# The Gormenghast Trilogy, by Mervyn Peake **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 4, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305 "2009-11-04T18:32:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/21 "2009-11-04T22:15:49Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > anamatronic albino crow puppet Band name. šŸ˜‰ List me as one that couldnā€™t get through the books, but enjoyed the BBC adaptation quite thoroughly. Sadly, almost all of my friends are of the ā€˜if thereā€™s not something exciting happening in 15 minutes, Iā€™m going to go do something elseā€™ brand of TV-watchers, so I find it really, really difficult to sell to them. One point in itā€™s favor from the slow pacing of action: When action -does- happen, it becomes very important very quickly, which I think is sort-of neat in a pacing perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/22 "2009-11-04T22:25:09Z")
Iā€™m very glad I read the books, but I also have no intention of reading them again. Theyā€™re weird like that. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/23 "2009-11-04T22:26:29Z")
> [@Chicken\_Fingers](#): > > The BBC didnā€™t do too badly with their adaptation. Yes, they didnā€™t. Itā€™s got Christopher Lee and Stephen Fry, among other people, in it. And I agree with what others have said. Yes, itā€™s slow-moving, ponderous, and gloomy (at least in places, but definitely not without humor), and yes, thatā€™s kind of the point. And yes, things do eventually happenā€”violent things. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/24 "2009-11-04T23:16:13Z")
Fun fact about my copy of _Titus Groan_. I have one of the 1967 paperback versions, and apparently, somebody at some point, uh shot? it with aā€¦aā€¦bow and arrow? Allā€™s I know is that, starting about halfway through the book, thereā€™s a hole that expands in a conical fashion to the approximate width of an arrow. Yes, it affects the text. Yes, I imagine it will be annoying. I wonder if a previous reader is trying to tell me something. šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/25 "2009-11-04T23:29:48Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Any of you classic high-fantasy fans read this? > > Iā€™ve had _Titus Groan_ sitting around forever, and am just now getting to it. I had just re-read all of Tolkienā€™s stuff, followed by Eddisonā€™s _The Worm Ouroboros_ (1922, and a load to get through, because of the high style), so I thought Iā€™d keep it up with Peakeā€™s 1946 trilogy. > > So far, yikes. Iā€™m about 150 pages into it, and while Iā€™m not dissatisfied (Peake writes with a humorous flair thatā€™s wonderful), Iā€™m starting to wonder if this long sumbitch is just a setting piece, or if anything is going to, yā€™know, happen. > > [spoiler]So far, weā€™ve visited the hall of statues. Dusty, torpid, miserable. Weā€™ve met Flay. Arrogant, angry, miserable. Weā€™ve met the head chef. Angry, drunk, miserable. Weā€™ve met Steerpike. Resentful, angry, miserable. Weā€™ve met the doctor. Annoying nervous tic. Weā€™ve met the queen and her cats. Lazy, detached, miserable. Weā€™ve met Lord Groan. Circumscribed, impotent, miserable. Weā€™ve met Fuchsia. Ignored, spoiled, miserable. > > Oh yeah, and then thereā€™s the newborn Titus with the violet eyes. I can only hope he doesnā€™t turn out miserable. :)[/spoiler]Sheesh. Peake is in no hurry to take the reader anywhere, thatā€™s for sure. Heā€™s taking his sweet, sweet, protracted time setting up Gormenghast and its environs. Anyone who thinks Tolkien was too windy and descriptive should stay as far as humanly possible away from this series. > > All that aside, I have to say that Iā€™m enjoying it. Itā€™s not a book that should be read in 15-minute snippets. You really need to be able to pick it up for an hour or two at a time, in order to get into the rhythm of it. Peakeā€™s writing, as I said before, is wonderful. His descriptions are multicolored, and he effectively conveys the obvious as well as the humorous (and dark and nasty) undercurrents of his settings in the same passage. Book 1 was excellent. Book 2 was tolerable, but loooooooooooong and tedious. Book 3 sucked, but I read it because dammit, I made it through 1 and 2 ā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/26 "2009-11-05T00:33:52Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Iā€™m very glad I read the books, but I also have no intention of reading them again. Theyā€™re weird like that. This. I still have the three on my bookshelf, in a space that can better be used by a work I can actually envision myself reading again. But I cannot more them. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/27 "2009-11-05T04:30:03Z")
I read very nearly to the end of Titus Groan. Stopped maybe 50 pages shy of the end for some reason. I want to finish it, but I imagine Iā€™ll have a hard time picking back up. Very, very unique piece of writing. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/28 "2009-11-05T13:34:11Z")
The miniseries is on DVD and if you liked the first two books, I highly recommend it. Itā€™s full of fine, British character actors gleefully chewing the scenery, and was my introduction to Johnation Rhys-Meyers, who does a great job as Steerpike. Itā€™s been a long time since I read the novels; I remember enjoying the first two, but did not finish Titus Alone. Once he left the madness of the castle, I lost interest. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/29 "2009-11-05T18:20:46Z")
This, along with _Little, Big_, are the classic Edifice Fantasies, where the building is a character itself. Wonderful books. I think the fact that Peake was a visual artist as well, shows in his character descriptions. Also comes highly recommended by China MiƩville, who cites it as a major influence on _Perdido Street Station_ (and it shows) ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/30 "2009-11-05T18:27:58Z")
MrDibble - I never looked at ā€œedifice fantasiesā€ as a genre berfore. Hm, interesting. would obviously include The High House by James Stoddard[http://www.amazon.com/High-House-Aspect-Fantasy/dp/0446606790/ref=sr\_1\_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257445550&sr=8-1](http://www.amazon.com/High-House-Aspect-Fantasy/dp/0446606790/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257445550&sr=8-1) ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/31 "2009-11-05T21:09:46Z")
I think the first two books are masterpieces of modern fantasy, the third one, not so much. I love how he slowly and deliberately builds a richly detailed gothic atmosphere accented with some pretty startling portraits of deeply dysfunctional characters. All of this is time well spent as it gives his main characters deep context for their actions when the plot finally starts developing. Itā€™s well worth sticking with the dense text, IMHO. And ā€œThe Frivolous Cakeā€ is one of my favourite poems. Itā€™s playful, erotic and ominous all at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Mervyn\_Pumpkinhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@Mervyn\_Pumpkinhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mervyn_Pumpkinhead)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/32 "2009-11-07T04:07:59Z")
I think that it should probably be noted that the novella _Boy in Darkness_ is also part of the Gormenghast series, appearing somewhen in Titusā€™ adolescence. I actually am not done with the series. In fact, I wish that I could skip to read Titus Alone and Boy in Darkness, because the sci-fi and horror influences, respectively, sound really interesting to explore. I donā€™t want to skip around though. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/33 "2009-11-07T19:08:56Z")
I guess Iā€™m one of the few people who like the third book. I think the reason most people donā€™t like it because the style is so different from the first two books. They pick it up expecting a dark Gothic fantasy and instead they get a light science fantasy adventure. I still think its good though, just in a different way from the first two books. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305/34 "2009-11-07T19:29:51Z")
Itā€™s pushing 20 years since I read them, but Iā€™d place them right at the top of fantasy novels Iā€™ve picked up. Really exceptional, and as others are saying, very different in style and conception from almost anything else. The character of Flay is one thatā€™s stayed with me - his feud with the cook, or his striding down the stone lanes are really evocative storylines. Agree with **MrDibble** that Crowleyā€™s Little Big is very much in the same vein - and equally as important in fantasy lit. They have a very similar feel to them now that I think of it. Also Wolfeā€™s Book of the New Sun is strongly influenced by Gormenghast in itā€™s description of Nessus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gormenghast-trilogy-by-mervyn-peake/516305.md?page=1)