stagnant and immovable castle of Gormenghast continues to hold all within its walls in its grip of subjugation and monotony…

Gormenghast picks up where Titus Groan left off with the Countess, Fuschia, and Doctor Prunesquallor pondering the mysterious disappearance of Lord Sepulchrave and the chef, Swelter. Amongst the castle’s multitudinous inhabitants Flay is the only one who knows the truth, but now lives as an exile in Gormenghast Forest. But despite his new home he still keeps an eye on the castle and it’s a good thing too. As Steerpike continues his treacherous ascent through the hierarchy, the heart of Gormenghast pulses with an irregular beat and as Titus approaches manhood a sense of rebellion stirs.

In what is undoubtedly the ultimate height of the series, Peake continues to envelop his readers with a richly verbose and eloquent prose that is poetically omniscient as well as mocking.

Image credit: Babelio

While the characters we met in Titus Groan continue on their journeys we are also introduced to wonderful new archetypes and caricatures: most notably those of the Professors. A hilarious and repellent gaggle of men their various quirks and antics paint a marvelously funny picture of the British education system (at the time). We see Titus grow up and face his own internal struggles against his heritage and birthright while Steerpike enters into the realms of true villainy: his scars –a backlash of his own arson- reflecting his journey as well as disfiguring him into a monster. 

Where there should be dragons, and giants, and a dastardly witch ritual, loyalty, and ambition are the trials the heroes must battle through. Peake’s wondrous adherence to a fairytale structure –a very gothic one at that- pulls you into its pages and does not let you come up for air until it wants you to. For this reason, Titus Groan and Gormenghast are amongst my all-time favourite stories.

Gormenghast is the second book in the titular trilogy by Mervyn Peake and was published in 1950 by Eyre and Spottiswoode.