The pacing of the novel is incredibly slow, particularly in the first half. At night the owls made of it an echoing throat by day it stood voiceless and cast its long shadow.” “This tower, patched unevenly with black ivy, arose like a mutilated finger from among the fists of knuckled masonry and pointed blasphemously at heaven. Let me tell you that every character in this book is insane! Rules of sense need not apply here. The lack of a central protagonist makes this work more of an ensemble piece. In fact, the infant hardly appears in the novel at all. The first book follows Titus through the first two years of his life. The birth of Titus Groan as the heir of Gormenghast is the event that begins this trilogy. It is also ruled by traditions and celebrations that sometimes lack any sense of reason or sanity. Gormenghast castle, the setting of this epic, is an ancient castle the size of a city with darkness and intrigue to be found in every corner. One of the reasons why this book is so often overlooked is that it often defies conventional storytelling. Based on my experience with the first in the series, Titus Groan, I would like to argue that this gothic masterpiece is a much more accomplished and thought-provoking work than The Lord of the Rings. Larger than life Dickinsion characters inhabiting an ancient crumbling castle make this work unlike anything that has ever been created. Meanwhile, Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy often is grossly underappreciated. When one considers the greatest fantasy trilogy of the twentieth-century, most readers would probably name that little series by Tolkien (you know that one with all the hobbits).

Mervyn peake titus