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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
I prefer this over Tolkien
Summary: Characters you'll adore; pages and pages of unnecessary description that you won't.
In a castle governed by ancient rules (Gormenghast Castle), a cunning kitchen boy plots and enacts his destructive rise to power.
Pros:
- Charming and eccentric characters whose physical defects only make them more endearing.
- Weaves several entertaining subplots through the story.
- Conflict tension is heightened because you genuinely don't know who you want to win.
- [Effeminate Male Character] is portrayed as a hero and not as a gay-coded villain, which is a nice change and quite impressive given that the book was published in 1946.
- [Bad Guy Protagonist] is a particularly great character, because yes, he's evil, but he's also sympathetic; he's the only person who's actually trying to change [Ridiculous Status Quo].
Cons:
- Annoyingly description-heavy prose only made tolerable by reading quickly. The author falls in love with his words at the expense of his pacing.
- I don't understand [Foreigner Nursemaid]'s subplot. It builds up and up and then just ends with [Sad Arc Ending].
Overall: Reasonably fun. You might like it better if you can tolerate the over-long descriptive paragraphs. Or better yet, watch the freely-available BBC television adaption.
In a castle governed by ancient rules (Gormenghast Castle), a cunning kitchen boy plots and enacts his destructive rise to power.
Pros:
- Charming and eccentric characters whose physical defects only make them more endearing.
- Weaves several entertaining subplots through the story.
- Conflict tension is heightened because you genuinely don't know who you want to win.
- [Effeminate Male Character] is portrayed as a hero and not as a gay-coded villain, which is a nice change and quite impressive given that the book was published in 1946.
- [Bad Guy Protagonist] is a particularly great character, because yes, he's evil, but he's also sympathetic; he's the only person who's actually trying to change [Ridiculous Status Quo].
Cons:
- Annoyingly description-heavy prose only made tolerable by reading quickly. The author falls in love with his words at the expense of his pacing.
- I don't understand [Foreigner Nursemaid]'s subplot. It builds up and up and then just ends with [Sad Arc Ending].
Overall: Reasonably fun. You might like it better if you can tolerate the over-long descriptive paragraphs. Or better yet, watch the freely-available BBC television adaption.
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence
I might try and come back to this but my current headspace is not enjoying this really. I am enjoying some of the characters immensely and when they are interacting with one another, the pages fly by. But these moments are few and far between.
I can see the potential for good, but I can also see myself committing to 650 pages of the same sludge I'm currently working through just now and life is too short.
I can see the potential for good, but I can also see myself committing to 650 pages of the same sludge I'm currently working through just now and life is too short.
challenging
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
glacially slow
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
gorgeous. peake is a master and it was a joy to read, if occasionally difficult since my brain is closer to the pile of owl shit and guts on the floor of the Tower of Flints than an actual working series of electrical firings
We were reading it out loud as a group and haven’t had any chance to get together for it in years. I’m sure the other readers don’t remember what’s happening any more. Very fun out loud read, who needs to “finish” everything?
slow-paced
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Imagine, if you will, a mountain. At the base of this mountain are all the stories we like to label as "unoriginal". These are stories riddled with cliches, derivative plotlines, and flat archetypal characters. As you climb up the mountain, these fall away. The stories get more engaging, the characters more complex. Finally, at the summit of this mountain, you reach the stories that are wholly and completely unique. These are the stories that defy genre boundaries and precedent. They could be unique because of their style, subject matter, tone, or format. These books are often labelled as "odd" precisely because we cannot understand them.
It is on this summit that "Titus Groan" plants its flag.
This book was marketed as a fantasy, which is why it has been included in my Year of Fantasy, but upon actually reading it I would put it more closely in line with Gothic fiction. It is about a massive, gloomy, depressing, half decaying castle and the people that inhabit it. There is no traditionally fantastic world here. The entire story takes place within this castle and it's grounds. Instead of Mordor, we have darkened sinister corridors with no end. Instead of magical forests, we have huge empty rooms that haven't been entered in decades. And instead of heroes and villains, we have the strange, downright odd inhabitants of the castle.
The titular character, Titus Groan, stands to inherit these miles of shambling rock, but he is not the focus of this book. The book takes place over the first year of his life - he is only an infant for the entire novel. The main plot revolves around Steerpike, a young apprentice in the castle who escapes from his kitchen duties and connives his way up the rungs of the castle order. He seeks power and pulls the strings on many people to get it. There are two main subplots about the lethal hatred between the first servant and the cook and about Titus' wet nurse who lives in the mud dwellings outside the castles walls.
So what is it that makes this book unique? More than anything else, it is Mervyn Peake's style. His prose is difficult to approach but intensely beautiful. He describes his world with such care and expression that you hardly notice how slow the plot moves initially. Scenes are painted methodically; his prose may seem elaborate, but it works to completely surround you in the sunrise happening or the internal thoughts of whatever character we are following right now. His characters are also utterly strange and completely engaging. They can be compared only to the creations of Charles Dickens in how complex and weird they are. We have a midget nurse, a brooding, ever depressed Lord, a fat countess who cares nothing for the baby she just gave birth to, a tall, thin servant whose knees crack with every step, an ancient master of ritual whose job it is to make sure every second of every day is occupied in keeping with tradition, and a seventeen year old boy who toys with all of them. That is only some of them. They, on more than one occasion, reminded me of the kinds of characters you find in a stopmotion Tim Burton movie: odd shapes that defy reality and eccentric personalities.
This book is slow moving, but Peake's style keeps you along. Indeed, I think only a style like Peake's could make this book work. A lot happens in this book, but there's also a lot of empty space between the happenings. A reader can very easily get lost quickly in these empty spaces and get frustrated by the fact that nothing has apparently happened for thirty pages. But Peake continuously reminds us of what's at stake and never lets us forget the big picture; we never lose our sense of direction, so that even when nothing important is happening we still have a sense that we are moving toward something definite, something lurking just beyond the horizon. An ominous sense of fate pervades this book.
And the book is dark; oh, so dark. Gloom, melancholy, despair and insanity all creep through the pages. Castle Gormenghast is haunted by it's inhabitants and the stifling, insufferable tradition of the Groan line. In this way it is one of the best gothic books I have ever read. This book won't be for everyone. But it will reward those who finish it.
It is on this summit that "Titus Groan" plants its flag.
This book was marketed as a fantasy, which is why it has been included in my Year of Fantasy, but upon actually reading it I would put it more closely in line with Gothic fiction. It is about a massive, gloomy, depressing, half decaying castle and the people that inhabit it. There is no traditionally fantastic world here. The entire story takes place within this castle and it's grounds. Instead of Mordor, we have darkened sinister corridors with no end. Instead of magical forests, we have huge empty rooms that haven't been entered in decades. And instead of heroes and villains, we have the strange, downright odd inhabitants of the castle.
The titular character, Titus Groan, stands to inherit these miles of shambling rock, but he is not the focus of this book. The book takes place over the first year of his life - he is only an infant for the entire novel. The main plot revolves around Steerpike, a young apprentice in the castle who escapes from his kitchen duties and connives his way up the rungs of the castle order. He seeks power and pulls the strings on many people to get it. There are two main subplots about the lethal hatred between the first servant and the cook and about Titus' wet nurse who lives in the mud dwellings outside the castles walls.
So what is it that makes this book unique? More than anything else, it is Mervyn Peake's style. His prose is difficult to approach but intensely beautiful. He describes his world with such care and expression that you hardly notice how slow the plot moves initially. Scenes are painted methodically; his prose may seem elaborate, but it works to completely surround you in the sunrise happening or the internal thoughts of whatever character we are following right now. His characters are also utterly strange and completely engaging. They can be compared only to the creations of Charles Dickens in how complex and weird they are. We have a midget nurse, a brooding, ever depressed Lord, a fat countess who cares nothing for the baby she just gave birth to, a tall, thin servant whose knees crack with every step, an ancient master of ritual whose job it is to make sure every second of every day is occupied in keeping with tradition, and a seventeen year old boy who toys with all of them. That is only some of them. They, on more than one occasion, reminded me of the kinds of characters you find in a stopmotion Tim Burton movie: odd shapes that defy reality and eccentric personalities.
This book is slow moving, but Peake's style keeps you along. Indeed, I think only a style like Peake's could make this book work. A lot happens in this book, but there's also a lot of empty space between the happenings. A reader can very easily get lost quickly in these empty spaces and get frustrated by the fact that nothing has apparently happened for thirty pages. But Peake continuously reminds us of what's at stake and never lets us forget the big picture; we never lose our sense of direction, so that even when nothing important is happening we still have a sense that we are moving toward something definite, something lurking just beyond the horizon. An ominous sense of fate pervades this book.
And the book is dark; oh, so dark. Gloom, melancholy, despair and insanity all creep through the pages. Castle Gormenghast is haunted by it's inhabitants and the stifling, insufferable tradition of the Groan line. In this way it is one of the best gothic books I have ever read. This book won't be for everyone. But it will reward those who finish it.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes