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Gormenghast #2
Gormenghast
An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.
Titus Groan is seven years old. Lord and heir to the crumbling castle Gormenghast. A gothic labyrinth of roofs and turrets, cloisters and corridors, stairwells and dungeons, it is also the cobwebbed kingdom of Byzantine government and age-old rituals, a world primed to implode beneath the weight of centuries of intrigue, treachery, and death. Steerpike, who began his climb across the roofs when Titus was born, is now ascending the spiral staircase to the heart of the castle, and in his wake lie imprisonment, manipulation, and murder.
Gormenghast is the second volume in Mervyn Peake’s widely acclaimed trilogy, but it is much more than a sequel to Titus Groan—it is an enrichment and deepening of that book.
The Gormenghast Trilogy ranks as one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable feats of imaginative writing.
Titus Groan is seven years old. Lord and heir to the crumbling castle Gormenghast. A gothic labyrinth of roofs and turrets, cloisters and corridors, stairwells and dungeons, it is also the cobwebbed kingdom of Byzantine government and age-old rituals, a world primed to implode beneath the weight of centuries of intrigue, treachery, and death. Steerpike, who began his climb across the roofs when Titus was born, is now ascending the spiral staircase to the heart of the castle, and in his wake lie imprisonment, manipulation, and murder.
Gormenghast is the second volume in Mervyn Peake’s widely acclaimed trilogy, but it is much more than a sequel to Titus Groan—it is an enrichment and deepening of that book.
The Gormenghast Trilogy ranks as one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable feats of imaginative writing.
505 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
About the author
Mervyn Peake
93 books1,062 followersMervyn Laurence Peake was an English modernist writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books, though the Titus books would be more accurate: the three works that exist were the beginning of what Peake conceived as a lengthy cycle, following his protagonist Titus Groan from cradle to grave, but Peake's untimely death prevented completion of the cycle, which is now commonly but erroneously referred to as a trilogy. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J.R.R. Tolkien, but his surreal fiction was influenced by his early love for Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson rather than Tolkien's studies of mythology and philology.
Peake also wrote poetry and literary nonsense in verse form, short stories for adults and children ("Letters from a Lost Uncle"), stage and radio plays, and Mr Pye, a relatively tightly-structured novel in which God implicitly mocks the evangelical pretensions and cosy world-view of the eponymous hero.
Peake first made his reputation as a painter and illustrator during the 1930s and 1940s, when he lived in London, and he was commissioned to produce portraits of well-known people. A collection of these drawings is still in the possession of his family. Although he gained little popular success in his lifetime, his work was highly respected by his peers, and his friends included Dylan Thomas and Graham Greene. His works are now included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Imperial War Museum.
Peake also wrote poetry and literary nonsense in verse form, short stories for adults and children ("Letters from a Lost Uncle"), stage and radio plays, and Mr Pye, a relatively tightly-structured novel in which God implicitly mocks the evangelical pretensions and cosy world-view of the eponymous hero.
Peake first made his reputation as a painter and illustrator during the 1930s and 1940s, when he lived in London, and he was commissioned to produce portraits of well-known people. A collection of these drawings is still in the possession of his family. Although he gained little popular success in his lifetime, his work was highly respected by his peers, and his friends included Dylan Thomas and Graham Greene. His works are now included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Imperial War Museum.
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September 13, 2020
I like Titus Groan very much, but I like Gormenghast more.
The visual set pieces are equally vivid, but the style seems less labored, more fluid--less like cubist painting and more like a movie photographed by a cinematographer with a unique and eccentric palette. At first I thought this was principally due to Peake's maturing style--and I still believe that this is an important factor--but I have also come to understand that the growing ease in style, the flow of the narrative, has changed because Gormenghast, and Titus too, have changed.
This place and this prince, both circumscribed and determined by tradition, now live in an unstable world undermined by crime and flood. The earl has entered into the full freedom of young manhood, conscious of the confines of tradition but no longer bound by its restrictions.
I look forward with delight to the last volume of the series.
November 6, 2020
Gormenghast is a tale of mysteries… Gormenghast is a story of magic…
Gormenghast is written with the mysterious and magical language…
Gormenghast is a novel of growing up… Gormenghast is a parable of rebellion – if the putrid traditions turn into a garrote and become the personification of evil, they must be demolished…
Good is face to face with evil… Good must win… Otherwise, the old black decay will strangle the new green sprouts.
Gormenghast is written with the mysterious and magical language…
Titus is seven. His confines, Gormenghast. Suckled on shadows; weaned, as it were, on webs of ritual: for his ears, echoes, for his eyes, a labyrinth of stone: and yet within his body something other – other than this umbrageous legacy. For first and ever foremost he is child.
A ritual, more compelling than ever man devised, is fighting anchored darkness. A ritual of the blood; of the jumping blood. These quicks of sentience owe nothing to his forbears, but to those feckless hosts, a trillion deep, of the globe’s childhood.
Gormenghast is a novel of growing up… Gormenghast is a parable of rebellion – if the putrid traditions turn into a garrote and become the personification of evil, they must be demolished…
He raised his head and gazed across the thousands of faces below him. He nodded his head in a kind of pompous approval as yet another carving was tossed into the great bonfire. He counted a score of towers to his left. ‘All mine…’ he said, but the words sounded emptily in his head when suddenly something happened which blew his terror and his hope sky-high, which filled him with a joy too huge for him to contain, which took him and shook him out of his indecisions, and swept him into a land of hectic and cruel brilliance, of black glades, and of a magic insupportable.
Good is face to face with evil… Good must win… Otherwise, the old black decay will strangle the new green sprouts.
April 11, 2017
The sequel to the wonderful Titus Groan (which I reviewed HERE). 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.
Peake's illustration of Irma Prunesquallor
The Dead
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 are still alive, hinting at what is to come. This unusual approach sets the tone for a story that is outwardly about a child growing up in the stiflingly ritualistic world of Gormenghast alongside Steerpike’s plotting to gain power, but is really about death and destruction. “There are always eyes” and “days when the living have no substance and the dead are active” leaving a “deathless repercussion”.
Humour
Nevertheless, there is still humour, principally provided by naughty schoolboys (“the boys changed ammunition to paper pellets only after the THIRD death and “a deal of confusion in the hiding of the bodies”!) and eccentric school masters (one “had once made a point of being at least one mental hour ahead of his class... but who had long since decided to pursue knowledge on an equal footing” and another “was pure symbol... even the ingenious system of delegation whereon his greatness rested was itself worked out by another”). Irma Prunesquallor also provides plenty of comic mileage (e.g. creating a fake bosom with a hot water bottle and striving to be stylish). As before there are also touches of mystical unreality.
Doom?
Titus grows up, “suckled on shadows, weaned as it were on webs of ritual”, increasingly restless and rebellious, unloved and longing to break free from the shackles of ceremonies “the significance of which had long been lost to the records”. He runs away to the woods a few times, and each time has an experience that changes him and sets him further adrift from his apparent destiny, especially via his growing obsession with Keda’s nameless feral child, referred to as “The Thing”. In fact, the short story, Boy in Darkness (which I reviewed HERE), is an account of one such episode, though it is more allegorical than the other Gormenghast stories.
Meanwhile, there is a growing sense of evil in the background, with more deaths (some of them grisly) and ultimately destruction on a Biblical scale.
Overall, this story is very similar to the volume that precedes it, in setting, structure, tone and the extraordinary vividness of the descriptions (“porous shadow-land... not so much a darkness... as something starved for moonbeams.”). The final volume, Titus Alone (which I reviewed HERE) is very different.
“There is nowhere else... everything comes to Gormenghast.”
Alternatively, you can have fun looking for parallels with Hamlet: a castle as a prison, murder, madness, revenge, and an alienated heir.
Quotes
• “porous shadow-land... not so much a darkness... as something starved for moonbeams.”
• “There is nowhere else... you will only tread a circle... everything comes to Gormenghast.”
• “suckled on shadows, weaned as it were on webs of ritual”
• “He was pure symbol... even the ingenious system of delegation whereon his greatness rested was itself worked out by another”
• He “had once made a point of being at least one mental hour ahead of his class... but who had long since decided to pursue knowledge on an equal footing”.
• “a smile she was concocting, a smile more ambitious than she had so far dared to invent. Every muscle in her face was pulling its weight. Not all of them knew in which direction to pull, but their common enthusiasm was formidable.”
• words that are “proud with surrender”.
• “Their presence and the presence of their few belongings... seemed to reinforce the vacancy of their solitude.”
• “A window let in the light and, sometimes, the sun itself, whose beams made of this silent, forgotten landing a cosmos, a firmament of moving motes, brilliantly illumined, an astral and at the same time solar province. Where the sunbeams struck, the floor would flower like a rose, a wall break out in crocus-light, and the banisters would flame like rings of coloured snakes.”
• “the very lack of ghosts... was in itself unnerving”
• It’s positively Wodehousian in places, “made one wonder how this man [Fluke] could share the self-same world with hyacinths and damsels” and his [Perch Prism’s] “eyes with enough rings around them to lasso and strangle at birth any idea that he was under 50”.
• Around the lake “trees arose with a peculiar authority” an one spinney was “in an irritable state”, another “in a condition of suspended excitement” while other trees were variously aloof, mournful, gesticulating, exultant and asleep.
• The boys changed ammunition to paper pellets only after the THIRD death and “a deal of confusion in the hiding of the bodies”!
• “A cloud of starlings moved like a migraine across the upper air”
• “A symbol of something the significance of which had long been lost to the records”
• “Countless candles dribbled with hot wax, and their flames, like little flags, fluttered in the uncharted currents of air.”
• The wick of an enormous oil lamp was “as wide as a sheep’s tongue”!
• “the long drawn hiss of reptilian rain”
• In the snow, “the terrain bulged with the submerged features of a landscape half-remembered”
• “as empty as tongueless bells”
• “as a withered spinster might kiss a spaniel’s nose”
All My Peake Reviews
All my Peake/Gormenghast reviews (including biographies/memoirs and books about his art) are on a shelf,
HERE.
Peake's illustration of Irma Prunesquallor
The Dead
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 are still alive, hinting at what is to come. This unusual approach sets the tone for a story that is outwardly about a child growing up in the stiflingly ritualistic world of Gormenghast alongside Steerpike’s plotting to gain power, but is really about death and destruction. “There are always eyes” and “days when the living have no substance and the dead are active” leaving a “deathless repercussion”.
Humour
Nevertheless, there is still humour, principally provided by naughty schoolboys (“the boys changed ammunition to paper pellets only after the THIRD death and “a deal of confusion in the hiding of the bodies”!) and eccentric school masters (one “had once made a point of being at least one mental hour ahead of his class... but who had long since decided to pursue knowledge on an equal footing” and another “was pure symbol... even the ingenious system of delegation whereon his greatness rested was itself worked out by another”). Irma Prunesquallor also provides plenty of comic mileage (e.g. creating a fake bosom with a hot water bottle and striving to be stylish). As before there are also touches of mystical unreality.
Doom?
Titus grows up, “suckled on shadows, weaned as it were on webs of ritual”, increasingly restless and rebellious, unloved and longing to break free from the shackles of ceremonies “the significance of which had long been lost to the records”. He runs away to the woods a few times, and each time has an experience that changes him and sets him further adrift from his apparent destiny, especially via his growing obsession with Keda’s nameless feral child, referred to as “The Thing”. In fact, the short story, Boy in Darkness (which I reviewed HERE), is an account of one such episode, though it is more allegorical than the other Gormenghast stories.
Meanwhile, there is a growing sense of evil in the background, with more deaths (some of them grisly) and ultimately destruction on a Biblical scale.
Overall, this story is very similar to the volume that precedes it, in setting, structure, tone and the extraordinary vividness of the descriptions (“porous shadow-land... not so much a darkness... as something starved for moonbeams.”). The final volume, Titus Alone (which I reviewed HERE) is very different.
“There is nowhere else... everything comes to Gormenghast.”
Alternatively, you can have fun looking for parallels with Hamlet: a castle as a prison, murder, madness, revenge, and an alienated heir.
Quotes
• “porous shadow-land... not so much a darkness... as something starved for moonbeams.”
• “There is nowhere else... you will only tread a circle... everything comes to Gormenghast.”
• “suckled on shadows, weaned as it were on webs of ritual”
• “He was pure symbol... even the ingenious system of delegation whereon his greatness rested was itself worked out by another”
• He “had once made a point of being at least one mental hour ahead of his class... but who had long since decided to pursue knowledge on an equal footing”.
• “a smile she was concocting, a smile more ambitious than she had so far dared to invent. Every muscle in her face was pulling its weight. Not all of them knew in which direction to pull, but their common enthusiasm was formidable.”
• words that are “proud with surrender”.
• “Their presence and the presence of their few belongings... seemed to reinforce the vacancy of their solitude.”
• “A window let in the light and, sometimes, the sun itself, whose beams made of this silent, forgotten landing a cosmos, a firmament of moving motes, brilliantly illumined, an astral and at the same time solar province. Where the sunbeams struck, the floor would flower like a rose, a wall break out in crocus-light, and the banisters would flame like rings of coloured snakes.”
• “the very lack of ghosts... was in itself unnerving”
• It’s positively Wodehousian in places, “made one wonder how this man [Fluke] could share the self-same world with hyacinths and damsels” and his [Perch Prism’s] “eyes with enough rings around them to lasso and strangle at birth any idea that he was under 50”.
• Around the lake “trees arose with a peculiar authority” an one spinney was “in an irritable state”, another “in a condition of suspended excitement” while other trees were variously aloof, mournful, gesticulating, exultant and asleep.
• The boys changed ammunition to paper pellets only after the THIRD death and “a deal of confusion in the hiding of the bodies”!
• “A cloud of starlings moved like a migraine across the upper air”
• “A symbol of something the significance of which had long been lost to the records”
• “Countless candles dribbled with hot wax, and their flames, like little flags, fluttered in the uncharted currents of air.”
• The wick of an enormous oil lamp was “as wide as a sheep’s tongue”!
• “the long drawn hiss of reptilian rain”
• In the snow, “the terrain bulged with the submerged features of a landscape half-remembered”
• “as empty as tongueless bells”
• “as a withered spinster might kiss a spaniel’s nose”
All My Peake Reviews
All my Peake/Gormenghast reviews (including biographies/memoirs and books about his art) are on a shelf,
HERE.
May 28, 2009
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 (meaning not 'unreal', but 'more than the real'); not unlike the Russian Gogol. The genre is based upon the works of authors like Jane Austen, the Brontes, Baroness Orczy, Swift, de Cervantes, and Dumas pere.
Peake himself was a polymath, excelling not only as an author, but a poet and artist. He is the only self-portrait in Britain's National Portrait Gallery. As a poet, he has a mastery of language and conceit that places him above popular 'jingle man' Poe.
This makes him quite unlike Tolkien, whose long stretches of verse tend to be stilted and unfeeling. Then again, Peake is more passionate than than Tory Tolkien.
Despite his mastery of language and evocative characterization, Peake is not an easy read. Indeed, his thick prose and slow pace can quickly tire the mind. Like a skillful chess opponent, Peake demands much of his reader. He is not content to let the reader be a passive escapist, so his work engages and challenges. It would take a great and knowledgeable mind to meet each of these challenges on equal footing, but even we lesser minds may find amusement, shock, and beauty.
Peake's original idea was to chronicle the life of a character from birth to death. The first book deals with infancy. The second takes him into adulthood in a sort of bildungsroman. The third involves the adventures of young adulthood. Unfortunately, Peake's slide into dementia prevented any furthering of this vast and witty trove.
In literature, Peake may have come the closest to completing a book which balances complex psychology, deep character, poetic style, exploration of reality, and a surreal mixture reality and fancy. Peake's books were very audacious, and though he sometimes fails to reach his own lofty ideals, the really remarkable thing is that sometimes, he doesn't.
My Fantasy Book Suggestions
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 (meaning not 'unreal', but 'more than the real'); not unlike the Russian Gogol. The genre is based upon the works of authors like Jane Austen, the Brontes, Baroness Orczy, Swift, de Cervantes, and Dumas pere.
Peake himself was a polymath, excelling not only as an author, but a poet and artist. He is the only self-portrait in Britain's National Portrait Gallery. As a poet, he has a mastery of language and conceit that places him above popular 'jingle man' Poe.
This makes him quite unlike Tolkien, whose long stretches of verse tend to be stilted and unfeeling. Then again, Peake is more passionate than than Tory Tolkien.
Despite his mastery of language and evocative characterization, Peake is not an easy read. Indeed, his thick prose and slow pace can quickly tire the mind. Like a skillful chess opponent, Peake demands much of his reader. He is not content to let the reader be a passive escapist, so his work engages and challenges. It would take a great and knowledgeable mind to meet each of these challenges on equal footing, but even we lesser minds may find amusement, shock, and beauty.
Peake's original idea was to chronicle the life of a character from birth to death. The first book deals with infancy. The second takes him into adulthood in a sort of bildungsroman. The third involves the adventures of young adulthood. Unfortunately, Peake's slide into dementia prevented any furthering of this vast and witty trove.
In literature, Peake may have come the closest to completing a book which balances complex psychology, deep character, poetic style, exploration of reality, and a surreal mixture reality and fancy. Peake's books were very audacious, and though he sometimes fails to reach his own lofty ideals, the really remarkable thing is that sometimes, he doesn't.
My Fantasy Book Suggestions
February 8, 2017
This classic fantasy still feels almost like allegory and real history wrapped around some of the most beautiful prose in literature.
Seriously. The prose is really fantastic. The names of things are both evocative and as predictive as shadows upon the wall: outlines and no substance.
The same is not true for the characters or the story itself. Titus has many mini-adventures from his childhood through his young adulthood, culminating in his ever-present desire to free himself of his home's odd traditions, the duties that will befall him, or even just the shadow of the antagonist that caused so much ruin in the first book. Titus grows up, and this novel is not just a simplified coming of age story. It's as complicated and real life, as full and ripe as all the greatest stories ever told, and it ends with great and satisfying heroism that is turned sour mainly because it only entrenches Titus in the very things he'd spent all his life trying to escape.
I feel for him. I really do.
There's so much tragedy in Gormenghast, and yet the whole land and the castle feels like a character unto itself, gloriously drawn and full of personality.
Anyone could read this without knowing anything about fantasy at all. It kinda transcends genres, turning into something closer to magical realism in traditional fiction despite the fact that it came out long before the term was even coined.
Truly, it isn't a book that should be missed if you're a fan of good literature. :)
Seriously. The prose is really fantastic. The names of things are both evocative and as predictive as shadows upon the wall: outlines and no substance.
The same is not true for the characters or the story itself. Titus has many mini-adventures from his childhood through his young adulthood, culminating in his ever-present desire to free himself of his home's odd traditions, the duties that will befall him, or even just the shadow of the antagonist that caused so much ruin in the first book. Titus grows up, and this novel is not just a simplified coming of age story. It's as complicated and real life, as full and ripe as all the greatest stories ever told, and it ends with great and satisfying heroism that is turned sour mainly because it only entrenches Titus in the very things he'd spent all his life trying to escape.
I feel for him. I really do.
There's so much tragedy in Gormenghast, and yet the whole land and the castle feels like a character unto itself, gloriously drawn and full of personality.
Anyone could read this without knowing anything about fantasy at all. It kinda transcends genres, turning into something closer to magical realism in traditional fiction despite the fact that it came out long before the term was even coined.
Truly, it isn't a book that should be missed if you're a fan of good literature. :)
May 17, 2013
(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 his sister, all the teachers) fall to his machinations like ripe fruit. The corrupt upper classes (viciously portrayed as insane or solipsistic and quite indifferent to the suffering of their minions)are equally prostrate before his Machiavellian advances. It appears he will succeed but in order to do so, he must bring the whole grisly Gormenghastian edifice crashing down. We know he must die in the attempt because even to succeed would be a tragedy - he would have no idea what to do with Gormenghast even if he wrested power from the Groans. No Robespierre is he. Would he terminate the intolerable meaningless eternal rituals everyone in the castle is swathed in? Probably not. He would replace the Countess' cats with lizards, or some such boyish whimsy, and fret vacantly, unsure what else to do. His revolution has no point, it has no ideal. Steerpike must die.
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 his sister, all the teachers) fall to his machinations like ripe fruit. The corrupt upper classes (viciously portrayed as insane or solipsistic and quite indifferent to the suffering of their minions)are equally prostrate before his Machiavellian advances. It appears he will succeed but in order to do so, he must bring the whole grisly Gormenghastian edifice crashing down. We know he must die in the attempt because even to succeed would be a tragedy - he would have no idea what to do with Gormenghast even if he wrested power from the Groans. No Robespierre is he. Would he terminate the intolerable meaningless eternal rituals everyone in the castle is swathed in? Probably not. He would replace the Countess' cats with lizards, or some such boyish whimsy, and fret vacantly, unsure what else to do. His revolution has no point, it has no ideal. Steerpike must die.
June 3, 2018
Me lo sono gustato molto, nonostante l'abbia vistosamente sbocconcellato, o forse proprio grazie a questo. Finito di leggere in un contesto quanto mai propizio: il pomeriggio di un assurdo 31 maggio funestato da tuoni, nuvoloni plumbei e refoli d'aria gelida foriera di grandine. Dico propizio perché questo libro è densissimo di pioggia: quasi tutti acquazzoni e temporaloni estivi, ma è davvero un flusso scrosciante e infinito. E del resto è un libro denso e gravido e tempestoso proprio come quei cumuli nembi giallastri e lividi che continuano a girare in tondo qua sopra; oltre che di acqua è un libro stracarico di un sacco di altre cose: immagini, bisbigli, parole, atmosfere e - per quanto semplici e di impianto fiabesco possano essere - possibili significati e interpretazioni.
In generale, confermo le considerazioni e impressioni annotate in occasione della lettura del primo volume: il senso del grottesco e dell'umoristico, l'ambientazione gotico-psichedelica (chiamarla fantasy non mi finisce), la raffinatezza delle descrizioni; il tema (sempre in sottofondo) del ribaltamento delle tradizioni che viene percepito come qualcosa di maligno, un tradimento che è tuttavia ineluttabile. Collegato al tema della tradizione, c'è il tema dell'identità: nel determinare un individuo, contano più le sue personali tensioni e aspirazioni o tutto quell'insieme di tradizioni che sin dall'infanzia gli gravano sulle spalle?
In maniera più esplicita si aggiungono anche i temi della mancanza di affetto, della difficoltà di comunicazione dei sentimenti, la follia come condizione temporanea oppure permanente.
Altri aspetti positivi e negativi, in ordine sparso: le stanze e i corridoi e gli angusti passaggi sembrano assumere maggiore plasticità e i personaggi sono meno immobili, c'è quella dose di azione in più di cui si sentiva la mancanza nel primo volume. La delicatezza con cui viene presentato il personaggio di Tito (che fino ad ora non conoscevamo, visto che al termine del primo libro il fanciullo aveva un anno appena), sempre in abbinamento con vedute aeree del castello e del monte, con tutti gli strapiombi mozzafiato e le terrazze abbandonate, certe fasi della presentazione hanno un'aura a dir poco poetica, e splendidamente malinconici sono certi brevissimi accenni ai fasti ormai trascorsi del mostruoso maniero. La magia con cui la voce narrante, attraverso gli occhi di Tito, ci fa vedere i colori, è chiaramente l'occhio attento di un pittore e illustratore, altro che bambino di sette anni. Ancor più poetico è il passaggio - a metà libro circa – dall'estate afosa al nevoso inverno.
Il riassuntino iniziale con tutti i personaggi del primo volume è bruttino e posticcio, se ne faceva a meno. La traduzione che nel primo era briosa e scanzonata, qui tende un po' all'infiacchito: perde dei punti anche se alla fine ci si fa l'orecchio. La pletora di professori e altri starnazzanti figuri che affolla la scuola di Gormenghast è composta da vere e proprie macchiette, sia in senso positivo che in senso negativo: sin dalla prima scena in cui tutti loro vengono presentati nella fumosa aula professori, ho avuto la quasi certezza che la Rowling si sia ispirata da qui per la creazione di tutto il suo mondo potteriano. Nel primo libro mi è venuto da tirare in ballo Martin, ora la Rowling: è doveroso riconoscere a Peake di essere il capostipite e l'ispiratore di una larga parte delle maggiori serie (letterarie e/o televisive) in voga negli ultimi anni.
Dopo aver letto la prima ventina di capitoletti (su un totale di ottanta) credo di aver iniziato a focalizzare il significato - o quantomeno uno dei possibili significati – di questa originale operazione compiuta da Peake. Operazione che Burgess, nella prefazione al primo volume, definiva come una cosa puramente estetica e scevra di possibili interpretazioni. . Ovviamente Peake ci ricama su, ci prende gusto (e con lui il lettore) e trasforma quel granellino di banalità nella più ricercata e manieristica perla. E nel ricamare stanze e corridoi e loggiati e balaustre, arriva al compimento della sua strampalata e sfilacciata trama facendola culminare nelle profondità più tenebrose del mostruoso castello, in una scena che veramente più dark non si potrebbe immaginare. Ed anche la scelta operata per l'ambientazione del finale è magistralmente lugubre e oscura e propedeutica al sipario di desolazione che l'autore farà calare sul celeberrimo castello. In questa storia, fatta dei due libri messi insieme, Tito entra come settantasettesimo Conte di Gormenghast e ne esce come una sorta di San Giorgio alternativo: questa formazione/trasformazione mi è piaciuta molto – insieme, ovviamente, alla strepitosa ambientazione – ed è per questo che non so se vorrò leggere anche il terzo episodio, mi sono affezionata alla sua leggenda e per ora mi fa piacere di lasciarla immobile lì dove ci siamo salutati.
...anche se in nome della colpa cosa stiamo facendo lo sa solo il barbagianni. Comunque, andiamo!
In generale, confermo le considerazioni e impressioni annotate in occasione della lettura del primo volume: il senso del grottesco e dell'umoristico, l'ambientazione gotico-psichedelica (chiamarla fantasy non mi finisce), la raffinatezza delle descrizioni; il tema (sempre in sottofondo) del ribaltamento delle tradizioni che viene percepito come qualcosa di maligno, un tradimento che è tuttavia ineluttabile. Collegato al tema della tradizione, c'è il tema dell'identità: nel determinare un individuo, contano più le sue personali tensioni e aspirazioni o tutto quell'insieme di tradizioni che sin dall'infanzia gli gravano sulle spalle?
In maniera più esplicita si aggiungono anche i temi della mancanza di affetto, della difficoltà di comunicazione dei sentimenti, la follia come condizione temporanea oppure permanente.
Altri aspetti positivi e negativi, in ordine sparso: le stanze e i corridoi e gli angusti passaggi sembrano assumere maggiore plasticità e i personaggi sono meno immobili, c'è quella dose di azione in più di cui si sentiva la mancanza nel primo volume. La delicatezza con cui viene presentato il personaggio di Tito (che fino ad ora non conoscevamo, visto che al termine del primo libro il fanciullo aveva un anno appena), sempre in abbinamento con vedute aeree del castello e del monte, con tutti gli strapiombi mozzafiato e le terrazze abbandonate, certe fasi della presentazione hanno un'aura a dir poco poetica, e splendidamente malinconici sono certi brevissimi accenni ai fasti ormai trascorsi del mostruoso maniero. La magia con cui la voce narrante, attraverso gli occhi di Tito, ci fa vedere i colori, è chiaramente l'occhio attento di un pittore e illustratore, altro che bambino di sette anni. Ancor più poetico è il passaggio - a metà libro circa – dall'estate afosa al nevoso inverno.
Il riassuntino iniziale con tutti i personaggi del primo volume è bruttino e posticcio, se ne faceva a meno. La traduzione che nel primo era briosa e scanzonata, qui tende un po' all'infiacchito: perde dei punti anche se alla fine ci si fa l'orecchio. La pletora di professori e altri starnazzanti figuri che affolla la scuola di Gormenghast è composta da vere e proprie macchiette, sia in senso positivo che in senso negativo: sin dalla prima scena in cui tutti loro vengono presentati nella fumosa aula professori, ho avuto la quasi certezza che la Rowling si sia ispirata da qui per la creazione di tutto il suo mondo potteriano. Nel primo libro mi è venuto da tirare in ballo Martin, ora la Rowling: è doveroso riconoscere a Peake di essere il capostipite e l'ispiratore di una larga parte delle maggiori serie (letterarie e/o televisive) in voga negli ultimi anni.
Dopo aver letto la prima ventina di capitoletti (su un totale di ottanta) credo di aver iniziato a focalizzare il significato - o quantomeno uno dei possibili significati – di questa originale operazione compiuta da Peake. Operazione che Burgess, nella prefazione al primo volume, definiva come una cosa puramente estetica e scevra di possibili interpretazioni. . Ovviamente Peake ci ricama su, ci prende gusto (e con lui il lettore) e trasforma quel granellino di banalità nella più ricercata e manieristica perla. E nel ricamare stanze e corridoi e loggiati e balaustre, arriva al compimento della sua strampalata e sfilacciata trama facendola culminare nelle profondità più tenebrose del mostruoso castello, in una scena che veramente più dark non si potrebbe immaginare. Ed anche la scelta operata per l'ambientazione del finale è magistralmente lugubre e oscura e propedeutica al sipario di desolazione che l'autore farà calare sul celeberrimo castello. In questa storia, fatta dei due libri messi insieme, Tito entra come settantasettesimo Conte di Gormenghast e ne esce come una sorta di San Giorgio alternativo: questa formazione/trasformazione mi è piaciuta molto – insieme, ovviamente, alla strepitosa ambientazione – ed è per questo che non so se vorrò leggere anche il terzo episodio, mi sono affezionata alla sua leggenda e per ora mi fa piacere di lasciarla immobile lì dove ci siamo salutati.
...anche se in nome della colpa cosa stiamo facendo lo sa solo il barbagianni. Comunque, andiamo!
May 3, 2022
“How merciful a thing is man's ignorance of his immediate future! What a ghastly, paralysing thing it would have been if all those present could have known what was about to happen within a matter of seconds!”
Four stars for an exceptionally well written Fantasy novel, where the writing brings its own brand of magic, the scheming and plotting thrills more than most thrillers and the insights into human nature is profoundly accurate, yet disturbing. A timeless classic that does indeed divide opinion.
The Plot
Gormenghast is the story of two people, although many feature in the plot. Titus Groan from the ages of seven through his teenage years and schooling, and Steerpike, his apprentice. Both embody the spirit of rebellion as they seek to turn against the pre-ordained life of Titus in search of a life that is more fulfilling, less prescriptive, and more adventurous but dangerous.
The core of the novel features Titus’ life at school as we are introduced to a cast of new characters who are in one way or another part of his schooling and education. People who shape his thinking, polarised against the views of Steerpike. The mentors make up a dizzy array of characters who themselves are misfits and flawed but are blindsided by Steerpike as they continue to indulge in petty rivalries, in a quest not to be outdone by the other. However, their true rival is allowed to scheme, plot, and murder his way up the social ladder and into the life of Titus whilst the others remain oblivious to his methods and means.
My Reading Experience
I read Titus Groan a long time ago and so started into number two in the series, with Titus Groan now the age of seven. This was a mistake, because I had hoped a continuation would jog my memory about the characters in book 1. A book I felt was long and slow. So, I wasn’t up for a re-read. However, most of the characters change and we are introduced to a new array of characters that make up the story of Gormenghast, and as such I lost the connection to the first book.
A few pointers then, if you plan to read, don’t do as I did and leave a long gap between the two books. Book 2 I found much more enjoyable although again a slow read. The second point or I should say – mistake. Is don’t watch the film. I watched the film, and it clouded my judgement of the book, so it has taken time to review and a quick scan of the pages to remind myself what I enjoyed. The film was just awful. In fact, I dnf the film!!!!
Review and Comments
Gormenghast was a trailblazer in many ways for the ‘Fantasy’ genre, which others have evolved, developed, and embellished over the years, yet for its time, it was superb.
However, I disliked two things, firstly the author tried too hard to create off the wall characters to add appeal and got it wrong with some of these characters. Secondly the book was too slow in parts and went from moments of mesmerising storytelling to tedious long drawn out chapters.
The fascination came from observing the behaviours of the characters that did appeal. The interaction between the characters and many lessons of life and fables that peppered this book added its own brand of magic and made this an overall winner.
I found Titus and Steerpike captivating but dislikeable, but the owners of some of the most powerful quotes and thought provoking.
“He knew that he was caught up in one of those stretches of time when for anything to happen normally would be abnormal. The dawn was too tense and highly charged for any common happening to survive.”
"He is climbing the spiral staircase of the soul of Gormenghast, bound for some pinnacle of the itching fancy - some wild, invulnerable eyrie best known to himself; where he can watch the world spread out below him, and shake exultantly his clotted wings.”
Exceptionally well written where profound statements revealed so much of what drives the ugly side of human nature in search of power, wealth, and status.
Four stars for an exceptionally well written Fantasy novel, where the writing brings its own brand of magic, the scheming and plotting thrills more than most thrillers and the insights into human nature is profoundly accurate, yet disturbing. A timeless classic that does indeed divide opinion.
The Plot
Gormenghast is the story of two people, although many feature in the plot. Titus Groan from the ages of seven through his teenage years and schooling, and Steerpike, his apprentice. Both embody the spirit of rebellion as they seek to turn against the pre-ordained life of Titus in search of a life that is more fulfilling, less prescriptive, and more adventurous but dangerous.
The core of the novel features Titus’ life at school as we are introduced to a cast of new characters who are in one way or another part of his schooling and education. People who shape his thinking, polarised against the views of Steerpike. The mentors make up a dizzy array of characters who themselves are misfits and flawed but are blindsided by Steerpike as they continue to indulge in petty rivalries, in a quest not to be outdone by the other. However, their true rival is allowed to scheme, plot, and murder his way up the social ladder and into the life of Titus whilst the others remain oblivious to his methods and means.
My Reading Experience
I read Titus Groan a long time ago and so started into number two in the series, with Titus Groan now the age of seven. This was a mistake, because I had hoped a continuation would jog my memory about the characters in book 1. A book I felt was long and slow. So, I wasn’t up for a re-read. However, most of the characters change and we are introduced to a new array of characters that make up the story of Gormenghast, and as such I lost the connection to the first book.
A few pointers then, if you plan to read, don’t do as I did and leave a long gap between the two books. Book 2 I found much more enjoyable although again a slow read. The second point or I should say – mistake. Is don’t watch the film. I watched the film, and it clouded my judgement of the book, so it has taken time to review and a quick scan of the pages to remind myself what I enjoyed. The film was just awful. In fact, I dnf the film!!!!
Review and Comments
Gormenghast was a trailblazer in many ways for the ‘Fantasy’ genre, which others have evolved, developed, and embellished over the years, yet for its time, it was superb.
However, I disliked two things, firstly the author tried too hard to create off the wall characters to add appeal and got it wrong with some of these characters. Secondly the book was too slow in parts and went from moments of mesmerising storytelling to tedious long drawn out chapters.
The fascination came from observing the behaviours of the characters that did appeal. The interaction between the characters and many lessons of life and fables that peppered this book added its own brand of magic and made this an overall winner.
I found Titus and Steerpike captivating but dislikeable, but the owners of some of the most powerful quotes and thought provoking.
“He knew that he was caught up in one of those stretches of time when for anything to happen normally would be abnormal. The dawn was too tense and highly charged for any common happening to survive.”
"He is climbing the spiral staircase of the soul of Gormenghast, bound for some pinnacle of the itching fancy - some wild, invulnerable eyrie best known to himself; where he can watch the world spread out below him, and shake exultantly his clotted wings.”
Exceptionally well written where profound statements revealed so much of what drives the ugly side of human nature in search of power, wealth, and status.
June 12, 2023
I have a problem. I gave 5 stars to Titus Groan, book 1 in the Gormenghast trilogy, but I find the sequel to be even better. So,
hey Goodreads, if you guys could kindly change the rating system, I would very much like to give Gormenghast, book 2 in the Gormenghast trilogy, six or perhaps even seven stars. I'm just kidding... except that I'm not. This book was simply and utterly amazing. It is exactly what Titus Groan is, but on steroids! So if you're interested, go check my review of Titus Groan and remember that if you thought it couldn't get better, well, it most certainly can. The proof is in the sequel!
OLIVIER DELAYE
Author of the SEBASTEN OF ATLANTIS series
hey Goodreads, if you guys could kindly change the rating system, I would very much like to give Gormenghast, book 2 in the Gormenghast trilogy, six or perhaps even seven stars. I'm just kidding... except that I'm not. This book was simply and utterly amazing. It is exactly what Titus Groan is, but on steroids! So if you're interested, go check my review of Titus Groan and remember that if you thought it couldn't get better, well, it most certainly can. The proof is in the sequel!
OLIVIER DELAYE
Author of the SEBASTEN OF ATLANTIS series
May 18, 2024
Tito cresce, e con lui nuove avventure tra le mura del castello di Gormenghast che tutto vedono e tutto sentono nel loro freddo silenzio di pietra. Intrighi e bizzarrie sono all'ordine del giorno, come sempre. Personaggi unici e indimenticabili, grotteschi e simili a caricature.
Leggermente inferiore al primo indimenticabile romanzo, forse per aver perso qualche personaggio chiave, rimane comunque godibilissimo e unico nel genere.
Leggermente inferiore al primo indimenticabile romanzo, forse per aver perso qualche personaggio chiave, rimane comunque godibilissimo e unico nel genere.
September 9, 2019
Well, I got myself in a good pickle rating
Titus Groan
5 stars because this book is by every measurable and conceivable standard better than the first. This gets all the stars.
Gormenghast is a book you have to Set Time Aside For, and I'm genuinely afraid this will scare off modern readers, what with our diminishing attention spans and insatiable lust for instant gratification. It’s not a book you can pick up while on the intercity bus because you’d end up spending three consecutive bus rides reading the description of the way the sun slants onto some flagstones at a certain time of the day.
Having said that, Peake has seriously improved as a storyteller. Not as a writer because, blimey, this guy can write, and Titus Groan couldn’t have been better written had the Almighty himself guided the author’s hand. I say he’s improved as a storyteller because in Gormenghast he’s learnt how to quicken the pace, raise the stakes and create a genuinely moving human drama. That is not to say this book isn’t slow; it’s the difference between watching continental drift and watching a glacier calving.
So many things threaten to stay in my memory I should make them pay rent: Opus Fluke’s silent laughter, Irma Prunesquallor’s soirée, the surprise for Titus’ 10th birthday, the endless but hypnotising description of Titus’ daydreams evoked by staring at the colours of a marble… This book manages to be magical without containing an ounce of magic and to feel familiar in the most alienating of settings, a moving reminder of the power of literature to spirit us away to worlds previously unimaginable. It is a true wonder that belongs in the highest echelons of modern British literature and I will treasure it like an heirloom.
Gormenghast is a book you have to Set Time Aside For, and I'm genuinely afraid this will scare off modern readers, what with our diminishing attention spans and insatiable lust for instant gratification. It’s not a book you can pick up while on the intercity bus because you’d end up spending three consecutive bus rides reading the description of the way the sun slants onto some flagstones at a certain time of the day.
Having said that, Peake has seriously improved as a storyteller. Not as a writer because, blimey, this guy can write, and Titus Groan couldn’t have been better written had the Almighty himself guided the author’s hand. I say he’s improved as a storyteller because in Gormenghast he’s learnt how to quicken the pace, raise the stakes and create a genuinely moving human drama. That is not to say this book isn’t slow; it’s the difference between watching continental drift and watching a glacier calving.
So many things threaten to stay in my memory I should make them pay rent: Opus Fluke’s silent laughter, Irma Prunesquallor’s soirée, the surprise for Titus’ 10th birthday, the endless but hypnotising description of Titus’ daydreams evoked by staring at the colours of a marble… This book manages to be magical without containing an ounce of magic and to feel familiar in the most alienating of settings, a moving reminder of the power of literature to spirit us away to worlds previously unimaginable. It is a true wonder that belongs in the highest echelons of modern British literature and I will treasure it like an heirloom.
November 30, 2022
Secondo volume della saga. Sono rimasta spiazzata nella lettura perché a dire il vero mi ero abituata a quella prosa fatta di splendide immagini che tanto mi è mancata adesso, quegli epiteti quasi omerici studiati per ognuno dei personaggi ma, superato il trauma iniziale, devo dire che la lettura scorre piacevolmente. Il ritmo dell’azione incalza come il precedente ma qui trovo che lo studio della psiche dei personaggi sia più profondo. Tito è tutto in questo libro. E’ il bimbo di sette anni uguale ai suoi compagni, è l’adolescente che cresce svogliato, annoiato dal suo ruolo, è l’avventuriero, il ragazzo che matura e scivola via dall’adolescenza, l’uomo solitario, che ha bisogno di spazio, l’eroe.
“Tito ha sette anni. I suoi confini sono quelli di Gormenghast. Ne sugge le ombre come latte; lo svezza, per così dire, il garbuglio dei rituali: alle sue orecchie si offrono echi, agli occhi un labirinto di pietra: eppure ha dell'altro in corpo - ben altro che un lascito d'ombra. Perché prima di tutto, e pur sempre, è un bambino.
[…] Tito il settantasettesimo. Erede di una montagna che si sgretola: di un mare
d'ortiche: di un impero di ruggine rossa: di percorsi rituali, scavati nella pietra fino
alle caviglie”
Fucsia diventa malinconica, triste; Gertrude si riscopre nonostante tutto con un cuore; Irma trova l’amore in un siparietto delicato e ironico; Lisca, il buon vecchio fidato Lisca…
Su tutti grava il castello, le sue mura sono vive, respira, esiste! E’ casa, è labirinto in cui perdersi, è isola in cui sopravvivere. Per Gormenghast si vive o si muore. Solo Tito ha il coraggio di scoprire cosa esiste al di là delle sue mura.
“Non esiste un altrove, non farai che girare in tondo, Tito de' Lamenti.
Non esiste strada, non esiste sentiero che alla fine non ti riporterà a casa. Tutto
conduce a Gormenghast” . Sarà davvero così?
“Tito ha sette anni. I suoi confini sono quelli di Gormenghast. Ne sugge le ombre come latte; lo svezza, per così dire, il garbuglio dei rituali: alle sue orecchie si offrono echi, agli occhi un labirinto di pietra: eppure ha dell'altro in corpo - ben altro che un lascito d'ombra. Perché prima di tutto, e pur sempre, è un bambino.
[…] Tito il settantasettesimo. Erede di una montagna che si sgretola: di un mare
d'ortiche: di un impero di ruggine rossa: di percorsi rituali, scavati nella pietra fino
alle caviglie”
Fucsia diventa malinconica, triste; Gertrude si riscopre nonostante tutto con un cuore; Irma trova l’amore in un siparietto delicato e ironico; Lisca, il buon vecchio fidato Lisca…
Su tutti grava il castello, le sue mura sono vive, respira, esiste! E’ casa, è labirinto in cui perdersi, è isola in cui sopravvivere. Per Gormenghast si vive o si muore. Solo Tito ha il coraggio di scoprire cosa esiste al di là delle sue mura.
“Non esiste un altrove, non farai che girare in tondo, Tito de' Lamenti.
Non esiste strada, non esiste sentiero che alla fine non ti riporterà a casa. Tutto
conduce a Gormenghast” . Sarà davvero così?
January 6, 2019
Gormenghast: un luogo misterioso, cupo, crepuscolare, dove al centro troviamo un castello, un luogo nel luogo. All'interno vige una legge inviolabile, gli abitanti sono molti e di caratterizzazione stravagante o comunque particolare, qui gli stereotipi sono lontani anni luce...
Secondo capitolo della trilogia, parte con una lunga e piacevole introduzione, Peake prende per mano il lettore e gli fa un excursus del primo capitolo, così come se avesse invitato il lettore a bere un tè, seduti su poltroncine e immersi nel silenzio spettrale di Gormenghast.
Poi si entra gradatamente nella narrazione del secondo libro, piano piano, molto lentamente, una lentezza giostrata da Peake in modo superlativo, le descrizioni, le disquisizioni, le riflessioni, ne fanno da sfondo narrativo, poi...
Mervyn Peake mi ha ancora più sbalordito con questo secondo capitolo, di una trilogia che è entrata di diritto tra le letture gotiche più significative di tutta la letteratura fantastica.
La scrittura è qualcosa di straordinario, ci ho messo un mese a leggerlo, ma non perchè non mi piacesse o perchè fosse pesante ecc... ma semplicemente perchè non volevo separarmene. Le feste natalizie hanno un po' rovinato l'atmosfera, con il caos dei regali, delle cene infinite. Perchè Gormenghast, per me, va letto nel silenzio più assoluto, poi ci penserai lui (il libro) a creare l'atmosfera, che difficilmente riesco a descrivere, insomma un capolavoro assoluto!
Attenzione: Gormenghast è etichettato (che brutta parola) come letteratura fantastica, ma non leggerete altro che il riflesso, come in uno specchio, dell'umanità, fatta di pregiudizi, di discriminazioni, di leggi eterne inviolabili, di violenza, di crudeltà, ma anche di amore, passione, amicizia, emozioni!
Battè il pugno sul palmo della mano. Aveva paura. Era eccitato. Gli battevano i denti. Quel rapido sguardo su un mondo, un mondo senza formule, dove la vita umana poteva essere vissuta secondo altre regole che non fossero quelle di Gormenghast, lo aveva scosso; tuttavia, nonostante la novità, nonostante la vaga immensità del sentimento ribelle che pulsava dentro di lui...
La notte premeva contro di loro da ogni lato - un milione di milioni di chilometri cubici di notte. Oh, la gloria di starsene con il proprio amore, nudi, per così dire, su una biglia che girava vorticosa, mentre le altre sfere correvano fiammeggianti per l'universo!
Tito tremava proprio al pensiero di quella differenza. Non erano la vicinanza o l'uguaglianza, o una qualsiasi affinità o speranza di affinità, che lo eccitavano. Era la differenza, la differenza che gli importava; una differenza da gridare ad alta voce.
Secondo capitolo della trilogia, parte con una lunga e piacevole introduzione, Peake prende per mano il lettore e gli fa un excursus del primo capitolo, così come se avesse invitato il lettore a bere un tè, seduti su poltroncine e immersi nel silenzio spettrale di Gormenghast.
Poi si entra gradatamente nella narrazione del secondo libro, piano piano, molto lentamente, una lentezza giostrata da Peake in modo superlativo, le descrizioni, le disquisizioni, le riflessioni, ne fanno da sfondo narrativo, poi...
Mervyn Peake mi ha ancora più sbalordito con questo secondo capitolo, di una trilogia che è entrata di diritto tra le letture gotiche più significative di tutta la letteratura fantastica.
La scrittura è qualcosa di straordinario, ci ho messo un mese a leggerlo, ma non perchè non mi piacesse o perchè fosse pesante ecc... ma semplicemente perchè non volevo separarmene. Le feste natalizie hanno un po' rovinato l'atmosfera, con il caos dei regali, delle cene infinite. Perchè Gormenghast, per me, va letto nel silenzio più assoluto, poi ci penserai lui (il libro) a creare l'atmosfera, che difficilmente riesco a descrivere, insomma un capolavoro assoluto!
Attenzione: Gormenghast è etichettato (che brutta parola) come letteratura fantastica, ma non leggerete altro che il riflesso, come in uno specchio, dell'umanità, fatta di pregiudizi, di discriminazioni, di leggi eterne inviolabili, di violenza, di crudeltà, ma anche di amore, passione, amicizia, emozioni!
Battè il pugno sul palmo della mano. Aveva paura. Era eccitato. Gli battevano i denti. Quel rapido sguardo su un mondo, un mondo senza formule, dove la vita umana poteva essere vissuta secondo altre regole che non fossero quelle di Gormenghast, lo aveva scosso; tuttavia, nonostante la novità, nonostante la vaga immensità del sentimento ribelle che pulsava dentro di lui...
La notte premeva contro di loro da ogni lato - un milione di milioni di chilometri cubici di notte. Oh, la gloria di starsene con il proprio amore, nudi, per così dire, su una biglia che girava vorticosa, mentre le altre sfere correvano fiammeggianti per l'universo!
Tito tremava proprio al pensiero di quella differenza. Non erano la vicinanza o l'uguaglianza, o una qualsiasi affinità o speranza di affinità, che lo eccitavano. Era la differenza, la differenza che gli importava; una differenza da gridare ad alta voce.
September 15, 2018
La legge! La legge! La legge!
“Per via del panorama selvaggio che circondava Gormenghast, e si stendeva da ogni lato fino all'orizzonte, come se il castello fosse un'isola di reietti sopra un oceano desolato e fuori da tutte le rotte commerciali: per via di quel senso di spazio infinito, come poteva sapere Tito che la vaga, confusa insoddisfazione che aveva cominciato a provare di quando in quando non era altro che il tormento di una creatura chiusa in gabbia? Non conosceva altro mondo. Là, tutt'intorno a lui, ardeva la materia prima: gli oggetti di scena e i fondali dei drammi. Drammi appassionati; oscuri e asessuati; pericolosi e arroganti. Davanti a lui, il futuro si mostrava apertamente con tutta la sua pedanteria e i suoi infiniti rituali; qualcosa però gli pulsava in gola e si ribellò”.
Tito non è un vero e proprio personaggio, ha scritto Michele Mari, amante della trilogia di Peake; è il punto di vista che vuole rendere reale il fantastico che l'autore ci mette davanti agli occhi. Privo di ideologia, il mondo di Gormenghast non conosce bontà o cattiveria, è onirico e simbolicamente saturo. Peake ha creato un paesaggio chiuso e perturbante nel quale si svolgono azioni eterodosse e barocche, gioiose e infernali, segnate da elementi sensuali e da fiaba. Il castello emerge nel mistero e nell'angoscia da un'area di rimozione, scrive sempre Mari, e fortissimo è il richiamo mitologico, il gioco di archetipi, come il diluvio, la fine delle cose. Entriamo nel testo e troviamo il piccolo conte erede di un lascito di ombra: il buio si insinua ovunque, i rituali hanno ingarbugliato le voci, i vivi e i morti mostrano le loro figure di passione e ambizione. Nella formazione del giovane si intersecano i ruoli comici e grotteschi dei professori, gli enigmi e le macchinazioni dei parenti, l'amore dei pochi magici, amorevoli e ridicoli alleati, la bellezza e il cuore sempre sul confine. Gormenghast era come un enorme naufrago. Il teatro degli eventi coinvolge intenso e ipnotico. Tito vuole essere libero, più di ogni cosa, ma per inseguire la legge della ricerca dovrà affrontare un antagonista diabolico e crudele. L'avventura si presenta per frammenti, incompleta e sempre sospesa; ogni gesto è cupo e i volti hanno parvenze sinistre, il flusso romanzesco si imprime nella nostra memoria con vivacità imprevedibile, con la forza materica e plastica di un'epica rivelazione. Anima e cuore di eroi e protagonisti si spaccano in due; labirinti, cerimonie, duelli, trappole, uccisioni: tutto conduce alla notte di Gormenghast, al suo nerissimo cielo.
“Era l'influsso di Gormenghast, che altro avrebbe potuto essere? Era come se il grande labirinto si fosse svegliato dal suo sonno di pietra e ruggine e inspirando avesse fatto il vuoto, lo stesso vuoto in cui quelle marionette si muovevano. Venne poi il momento in cui, in una tarda sera di primavera, il castello finalmente espirò e le distanze si accorciarono di colpo, le voci da confuse e lontane tornarono nitide e vicine, le mani si resero di nuovo conto di ciò che stringevano, e Gormenghast tornò di pietra e si rimise a dormire. Eppure, prima che il velo di quella vuota pesantezza si alzasse erano successe alcune cose che, per quanto a guardarsi indietro sembrassero delle ombre vaghe, erano tuttavia innegabili. E per quanto anche allora fossero sembrate oscure, avevano avuto delle conseguenze piuttosto concrete”.
“Per via del panorama selvaggio che circondava Gormenghast, e si stendeva da ogni lato fino all'orizzonte, come se il castello fosse un'isola di reietti sopra un oceano desolato e fuori da tutte le rotte commerciali: per via di quel senso di spazio infinito, come poteva sapere Tito che la vaga, confusa insoddisfazione che aveva cominciato a provare di quando in quando non era altro che il tormento di una creatura chiusa in gabbia? Non conosceva altro mondo. Là, tutt'intorno a lui, ardeva la materia prima: gli oggetti di scena e i fondali dei drammi. Drammi appassionati; oscuri e asessuati; pericolosi e arroganti. Davanti a lui, il futuro si mostrava apertamente con tutta la sua pedanteria e i suoi infiniti rituali; qualcosa però gli pulsava in gola e si ribellò”.
Tito non è un vero e proprio personaggio, ha scritto Michele Mari, amante della trilogia di Peake; è il punto di vista che vuole rendere reale il fantastico che l'autore ci mette davanti agli occhi. Privo di ideologia, il mondo di Gormenghast non conosce bontà o cattiveria, è onirico e simbolicamente saturo. Peake ha creato un paesaggio chiuso e perturbante nel quale si svolgono azioni eterodosse e barocche, gioiose e infernali, segnate da elementi sensuali e da fiaba. Il castello emerge nel mistero e nell'angoscia da un'area di rimozione, scrive sempre Mari, e fortissimo è il richiamo mitologico, il gioco di archetipi, come il diluvio, la fine delle cose. Entriamo nel testo e troviamo il piccolo conte erede di un lascito di ombra: il buio si insinua ovunque, i rituali hanno ingarbugliato le voci, i vivi e i morti mostrano le loro figure di passione e ambizione. Nella formazione del giovane si intersecano i ruoli comici e grotteschi dei professori, gli enigmi e le macchinazioni dei parenti, l'amore dei pochi magici, amorevoli e ridicoli alleati, la bellezza e il cuore sempre sul confine. Gormenghast era come un enorme naufrago. Il teatro degli eventi coinvolge intenso e ipnotico. Tito vuole essere libero, più di ogni cosa, ma per inseguire la legge della ricerca dovrà affrontare un antagonista diabolico e crudele. L'avventura si presenta per frammenti, incompleta e sempre sospesa; ogni gesto è cupo e i volti hanno parvenze sinistre, il flusso romanzesco si imprime nella nostra memoria con vivacità imprevedibile, con la forza materica e plastica di un'epica rivelazione. Anima e cuore di eroi e protagonisti si spaccano in due; labirinti, cerimonie, duelli, trappole, uccisioni: tutto conduce alla notte di Gormenghast, al suo nerissimo cielo.
“Era l'influsso di Gormenghast, che altro avrebbe potuto essere? Era come se il grande labirinto si fosse svegliato dal suo sonno di pietra e ruggine e inspirando avesse fatto il vuoto, lo stesso vuoto in cui quelle marionette si muovevano. Venne poi il momento in cui, in una tarda sera di primavera, il castello finalmente espirò e le distanze si accorciarono di colpo, le voci da confuse e lontane tornarono nitide e vicine, le mani si resero di nuovo conto di ciò che stringevano, e Gormenghast tornò di pietra e si rimise a dormire. Eppure, prima che il velo di quella vuota pesantezza si alzasse erano successe alcune cose che, per quanto a guardarsi indietro sembrassero delle ombre vaghe, erano tuttavia innegabili. E per quanto anche allora fossero sembrate oscure, avevano avuto delle conseguenze piuttosto concrete”.
November 19, 2016
This trilogy is amazing and this second book does not disappoint. Again I had a bit of trouble getting into it but once I did I absolutely couldn't put it down. We met a bunch of new characters in this one and some of them provided some much needed levity to a pretty creepy, bleak story. I think my favorite scene was the "party" I don't think I'll ever think about a hot water bottle quite the same. Watching Titus work through his "rebellion" was interesting too. I originally thought he was going to be a bratty character but I've ended up liking him. Can't wait to read the third one next month.
July 8, 2019
Wonderfully funny, brilliantly written and sometimes very exciting. Steerpike's devilry went up several notches. Finished part two and now onto part three. I've got a strong hunch JK Rowlings owes a debt to Mervyn Peake.
September 11, 2013
An excellent second book in a horrifically creepy trilogy. As the second book in the trilogy, Gormenghast doesn't disappoint with even more eccentric characters and mounting tension with our evil villain, Steerpike. Gormenghast feels as if it's still a part of the first book, it flows so well. In fact, by the way it ended, I almost could have seen the story ending there, and so I'm somewhat perplexed as to how the third book is going to go. For me, the main character out of the myriad of characters to choose from, is not, in fact, a person, but the castle Gormenghast itself. So to see our young Titus Groan heading out at the end of the book, makes me wonder if we'll still have flashbacks of the happenings in our beloved keep. I truly hope so.
For those of you who haven't read Peake's trilogy, first, I highly encourage you to do so. And second, telling you how this second book ends in no way depletes from this awesome and ominous story. In this edition we see a host of new characters that add some comic relief, a weird sort of romance that doesn't necessarily sets your heart strings plucking, and the loss of some favorite characters. But that's all in a day's events here at Gormenghast. The romance in particular will make you smile, at least at first, and then those of you who, like me, who have been married for awhile, might see the wry irony that comes from years of having to get along with the same person. In fact, it's almost super-human-like to see how fast the couple goes from gooey-eyed love to bickering old couple. But that's only a smart part of the events in this book. One of my favorite parts is the flood.
When I was a kid, I loved to swim and often wondered what it would be like to have each room in the house filled with water so that I could swim from one room to another. In essence, this is what happens in the castle. While the adults deal with the deaths, the sickness, and salvaging what items they can, the kids are busy diving from the turrets into the glassy ponds that used to be rooms and courtyards. Of course, I'm completed conflicted in this revelry. Part of me thinks how much fun it would be to be a kid again and be jumping into a lake from my bedroom window, and then the other half of me is horrified and can't help but think, those are stone walls under that water! What's to keep them from smashing their heads in on those walls when they dive? Either way, the imagery is explicit and entertaining and I never tire of reading Peake's style of writing.
Probably there are many themes brought up in other reviews: religion or lack thereof, tradition, ritual, etc. And yes, they're there, however, for my being a Peake virgin, I would like to just continue to bask in the loveliness of the dissertation. The prose that seems to flow so effortlessly from Peake's pen is beguiling and enchanting, and I just want to take a bath in these words. I want to submerge myself in the lush detail of this literature and think of Fuchsia-esque like ways to commit suicide for I am so not worthy to even breathe on the book cover of this talented writer. And yes, this is over-the-top dramatic, but I like to think I've been Fuchsia-inspired and I will leave these cheesy sentences as is.
Without a doubt, this is a work of classical literature. The form, the style of writing, its uniqueness, the underlying themes of the human condition and its undefinable genre make it so. But more than anything, its huge following and the magical world that Peake creates shows us his genius. I hear the last book is very different from the first two, and I pray it isn't so.
ClassicsDefined.com
For those of you who haven't read Peake's trilogy, first, I highly encourage you to do so. And second, telling you how this second book ends in no way depletes from this awesome and ominous story. In this edition we see a host of new characters that add some comic relief, a weird sort of romance that doesn't necessarily sets your heart strings plucking, and the loss of some favorite characters. But that's all in a day's events here at Gormenghast. The romance in particular will make you smile, at least at first, and then those of you who, like me, who have been married for awhile, might see the wry irony that comes from years of having to get along with the same person. In fact, it's almost super-human-like to see how fast the couple goes from gooey-eyed love to bickering old couple. But that's only a smart part of the events in this book. One of my favorite parts is the flood.
When I was a kid, I loved to swim and often wondered what it would be like to have each room in the house filled with water so that I could swim from one room to another. In essence, this is what happens in the castle. While the adults deal with the deaths, the sickness, and salvaging what items they can, the kids are busy diving from the turrets into the glassy ponds that used to be rooms and courtyards. Of course, I'm completed conflicted in this revelry. Part of me thinks how much fun it would be to be a kid again and be jumping into a lake from my bedroom window, and then the other half of me is horrified and can't help but think, those are stone walls under that water! What's to keep them from smashing their heads in on those walls when they dive? Either way, the imagery is explicit and entertaining and I never tire of reading Peake's style of writing.
Probably there are many themes brought up in other reviews: religion or lack thereof, tradition, ritual, etc. And yes, they're there, however, for my being a Peake virgin, I would like to just continue to bask in the loveliness of the dissertation. The prose that seems to flow so effortlessly from Peake's pen is beguiling and enchanting, and I just want to take a bath in these words. I want to submerge myself in the lush detail of this literature and think of Fuchsia-esque like ways to commit suicide for I am so not worthy to even breathe on the book cover of this talented writer. And yes, this is over-the-top dramatic, but I like to think I've been Fuchsia-inspired and I will leave these cheesy sentences as is.
Without a doubt, this is a work of classical literature. The form, the style of writing, its uniqueness, the underlying themes of the human condition and its undefinable genre make it so. But more than anything, its huge following and the magical world that Peake creates shows us his genius. I hear the last book is very different from the first two, and I pray it isn't so.
ClassicsDefined.com
June 20, 2019
The vivid descriptions are a treat, but mostly I enjoyed the surreal characters and the way Peake portrayed them. I chuckled many, many times.
This work is unique, and I dare say you haven't read anything like it before, and you possibly never will again.
If you liked Titus Groan you should not hesitate to read Gormenghast.
Any writer should give this a try, if only to find out: nothing is too bizarre. You can make it work. All of it. Yes, even that.
I wrote this article about the Gormenghast novels.
This work is unique, and I dare say you haven't read anything like it before, and you possibly never will again.
If you liked Titus Groan you should not hesitate to read Gormenghast.
Any writer should give this a try, if only to find out: nothing is too bizarre. You can make it work. All of it. Yes, even that.
I wrote this article about the Gormenghast novels.
December 29, 2012
With Titus Groan, Peake awakened me to what is possible when writing pen and brilliant mind are in perfect harmony. He created a tapestry of humanity and community uniquely compendious, woven together with threads of absolutely breathtaking writing. Yet for all its magnificence, it's purpose was still largely to set the foundation for the second book, Gormenghast.
And such a second book it is. Gormenghast is Peake unleashed. In its pages he manages to pry humanity open, examine and play with all its viscera, and stitch everything back together in a way of his own choosing. Peake forces the reader to become his toy, his plaything. Like a cat he plays with us, and trapped within the strings of his pages we cannot help put be tugged and batted along.
Gormenghast, in its dark and dreamlike way, will demand a heavy mental and emotional price, yet it will reward readers who allow the heavy castle stones and it's inchoate characters to permeate their mind.
He no longer wanted to kill his foe in darkness and in silence. His lust was to stand naked upon the moonlight stage, with his arms stretched high, and fingers spread, and with the warm fresh blood that soaked them sliding down his wrists, spiralling his arms and steaming in the cold night air - to suddenly drop his hands like talons to his breast and tear it open to expose a heart like a black vegetable- and then, upon the crest of self-exposure, and the sweet glory of wickedness, to create some gesture of supreme defiance, lewd and rare; and then, with the towers of Gormenghast about him, cheat the castle of its jealous right and die of his own evil in the moonbeams.
There is more "action" in this, the second book, than was in Titus Groan, and the book itself feels like a faster read. Yet, I found myself taking longer to read it only for the reason that I wanted to savor it. So complete was my enjoyment, so deep was my investment of this book, that I find myself truly mourning Mervyn Peake's death. I bemoan his loss to the world, and I weep whenever I remember that the story of Titus Groan will never be completed.
I eagerly await the chance to dive into Titus Alone, the third book, yet I will need to take a small break before I do. I will need to reflect and chew on everything I've already experienced, and prepare myself for the mysterious journey ahead still calling to me from the pages Peake's masterpiece.
And such a second book it is. Gormenghast is Peake unleashed. In its pages he manages to pry humanity open, examine and play with all its viscera, and stitch everything back together in a way of his own choosing. Peake forces the reader to become his toy, his plaything. Like a cat he plays with us, and trapped within the strings of his pages we cannot help put be tugged and batted along.
Gormenghast, in its dark and dreamlike way, will demand a heavy mental and emotional price, yet it will reward readers who allow the heavy castle stones and it's inchoate characters to permeate their mind.
He no longer wanted to kill his foe in darkness and in silence. His lust was to stand naked upon the moonlight stage, with his arms stretched high, and fingers spread, and with the warm fresh blood that soaked them sliding down his wrists, spiralling his arms and steaming in the cold night air - to suddenly drop his hands like talons to his breast and tear it open to expose a heart like a black vegetable- and then, upon the crest of self-exposure, and the sweet glory of wickedness, to create some gesture of supreme defiance, lewd and rare; and then, with the towers of Gormenghast about him, cheat the castle of its jealous right and die of his own evil in the moonbeams.
There is more "action" in this, the second book, than was in Titus Groan, and the book itself feels like a faster read. Yet, I found myself taking longer to read it only for the reason that I wanted to savor it. So complete was my enjoyment, so deep was my investment of this book, that I find myself truly mourning Mervyn Peake's death. I bemoan his loss to the world, and I weep whenever I remember that the story of Titus Groan will never be completed.
I eagerly await the chance to dive into Titus Alone, the third book, yet I will need to take a small break before I do. I will need to reflect and chew on everything I've already experienced, and prepare myself for the mysterious journey ahead still calling to me from the pages Peake's masterpiece.
June 9, 2023
This is the flood myth of the modern age, to me. You know, the flood. We've told the story countless times through the millennia, across nearly every human culture. Corruption creeps through civilization, violence mounts while hubris blinds the eyes of the people to its cause, until the water rushes in and swallows it all. There's the flood, and there's the man who survives it—Utnapishtim from Gilgamesh, Manu from the Vedas, Greek Deucalion, Abrahamic Noah. Titus Groan of Gormenghast.
This is not the point of the vast majority of the book, I know. Maybe not the point ever. But Titus as a flood hero is so interesting to me, because that archetype embodies the human yearning to live, which is precisely Titus's deepest wish since long before the flood. And he is very much tied up in the classic flood themes of preservation and rebirth, though in ways Peake deliberately complicates. Because Titus is the flood hero: the patriarch of the family which represents all of civilization, the protagonist who survives the flood. But it's his mother who takes on the flood hero's foundational duties—directing the storage of food and livestock, organizing shelter from the storm. Titus does not care how much of their community gets drowned. If anything, he's aligned with the flood.
For if the flood comes to purge corruption, it must both eliminate the threat of Steerpike and destabilize the rigid rituality that engendered and enabled his evil. And Titus is the hand of the storm that delivers its most crucial cleansing stroke on both fronts; he kills at once the evil that haunts the castle and the last man alive who knew its hallowed ceremonies. And beyond destroying vital ancient knowledge, Titus and Steerpike and the water have fundamentally altered the castle's traditional zeitgeist.
Because what is a flood to a society gridlocked by tradition? To a people who plow, heads down, through patterns of labor they know not the significance of, who had all their daily choices made for them by forgotten ancestors? It's the destruction of that sacred changelessness. It's proof that routines can be uprooted from their immemorial halls, ancestral edicts can be abandoned when made impossible by circumstance or, more unthinkably, insignificant by contrast to existential peril. It's the transformation of the carvers' pointlessly wasteful, symbolic art form into the desperately necessary creation of boats, beauty in a form newly invented. Even after the flood recedes, in the minds of the citizens of Gormenghast there will remain the memory of change and the knowledge of its possibility.
And as for the bloody struggle between traitor and earl—I'd argue it destroys the meaninglessness of the castle's ritual life. Steerpike and Titus have given the people an epic story that happened in their lifetimes, before their eyes, with their participation. All that is to be mourned and venerated in ceremony from now on has significance to them, not to the unknown dead. When they think of the house of Groan, they remember Titus in heroic action, achieving vengeance and deliverance both, earning a battle scar across his cheek. Obviously they aren't simply free of sanctimonious frivolity now. But the choices of what new rituals to create, with Steerpike's knowledge lost and the flooded castle unusable and the earl gone, are their own to make. And because of those two characters, they have a shared cultural story, a touchpoint in the present day.
So, to the rule of ancient, sacrosanct law in Gormenghast, Titus is a part of the destructive deluge. But he also sows seeds for cultural rebirth, even if he doesn't stick around to see them grow. And it is he, at the end, who walks off into the new world to find out what living can look like. The flood hero's wish fulfilled. Thanks for a very cool exercise in comparative mythology, Mervyn Peake :)
Anyway, what is this book actually? A tale of the rise and fall of a machiavellian villain who dexterously manipulates a society made complacent by convention. A bildungsroman. A meditation on rebellion, or maybe its futility. A triumph of gothic atmosphere and imaginary architecture. A meandering depiction of grotesque inanity. An author's manual on how to fridge nearly every single character regardless of gender or age.
But I don't know, all I can really think about is the floodwater. The drowned castle. The hope that when the world wakes from its watery rest, the life of people and place can start again—start anew, even if only for a cleaner canvas on which to paint all those favorite old human mistakes once more.
And for that, I won't be following this series through its succeeding departures in setting and authorship. It's not that I have no faith in their merit; I just know this is where I want it to end for me.
“There is nowhere else. You will only tread in a circle, Titus Groan. There's not a road, not a track, but it will lead you home. For everything comes to Gormenghast.”
This is not the point of the vast majority of the book, I know. Maybe not the point ever. But Titus as a flood hero is so interesting to me, because that archetype embodies the human yearning to live, which is precisely Titus's deepest wish since long before the flood. And he is very much tied up in the classic flood themes of preservation and rebirth, though in ways Peake deliberately complicates. Because Titus is the flood hero: the patriarch of the family which represents all of civilization, the protagonist who survives the flood. But it's his mother who takes on the flood hero's foundational duties—directing the storage of food and livestock, organizing shelter from the storm. Titus does not care how much of their community gets drowned. If anything, he's aligned with the flood.
For if the flood comes to purge corruption, it must both eliminate the threat of Steerpike and destabilize the rigid rituality that engendered and enabled his evil. And Titus is the hand of the storm that delivers its most crucial cleansing stroke on both fronts; he kills at once the evil that haunts the castle and the last man alive who knew its hallowed ceremonies. And beyond destroying vital ancient knowledge, Titus and Steerpike and the water have fundamentally altered the castle's traditional zeitgeist.
Because what is a flood to a society gridlocked by tradition? To a people who plow, heads down, through patterns of labor they know not the significance of, who had all their daily choices made for them by forgotten ancestors? It's the destruction of that sacred changelessness. It's proof that routines can be uprooted from their immemorial halls, ancestral edicts can be abandoned when made impossible by circumstance or, more unthinkably, insignificant by contrast to existential peril. It's the transformation of the carvers' pointlessly wasteful, symbolic art form into the desperately necessary creation of boats, beauty in a form newly invented. Even after the flood recedes, in the minds of the citizens of Gormenghast there will remain the memory of change and the knowledge of its possibility.
And as for the bloody struggle between traitor and earl—I'd argue it destroys the meaninglessness of the castle's ritual life. Steerpike and Titus have given the people an epic story that happened in their lifetimes, before their eyes, with their participation. All that is to be mourned and venerated in ceremony from now on has significance to them, not to the unknown dead. When they think of the house of Groan, they remember Titus in heroic action, achieving vengeance and deliverance both, earning a battle scar across his cheek. Obviously they aren't simply free of sanctimonious frivolity now. But the choices of what new rituals to create, with Steerpike's knowledge lost and the flooded castle unusable and the earl gone, are their own to make. And because of those two characters, they have a shared cultural story, a touchpoint in the present day.
So, to the rule of ancient, sacrosanct law in Gormenghast, Titus is a part of the destructive deluge. But he also sows seeds for cultural rebirth, even if he doesn't stick around to see them grow. And it is he, at the end, who walks off into the new world to find out what living can look like. The flood hero's wish fulfilled. Thanks for a very cool exercise in comparative mythology, Mervyn Peake :)
Anyway, what is this book actually? A tale of the rise and fall of a machiavellian villain who dexterously manipulates a society made complacent by convention. A bildungsroman. A meditation on rebellion, or maybe its futility. A triumph of gothic atmosphere and imaginary architecture. A meandering depiction of grotesque inanity. An author's manual on how to fridge nearly every single character regardless of gender or age.
But I don't know, all I can really think about is the floodwater. The drowned castle. The hope that when the world wakes from its watery rest, the life of people and place can start again—start anew, even if only for a cleaner canvas on which to paint all those favorite old human mistakes once more.
And for that, I won't be following this series through its succeeding departures in setting and authorship. It's not that I have no faith in their merit; I just know this is where I want it to end for me.
“There is nowhere else. You will only tread in a circle, Titus Groan. There's not a road, not a track, but it will lead you home. For everything comes to Gormenghast.”
October 21, 2021
Un libro monumentale, vasto ed articolato come Gormenghast, il labirintico castello che non è solo straordinaria cornice degli eventi ma anche protagonista, al pari degli altri personaggi e sicuramente più vivo e vibrante di molti di loro.
Accadono tante cose in questo romanzo, che spazia nell'arco di dieci anni: morti, catastrofi, duelli, tutto raccontato con quel tono tra il grottesco e il surreale così tipico dell'autore e che rende questa saga un unicum tra le produzioni fantasy. Stavolta rispetto al primo volume l'attenzione si focalizza sui personaggi più che sugli scenari, ed anche nell'introspezione psicologica Peake si rivela un maestro: ogni figura assume uno spessore nuovo che gli restituisce dignità e la fa uscir fuori dalla dimensione caricaturale (che è comunque sempre ben presente); fra tutte è indimenticabile Ferraguzzo, creatura evanescente e dalle molte sfaccettature, un po' fuoco e un po' ghiaccio.
La scrittura pur rimanendo opulenta ed iper-descrittiva è meno barocca e quindi più coinvolgente, in certi momenti non riuscivo a staccare gli occhi dalle pagine.
Gran bel libro, che affascina e appassiona.
Accadono tante cose in questo romanzo, che spazia nell'arco di dieci anni: morti, catastrofi, duelli, tutto raccontato con quel tono tra il grottesco e il surreale così tipico dell'autore e che rende questa saga un unicum tra le produzioni fantasy. Stavolta rispetto al primo volume l'attenzione si focalizza sui personaggi più che sugli scenari, ed anche nell'introspezione psicologica Peake si rivela un maestro: ogni figura assume uno spessore nuovo che gli restituisce dignità e la fa uscir fuori dalla dimensione caricaturale (che è comunque sempre ben presente); fra tutte è indimenticabile Ferraguzzo, creatura evanescente e dalle molte sfaccettature, un po' fuoco e un po' ghiaccio.
La scrittura pur rimanendo opulenta ed iper-descrittiva è meno barocca e quindi più coinvolgente, in certi momenti non riuscivo a staccare gli occhi dalle pagine.
Gran bel libro, che affascina e appassiona.
November 25, 2016
Oh man, just as dark, exciting and heartbreaking as the first book. Those last 100 pages were a roller coaster of emotions.
May 20, 2022
only read this review, if you have already read Titus Groan and wondering should I read this sequel … Because this will contain spoilers for Titus Groan as slip-ups occur though I try and avoid it, do not complain that I didn’t warn you. But before you back out seek out this novel after you finished Titus Goran. Now people who read the novel and people who still deciding if they should read the novel hope you like my review of this fantastic piece of literature.
Introduction
Book 1 Titus Groan is fantastic, it’s basically a masterpiece but Gormenghast is another beast. It rewards the patience of the first book because how certain plot points unfold, the and the general plot is more focused upon than Titus Groan, which in terms of that aspect it was short on. Though that isn’t a criticism of that book as it fitted nature of Titus Groan and what it was seeking out to accomplish. It was deliberately slow and introduction to the castle and its residents seeing certain aspects are basically inverted by the end of this book. This will be a shorter review than Titus Groan because a lot of praises and discussion are like the first book, so it doesn’t bare repeating.
The Shakespearean influence is still prevalent throughout the novel, that has not changed. What I stated about the framework and other factors aren’t removed in the sequel but enforced with further exploration. Though they are 3 books ( though Peake intended to have more like 5) this serves as a fantastic Duology, because of the majority of the plot points, which Titus Groan set up all given resolution except some near the end which unfortunate. After all, we won’t see the answer to them. Though if you genuinely dislike the 3rd book this can easily serve as a good open ending and for most series, this would be its conclusion in all honesty. Though Peake ambition is such this wasn’t enough for him, he wanted to depict Titus from infancy to death which is a daring concept especially during 1940-the 50s for fantasy. The Gormenghast series being incomplete is as tragic as WoT not being completed by Robert Jordan. The Silmarillion and The Great Tales not being completed by JRR Tolkien, in terms of sci-fi Frank Herbert unable to finish the last book in his magnum opus which is the Dune Saga. It’s one of the biggest tragedies in fantasy. Throughout this review I will be examining why this book is a masterpiece in every sense, I definitely won’t do it justice but when read something so amazing you genuinely just step back for a moment and think about the events that unfolded.
Prose
Honestly feel like it might be better than the first book in this regard, as Peake improves as a writer. Though another reviewer states
Honestly, he states it perfectly and better than how I could describe it. Because how the plot unfolds it’s a bit sparser in comparatively to Titus Groan which is much slower.
Example Chapter 75
I won’t go in-depth with that scene however I wanted to illustrate how he able to depict everything so brilliantly. I said in my previous review I struggled with writing style at times I had reread paragraphs and sometimes (rarely) whole chapters. The writing style as I assumed, will just click with you and for this novel it did. They are moments where I was confused what was the point of certain chapters but then I realised oh it's building towards something for this novel it’s the . A lot of authors aren’t too concerned about their prose in fantasy, but you can’t help and love their use of the English language. Its fundamental core of writing it’s the reason why certain books work so well in how they communicate ideas they a nuanced to it.
Writing
I stated this in my Titus Groan review and I 100% stand by this statement even more so with the sequel into account.
Unsure what I can state without just rambling, but I will state the themes it tackles, the characters arcs are truly brilliant in every sense of the word. One aspect I love is that secrets remain secrets. They a notion in a lot of tales because a character has a secret or mystery that it will play a vital role in the story in some manner, unfolded to the other people. Certain revelations occur, but it approached much differently than you would expect.
Character
Titus
Titus is the one, who has one of the most interesting arcs I’ve read it’s a unique journey spanning from infant (book 1) to 17 years old by the end. What I love about Titus is probably his relationship and how his “outrageous” views contrasting his environment. My favourites moments are Titus and his sister just chatting, honestly, I can just read a whole chapter on them just chilling. It makes me wonder what Earl relationship with his sisters ( in terms of chemistry)? As we know the result, but through Titus, you do see a lot more his perspective in retrospect. In his mind, he probably similar to his son, but he only expresses that outlook through his novels hence the Library. Its why the burning of the Library destroy his sanity he had no freedom. Unlike Titus he was unable to face his situation, maybe he did for a period in his life but came back like a broken man. Anyways I enjoy his teacher dynamic with newly introduced character Bellgrove and Steerpike for different reasons.
Fuchsia
Out of the first two books, she is my favourite character and has the most development. Her affection for Titus is endearing and as a sister, she sacrifices a lot for Titus sake. I can always read a random chapter of her doing nothing because she is fantastic. Above I’ve already discussed a certain scene but
Steerpike
The master manipulator. They a lot to say about Steerpike rise and his conclusion in this book. He one of the most fascinating antagonists in Fiction up there with Meruem from Hunter x Hunter, Tywin from ASOIAF, Doflamingo from One Piece, Johan from Monster or Griffith from Berserk and lastly, Batman Rogue’s gallery like Joker. They are moments of his which is purely haunting, really disturbing to read how deranged he is at times. It's worth reading these two books for him alone. They a lot more that can be said but don’t feel it’s necessary.
Conclusion
What more can you say about Gormenghast? Well, its the perfect sequel, its follows the themes and plotline from Titus Groan but expands it and executes its masterfully. The flaws section from Titus Groan pretty much imply here if you do not like that book nothing of your view about this series will change. In all honesty, you won’t read something like this, maybe someone would attempt replicate but it’s impossible. If you do not want to read the third book, this serves as a great duology with an open ending.
10/10 one of the best fantasy novels ever written no doubt
Introduction
Book 1 Titus Groan is fantastic, it’s basically a masterpiece but Gormenghast is another beast. It rewards the patience of the first book because how certain plot points unfold, the and the general plot is more focused upon than Titus Groan, which in terms of that aspect it was short on. Though that isn’t a criticism of that book as it fitted nature of Titus Groan and what it was seeking out to accomplish. It was deliberately slow and introduction to the castle and its residents seeing certain aspects are basically inverted by the end of this book. This will be a shorter review than Titus Groan because a lot of praises and discussion are like the first book, so it doesn’t bare repeating.
The Shakespearean influence is still prevalent throughout the novel, that has not changed. What I stated about the framework and other factors aren’t removed in the sequel but enforced with further exploration. Though they are 3 books ( though Peake intended to have more like 5) this serves as a fantastic Duology, because of the majority of the plot points, which Titus Groan set up all given resolution except some near the end which unfortunate. After all, we won’t see the answer to them. Though if you genuinely dislike the 3rd book this can easily serve as a good open ending and for most series, this would be its conclusion in all honesty. Though Peake ambition is such this wasn’t enough for him, he wanted to depict Titus from infancy to death which is a daring concept especially during 1940-the 50s for fantasy. The Gormenghast series being incomplete is as tragic as WoT not being completed by Robert Jordan. The Silmarillion and The Great Tales not being completed by JRR Tolkien, in terms of sci-fi Frank Herbert unable to finish the last book in his magnum opus which is the Dune Saga. It’s one of the biggest tragedies in fantasy. Throughout this review I will be examining why this book is a masterpiece in every sense, I definitely won’t do it justice but when read something so amazing you genuinely just step back for a moment and think about the events that unfolded.
Prose
Honestly feel like it might be better than the first book in this regard, as Peake improves as a writer. Though another reviewer states
The visual set pieces are equally vivid, but the style seems less labored, more fluid--less like cubist painting and more like a movie photographed by a cinematographer with a unique and eccentric palette. At first I thought this was principally due to Peake's maturing style--and I still believe that this is an important factor--but I have also come to understand that the growing ease in style, the flow of the narrative, has changed because Gormenghast, and Titus too, have changed
Goodreads Bill Kerwin
Honestly, he states it perfectly and better than how I could describe it. Because how the plot unfolds it’s a bit sparser in comparatively to Titus Groan which is much slower.
Example Chapter 75
I won’t go in-depth with that scene however I wanted to illustrate how he able to depict everything so brilliantly. I said in my previous review I struggled with writing style at times I had reread paragraphs and sometimes (rarely) whole chapters. The writing style as I assumed, will just click with you and for this novel it did. They are moments where I was confused what was the point of certain chapters but then I realised oh it's building towards something for this novel it’s the . A lot of authors aren’t too concerned about their prose in fantasy, but you can’t help and love their use of the English language. Its fundamental core of writing it’s the reason why certain books work so well in how they communicate ideas they a nuanced to it.
Writing
He talks about the castle as it’s like a person. In a certain way, it is. You will witness change over a time though subtlety, which you will notice in reflection. The encompassing nature of Gormenghast reflects the values of the characters and belief quite uniquely. One of the best backdrops to a series.
I stated this in my Titus Groan review and I 100% stand by this statement even more so with the sequel into account.
Unsure what I can state without just rambling, but I will state the themes it tackles, the characters arcs are truly brilliant in every sense of the word. One aspect I love is that secrets remain secrets. They a notion in a lot of tales because a character has a secret or mystery that it will play a vital role in the story in some manner, unfolded to the other people. Certain revelations occur, but it approached much differently than you would expect.
Character
Titus
Titus is the one, who has one of the most interesting arcs I’ve read it’s a unique journey spanning from infant (book 1) to 17 years old by the end. What I love about Titus is probably his relationship and how his “outrageous” views contrasting his environment. My favourites moments are Titus and his sister just chatting, honestly, I can just read a whole chapter on them just chilling. It makes me wonder what Earl relationship with his sisters ( in terms of chemistry)? As we know the result, but through Titus, you do see a lot more his perspective in retrospect. In his mind, he probably similar to his son, but he only expresses that outlook through his novels hence the Library. Its why the burning of the Library destroy his sanity he had no freedom. Unlike Titus he was unable to face his situation, maybe he did for a period in his life but came back like a broken man. Anyways I enjoy his teacher dynamic with newly introduced character Bellgrove and Steerpike for different reasons.
Fuchsia
Out of the first two books, she is my favourite character and has the most development. Her affection for Titus is endearing and as a sister, she sacrifices a lot for Titus sake. I can always read a random chapter of her doing nothing because she is fantastic. Above I’ve already discussed a certain scene but
Steerpike
The master manipulator. They a lot to say about Steerpike rise and his conclusion in this book. He one of the most fascinating antagonists in Fiction up there with Meruem from Hunter x Hunter, Tywin from ASOIAF, Doflamingo from One Piece, Johan from Monster or Griffith from Berserk and lastly, Batman Rogue’s gallery like Joker. They are moments of his which is purely haunting, really disturbing to read how deranged he is at times. It's worth reading these two books for him alone. They a lot more that can be said but don’t feel it’s necessary.
Conclusion
What more can you say about Gormenghast? Well, its the perfect sequel, its follows the themes and plotline from Titus Groan but expands it and executes its masterfully. The flaws section from Titus Groan pretty much imply here if you do not like that book nothing of your view about this series will change. In all honesty, you won’t read something like this, maybe someone would attempt replicate but it’s impossible. If you do not want to read the third book, this serves as a great duology with an open ending.
10/10 one of the best fantasy novels ever written no doubt
February 2, 2018
Quando ho iniziato il secondo volume della trilogia di Gormenghast, ho faticato a ritrovare l'atmosfera che tanto mi aveva affascinata nel primo.
Ma si è trattato di un quasi-rifiuto momentaneo. Mi sono presto abituata al nuovo spirito che anima le pagine, comprendendone il senso e apprezzandolo.
Il primo libro si apre con la nascita di Tito, un momento solenne e al tempo stesso un cambiamento nei ritmi di vita del Castello, che impariamo man mano a conoscere, nelle mille diramazioni del “mostro” di pietra e nel suo cuore pulsante di antiche tradizioni inalienabili.
Il secondo si apre con uno sguardo sull’infanzia e la vita quotidiana di Tito, un’esistenza apparentemente normale, uguale “per Legge” a quella degli altri bambini che risiedono a Gormenghast. Quindi scuola, giochi, mensa e dormitorio in comune con i suoi coetanei, anche se il suo destino di Conte gli riserva un futuro ben diverso.
Conosciamo i suoi professori, strampalati, sgangherati e ben poco autorevoli, che si dividono tra le ore in aula e l’agognato riposo, nell’ala loro riservata, ben quindici ore senza ragazzini distratti, sporchi d’inchiostro.
Un tono quasi leggero, in parte spiazzante, rispetto al precedente capitolo. Ma c’è qualcosa nell’aria, che vibra con toni minacciosi.
È pur sempre la storia di Tito,
Tito il settantasettesimo. Erede di una montagna che si sgretola: di un mare d'ortiche: di un impero di ruggine rossa: di percorsi rituali, scavati nella pietra fino alle caviglie.
e basta poco per rendersi conto che
Un'ombra si allunga. Un ragno muove le zampe...
E il buio si insinua tra i personaggi.
All’inizio gli indizi sono sparsi qua e là, tra momenti grotteschi e quadri di vita quotidiana. Poi l’ombra cresce, prende forma, mentre Gormenghast diventa il teatro di una serie di battaglie, fisiche e mentali, cui reagisce e partecipa perfino il suo cuore pulsante di pietra, avvolto in un silenzio così materiale da riempire gli spazi.
Amore, odio, morte, desiderio di vendetta, rispetto della tradizione e ansia di libertà sono solo alcune delle forze in campo. A scandirne l’avvicendarsi, il prevalere o la sconfitta, il cielo sopra il regno. Le giornate si susseguono in un irregolare presenza di buio e luce. Una luce quasi mai benevola, più spesso inclemente; un buio pieno di insidie, che raramente porta con sé la pace e la benedizione del sonno.
Era una notte che sembrava voler dimostrare, con la sua oscurità fittissima, col suo silenzio assoluto, quanto fosse vano sperare nell'alba.
E l’acqua, quella stagnante di un lago che fa da scenario ai festeggiamenti per il decimo compleanno di Tito. O l’acqua della pioggia, sempre più spesso maligna e impietosa. Segna la fine dell’infanzia del giovane Conte e l’inizio di una nuova consapevolezza. L’acqua che distrugge per poter purificare, penetrando fra le pietre antiche che sussurrano Tradimento>.
Anche l’amore, declinato in vari aspetti - dal più tenero al più grottesco - sembra malato, una debolezza di cui liberarsi, in modo che la morte possa aver ragione dei sentimenti e non solo i corpi.
La libertà è violazione della legge di Gormenghast
Non esiste un altrove. [...] Non farai che girare in tondo, Tito de' Lamenti. Non esiste strada, non esiste sentiero che alla fine non ti riporterà a casa. Tutto conduce a Gormenghast.
La libertà è un sogno che sembra scontrarsi con un destino segnato, è la fuga di un giorno fuori dalle mura del regno. Un’illusione che lotta con la seduzione del potere, unico ostacolo che si frappone tra Tito e il mondo sconosciuto in cui non valgono i riti, i cerimoniali e le ottuse tradizioni di Gormenghast. Una condizione che va scelta con determinazione e che passa attraverso una serie di “prove”, come quando nelle fiabe il principe affronta ogni sorta di pericoli per salvare e conquistare la principessa.
***
Molto bella la traduzione di Roberto Serrai.
Inviato da iPad
Ma si è trattato di un quasi-rifiuto momentaneo. Mi sono presto abituata al nuovo spirito che anima le pagine, comprendendone il senso e apprezzandolo.
Il primo libro si apre con la nascita di Tito, un momento solenne e al tempo stesso un cambiamento nei ritmi di vita del Castello, che impariamo man mano a conoscere, nelle mille diramazioni del “mostro” di pietra e nel suo cuore pulsante di antiche tradizioni inalienabili.
Il secondo si apre con uno sguardo sull’infanzia e la vita quotidiana di Tito, un’esistenza apparentemente normale, uguale “per Legge” a quella degli altri bambini che risiedono a Gormenghast. Quindi scuola, giochi, mensa e dormitorio in comune con i suoi coetanei, anche se il suo destino di Conte gli riserva un futuro ben diverso.
Conosciamo i suoi professori, strampalati, sgangherati e ben poco autorevoli, che si dividono tra le ore in aula e l’agognato riposo, nell’ala loro riservata, ben quindici ore senza ragazzini distratti, sporchi d’inchiostro.
Un tono quasi leggero, in parte spiazzante, rispetto al precedente capitolo. Ma c’è qualcosa nell’aria, che vibra con toni minacciosi.
È pur sempre la storia di Tito,
Tito il settantasettesimo. Erede di una montagna che si sgretola: di un mare d'ortiche: di un impero di ruggine rossa: di percorsi rituali, scavati nella pietra fino alle caviglie.
e basta poco per rendersi conto che
Un'ombra si allunga. Un ragno muove le zampe...
E il buio si insinua tra i personaggi.
All’inizio gli indizi sono sparsi qua e là, tra momenti grotteschi e quadri di vita quotidiana. Poi l’ombra cresce, prende forma, mentre Gormenghast diventa il teatro di una serie di battaglie, fisiche e mentali, cui reagisce e partecipa perfino il suo cuore pulsante di pietra, avvolto in un silenzio così materiale da riempire gli spazi.
Amore, odio, morte, desiderio di vendetta, rispetto della tradizione e ansia di libertà sono solo alcune delle forze in campo. A scandirne l’avvicendarsi, il prevalere o la sconfitta, il cielo sopra il regno. Le giornate si susseguono in un irregolare presenza di buio e luce. Una luce quasi mai benevola, più spesso inclemente; un buio pieno di insidie, che raramente porta con sé la pace e la benedizione del sonno.
Era una notte che sembrava voler dimostrare, con la sua oscurità fittissima, col suo silenzio assoluto, quanto fosse vano sperare nell'alba.
E l’acqua, quella stagnante di un lago che fa da scenario ai festeggiamenti per il decimo compleanno di Tito. O l’acqua della pioggia, sempre più spesso maligna e impietosa. Segna la fine dell’infanzia del giovane Conte e l’inizio di una nuova consapevolezza. L’acqua che distrugge per poter purificare, penetrando fra le pietre antiche che sussurrano Tradimento>.
Anche l’amore, declinato in vari aspetti - dal più tenero al più grottesco - sembra malato, una debolezza di cui liberarsi, in modo che la morte possa aver ragione dei sentimenti e non solo i corpi.
La libertà è violazione della legge di Gormenghast
Non esiste un altrove. [...] Non farai che girare in tondo, Tito de' Lamenti. Non esiste strada, non esiste sentiero che alla fine non ti riporterà a casa. Tutto conduce a Gormenghast.
La libertà è un sogno che sembra scontrarsi con un destino segnato, è la fuga di un giorno fuori dalle mura del regno. Un’illusione che lotta con la seduzione del potere, unico ostacolo che si frappone tra Tito e il mondo sconosciuto in cui non valgono i riti, i cerimoniali e le ottuse tradizioni di Gormenghast. Una condizione che va scelta con determinazione e che passa attraverso una serie di “prove”, come quando nelle fiabe il principe affronta ogni sorta di pericoli per salvare e conquistare la principessa.
***
Molto bella la traduzione di Roberto Serrai.
Inviato da iPad
September 9, 2021
Peake writes as though in a language of his own making, using English words only as conduits. Deceptively simple, deviously kaleidoscopic — I love Gormenghast with a love as hot as hate.
It has quite possibly the most immersive of all openings to any novel I've ever read, from whence it never lets up. [[Although the words "horny" and "undulating" are used overabundantly.]]
Notwithstanding, I kept wanting to put the book down every few pages so as to enable some of its wicked wonder to wash over me. The author demands attention from his readers while he leisurely paints his pictures. Patience too if they can spare it. But every time I put the book down I was drawn back to it almost instantly. I wanted to have my flesh on something tangible. I wanted to have my brain wrapped around some wordy meat.
*
"There are times when the emotions are so clamorous and the rational working of the mind so perfunctory that there is no telling where the actual leaves off and the images of fantasy begin."
*
Every description is so solid, so . . . opaque. Contrast this with the castle of Gormenghast, and you're given a lesson in sublimity.
Colorful and colorless characters greet you with either cold indifference or warm delight. The dialogue is refreshingly charged, and not for the sake of plot. In fact nothing seems to happen for the mere sake of plot at all. The characters seem to have been given complete freedom to do what they ought.
Even the so-called "fantasy" element of these books is housed (mostly dormant) within the characters and not the world. Which is unusual. And a delight.
For all that the story progresses quite a bit. Titus sheds his snakeskin, becomes a rebellious young man. ["As he grew weaker he grew fiercer."] His relationships with his peers are a nice juxtaposition over Steerpike's relations with the same people.
Gormenghast, like its predecessor Titus Groan, embraces the ridiculous in a sincere fashion. Gives utterance to the unutterable.
As a reader you can feel Peake's pen moving freely across the page, never guiding, forever manoeuvring. Here I'll pull another passage from the book—
*
"Was this what it was to be an explorer? An adventurer? To gulp this sleeping silence. To be so unutterably alone with it, to wade in it, to find it rising like a tide from the floors, lowering itself from the mouldering caverns of high domes, filling the corridors as though with something palpable?"
*
—and imagine this is how he felt when penning this strange story down.
In any other text such excerpts would be its golden shining moments, its zeniths of brilliance; in the text of Gormenghast every extraction feels in place, for each passage is written with the skill of a surgeon.
From the ashes of the past an independence of thought is born. Vanity of man — of his rituals, of his nuptial arrangements, of his social standings — is poked fun at. Loss — of boyhood, of siblinghood, of tradition, of love, of souls — is handled here with tact.
This was a really, really satisfactory read. I feel like I've read a conclusion (?), but I'm cautiously excited for Titus Alone.
To snobbishly put an end to my fanboying, I'll quote the man thusly: "To the ignorant nothing is profound!"
It has quite possibly the most immersive of all openings to any novel I've ever read, from whence it never lets up. [[Although the words "horny" and "undulating" are used overabundantly.]]
Notwithstanding, I kept wanting to put the book down every few pages so as to enable some of its wicked wonder to wash over me. The author demands attention from his readers while he leisurely paints his pictures. Patience too if they can spare it. But every time I put the book down I was drawn back to it almost instantly. I wanted to have my flesh on something tangible. I wanted to have my brain wrapped around some wordy meat.
*
"There are times when the emotions are so clamorous and the rational working of the mind so perfunctory that there is no telling where the actual leaves off and the images of fantasy begin."
*
Every description is so solid, so . . . opaque. Contrast this with the castle of Gormenghast, and you're given a lesson in sublimity.
Colorful and colorless characters greet you with either cold indifference or warm delight. The dialogue is refreshingly charged, and not for the sake of plot. In fact nothing seems to happen for the mere sake of plot at all. The characters seem to have been given complete freedom to do what they ought.
Even the so-called "fantasy" element of these books is housed (mostly dormant) within the characters and not the world. Which is unusual. And a delight.
For all that the story progresses quite a bit. Titus sheds his snakeskin, becomes a rebellious young man. ["As he grew weaker he grew fiercer."] His relationships with his peers are a nice juxtaposition over Steerpike's relations with the same people.
Gormenghast, like its predecessor Titus Groan, embraces the ridiculous in a sincere fashion. Gives utterance to the unutterable.
As a reader you can feel Peake's pen moving freely across the page, never guiding, forever manoeuvring. Here I'll pull another passage from the book—
*
"Was this what it was to be an explorer? An adventurer? To gulp this sleeping silence. To be so unutterably alone with it, to wade in it, to find it rising like a tide from the floors, lowering itself from the mouldering caverns of high domes, filling the corridors as though with something palpable?"
*
—and imagine this is how he felt when penning this strange story down.
In any other text such excerpts would be its golden shining moments, its zeniths of brilliance; in the text of Gormenghast every extraction feels in place, for each passage is written with the skill of a surgeon.
From the ashes of the past an independence of thought is born. Vanity of man — of his rituals, of his nuptial arrangements, of his social standings — is poked fun at. Loss — of boyhood, of siblinghood, of tradition, of love, of souls — is handled here with tact.
This was a really, really satisfactory read. I feel like I've read a conclusion (?), but I'm cautiously excited for Titus Alone.
To snobbishly put an end to my fanboying, I'll quote the man thusly: "To the ignorant nothing is profound!"
May 30, 2023
Dimenticare Gormenghast
Nel 1950, quattro anni dopo il folgorante esordio di “Tito di Gormenghast”, opera invero amata più dai posteri che dai contemporanei, Mervyn Peake pubblica questo secondo volume della saga.
Anche se sulla fantasia del lettore il primo libro poteva avvalersi dell’impatto di un’invenzione di straordinaria originalità, il castello-mondo di Gormenghast che caratterizza la narrazione e ne rappresenta il vero protagonista, l’autore riesce a riconfermarsi, dando vita a un’ulteriore meraviglia.
Lo fa mettendo in campo una sarabanda di nuovi eccentrici personaggi che non fanno rimpiangere troppo coloro che non sono sopravvissuti alle insidie e alle trappole mortali del primo racconto, ma soprattutto Peake interviene inserendo nello stile della narrazione un caleidoscopio di variazioni del tono, del carattere, della natura stessa del romanzo; introduce parentesi di schietto umorismo (che si manifestano soprattutto nei capitoli dei preparativi e dello svolgimento della festa allestita da Irma Floristrazio), fa esplodere scene drammatiche talora di inusitata violenza, regala imprevedibili digressioni romantiche, inventa apocalittiche manifestazioni della natura che si abbattono sulla rocca e sul monte di Gormenghast stravolgendone l’assetto e tanto altro ancora: è dalla giustapposizione di tutti questi elementi sul palcoscenico d’eccezione ereditato dal primo volume che nasce il segreto dell’essenza così particolare del luogo e del romanzo.
Man mano che il racconto procede e con esso l’infanzia, l’adolescenza e la giovinezza di Tito, erede della casata de’Lamenti, assume rilievo un tema che aggiunge alla storia narrata il passo di un romanzo di formazione; un’insofferenza crescente ai rituali secolari che hanno scandito l’esistenza di Gormenghast e dei suoi abitanti si fa strada nell’animo dei personaggi più giovani e ribelli ed in primis nella coscienza dello stesso Tito che avverte “…la terribile contraddizione che adesso sentiva dentro di sé - lo spaccarsi in due della sua anima e del suo cuore - le sue divise lealtà - la crescita e il febbrile desiderio di sfuggire a tutto quello che Gormenghast significava, e l'inestirpabile, irrazionale orgoglio per il suo lignaggio, e il trasporto, profondo come l'odio, che nonostante tutto provava anche per l'ultima delle fredde pietre della sua casa senza amore.”
Un anelito insopprimibile di libertà invade l’anima del protagonista (…aveva bisogno di mettersi alla prova. Di viaggiare, non come un Conte ma come uno straniero, senz'altra protezione che il proprio nome. E poi sarebbe stato libero. Libero dai suoi doveri. Libero dalla sua casa. Libero dalle forme e dalle cerimonie che lo facevano ammattire. Libero di diventare qualcosa di più dell'ultimo erede del grande Casato.), segna il bellissimo e degno finale del romanzo ed avrebbe potuto decretare a tutti gli effetti la conclusione (aperta) dell’intero ciclo.
Anche per questo motivo si è indotti ad attendere con inquieta trepidazione l’approccio al terzo ed ultimo volume e ad immaginare dove e come andrà a dirigersi questa inimitabile storia.
Nel 1950, quattro anni dopo il folgorante esordio di “Tito di Gormenghast”, opera invero amata più dai posteri che dai contemporanei, Mervyn Peake pubblica questo secondo volume della saga.
Anche se sulla fantasia del lettore il primo libro poteva avvalersi dell’impatto di un’invenzione di straordinaria originalità, il castello-mondo di Gormenghast che caratterizza la narrazione e ne rappresenta il vero protagonista, l’autore riesce a riconfermarsi, dando vita a un’ulteriore meraviglia.
Lo fa mettendo in campo una sarabanda di nuovi eccentrici personaggi che non fanno rimpiangere troppo coloro che non sono sopravvissuti alle insidie e alle trappole mortali del primo racconto, ma soprattutto Peake interviene inserendo nello stile della narrazione un caleidoscopio di variazioni del tono, del carattere, della natura stessa del romanzo; introduce parentesi di schietto umorismo (che si manifestano soprattutto nei capitoli dei preparativi e dello svolgimento della festa allestita da Irma Floristrazio), fa esplodere scene drammatiche talora di inusitata violenza, regala imprevedibili digressioni romantiche, inventa apocalittiche manifestazioni della natura che si abbattono sulla rocca e sul monte di Gormenghast stravolgendone l’assetto e tanto altro ancora: è dalla giustapposizione di tutti questi elementi sul palcoscenico d’eccezione ereditato dal primo volume che nasce il segreto dell’essenza così particolare del luogo e del romanzo.
Man mano che il racconto procede e con esso l’infanzia, l’adolescenza e la giovinezza di Tito, erede della casata de’Lamenti, assume rilievo un tema che aggiunge alla storia narrata il passo di un romanzo di formazione; un’insofferenza crescente ai rituali secolari che hanno scandito l’esistenza di Gormenghast e dei suoi abitanti si fa strada nell’animo dei personaggi più giovani e ribelli ed in primis nella coscienza dello stesso Tito che avverte “…la terribile contraddizione che adesso sentiva dentro di sé - lo spaccarsi in due della sua anima e del suo cuore - le sue divise lealtà - la crescita e il febbrile desiderio di sfuggire a tutto quello che Gormenghast significava, e l'inestirpabile, irrazionale orgoglio per il suo lignaggio, e il trasporto, profondo come l'odio, che nonostante tutto provava anche per l'ultima delle fredde pietre della sua casa senza amore.”
Un anelito insopprimibile di libertà invade l’anima del protagonista (…aveva bisogno di mettersi alla prova. Di viaggiare, non come un Conte ma come uno straniero, senz'altra protezione che il proprio nome. E poi sarebbe stato libero. Libero dai suoi doveri. Libero dalla sua casa. Libero dalle forme e dalle cerimonie che lo facevano ammattire. Libero di diventare qualcosa di più dell'ultimo erede del grande Casato.), segna il bellissimo e degno finale del romanzo ed avrebbe potuto decretare a tutti gli effetti la conclusione (aperta) dell’intero ciclo.
Anche per questo motivo si è indotti ad attendere con inquieta trepidazione l’approccio al terzo ed ultimo volume e ad immaginare dove e come andrà a dirigersi questa inimitabile storia.
January 22, 2013
I know it's a classic, I know it's groundbreaking and a phenomenal creative achievement. I know his vision was superb, his plotting exact, his characters supremely well-observed - sympathetic and horrifying and humorous in equal measures, making the storyline more complex than a simple tale of betrayal and vengeance (inhale). I know his prose is spectacular...
...but bloody hellfire does there have to be so MUCH of it?
Dear Gods. I did get to the end this time (it's previously defeated me on a couple of occasions) but talk about long-winded. The ending is superb, but wading though the water and the weather and the masonry, through the pointless (though perfectly observed) plotlines, through the endless filigree details of characters' emotional motivations, really took an effort.
I know I'm doing it a disservice with three stars - really wish I'd enjoyed it more.
...but bloody hellfire does there have to be so MUCH of it?
Dear Gods. I did get to the end this time (it's previously defeated me on a couple of occasions) but talk about long-winded. The ending is superb, but wading though the water and the weather and the masonry, through the pointless (though perfectly observed) plotlines, through the endless filigree details of characters' emotional motivations, really took an effort.
I know I'm doing it a disservice with three stars - really wish I'd enjoyed it more.
August 26, 2014
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?
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
October 28, 2017
Sono due mesi due che il secondo volume di Gormenghast mi chiama dallo scaffale dei libri da leggere con canto da sirena. E sinora ho rimandato solo per posticipare il piacere della lettura.
Stasera è arrivato il momento, finalmente riparto per Gormenghast!
Stasera è arrivato il momento, finalmente riparto per Gormenghast!
February 26, 2017
A kind of lull had settled upon the castle. It was not that events were lacking, but that even those of major importance had about them a sense of unreality. It was as though some strange wheel of destiny had brought the earth its pre-ordained lacuna
I reviewed Titus Groan earlier today and my main bone of contention is that "Gormenghast", the 2nd book should really be called "Titus Groan" and the first book should be called "Gormenghast". Titus is only an infant in "Titus Groan" but in "Gormenghast" he comes to the fore as our protagonist, while the first book is largely about the goings-on in the castle Gormenghast.
I could more or less cut and paste that review here: Stunning, constantly surprising prose, farcical humour, plenty of atmosphere, super strange tone and a bare skerrick of plot.
It is a testament to Peake's writing that in the first half of the book so little happens that the main plot point is "Urma Prunesquallor plans a party" and I still loved every minute of it.
In "Titus Groan" we spend a lot of time with Steerpike the up-jumped kitchen hand and he morphs from ambitious and self centred in the first book into a moustache twirling villain. We get plenty of call backs to the first novel, a delightfully farcical romance and a coming of age story. More happens in the last 1/5th of this novel than in the first two combined. Did I mention that prose?
He had emptied the bright goblet of romance; at a single gulp he had emptied it. The glass of it lay scattered on the floor.
The humour turns decidedly blacker in "Gormenghast" as more than one beloved character gets dispatched without a hint of drama or pathos. Perhaps another thing Peake originated could be the "unsentimental ironic death scene". I loved Bellgrove's rise to professor, Urma's party and subsequent romance and the names of the professors: Perch-Prism, Flanellcat, Shred, Shrivell and Deadyawn.
I will continue to sing the praises of narrator Robert Whitfield (Simon Vance) and insist that you listen to no other audio version than this one. Track it down! His voicing of Urma Prunesquallor is beyond hilarious and she becomes one of the major characters in this novel. RW's narration was a major factor in how much I enjoyed listening to this story that can admittedly be a bit slow in parts.
If you want to read something that is both dark and humorous, uplifting and disconcerting and quite amazingly written nearly 70 years ago, give Peake a try.
Life is too fleet for onomatopoeia
I reviewed Titus Groan earlier today and my main bone of contention is that "Gormenghast", the 2nd book should really be called "Titus Groan" and the first book should be called "Gormenghast". Titus is only an infant in "Titus Groan" but in "Gormenghast" he comes to the fore as our protagonist, while the first book is largely about the goings-on in the castle Gormenghast.
I could more or less cut and paste that review here: Stunning, constantly surprising prose, farcical humour, plenty of atmosphere, super strange tone and a bare skerrick of plot.
It is a testament to Peake's writing that in the first half of the book so little happens that the main plot point is "Urma Prunesquallor plans a party" and I still loved every minute of it.
In "Titus Groan" we spend a lot of time with Steerpike the up-jumped kitchen hand and he morphs from ambitious and self centred in the first book into a moustache twirling villain. We get plenty of call backs to the first novel, a delightfully farcical romance and a coming of age story. More happens in the last 1/5th of this novel than in the first two combined. Did I mention that prose?
He had emptied the bright goblet of romance; at a single gulp he had emptied it. The glass of it lay scattered on the floor.
The humour turns decidedly blacker in "Gormenghast" as more than one beloved character gets dispatched without a hint of drama or pathos. Perhaps another thing Peake originated could be the "unsentimental ironic death scene". I loved Bellgrove's rise to professor, Urma's party and subsequent romance and the names of the professors: Perch-Prism, Flanellcat, Shred, Shrivell and Deadyawn.
I will continue to sing the praises of narrator Robert Whitfield (Simon Vance) and insist that you listen to no other audio version than this one. Track it down! His voicing of Urma Prunesquallor is beyond hilarious and she becomes one of the major characters in this novel. RW's narration was a major factor in how much I enjoyed listening to this story that can admittedly be a bit slow in parts.
If you want to read something that is both dark and humorous, uplifting and disconcerting and quite amazingly written nearly 70 years ago, give Peake a try.
Life is too fleet for onomatopoeia
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