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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
Originally published on my blog here in January 2001.
The third volume of the Gormenghast trilogy is the story of the life of Titus, 77th Earl of Groan, far from the ancestral castle of Gormenghast and the life of ritual lived there. It was one of the last pieces of writing completed by Peake before he succumbed to his eventually final illness, and there are signs of haste about it. Originally, more novels were planned to follow it, and parts of Titus Alone read more like plans and outlines than completed work. It is quite a lot shorter than its predecessors, and has a far smaller group of characters.
There are two main themes in Titus Alone. Having gone so far from Gormenghast that its name is not even known, Titus regrets some things that he has left behind, and is constantly thinking of it. In delirium with fever, it is the constant subject of his ravings, to the extent that his nurse when later she is a spurned lover can create a parody of the main characters to torture him with. In the end, he seeks to return home.
Then there is the contrasting modern world in which Titus is now living. There are clear signs that the background is more modern, as it contains devices unknown in Gormenghast - helicopters, cars and watching devices rather like flying TV cameras. Titus, of course, does not fit in, and most of the friends he makes are society's outcasts. (The exception to this is a fading society beauty who falls in love with him.) Titus, once ruler of all he surveyed, is reduced to being a beggar in rags - but he is free of the ceremony which was his whole life before his rejection of Gormenghast.
The whole of the framework of the novel is allegorical. Rejecting senseless rules from his childhood, Titus becomes an adult; as an adult, difficulties make him long for the security of those rules. Yet the modern world offers nothing better than a travesty of the old rules, and we cannot return to our childhood. This is the importance of the ending of the novel, and the moment when Titus turns away once more from the Gormenghast he has almost reached makes a fitting conclusion to his story, even if not originally intended to be the final moment.
[b:Gormenghast|258392|Gormenghast (Gormenghast Trilogy, #2)|Mervyn Peake|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328001220s/258392.jpg|3599885] is Peake's masterpiece; Titus Alone is more a monument to what might have been had not illness intervened.
The third volume of the Gormenghast trilogy is the story of the life of Titus, 77th Earl of Groan, far from the ancestral castle of Gormenghast and the life of ritual lived there. It was one of the last pieces of writing completed by Peake before he succumbed to his eventually final illness, and there are signs of haste about it. Originally, more novels were planned to follow it, and parts of Titus Alone read more like plans and outlines than completed work. It is quite a lot shorter than its predecessors, and has a far smaller group of characters.
There are two main themes in Titus Alone. Having gone so far from Gormenghast that its name is not even known, Titus regrets some things that he has left behind, and is constantly thinking of it. In delirium with fever, it is the constant subject of his ravings, to the extent that his nurse when later she is a spurned lover can create a parody of the main characters to torture him with. In the end, he seeks to return home.
Then there is the contrasting modern world in which Titus is now living. There are clear signs that the background is more modern, as it contains devices unknown in Gormenghast - helicopters, cars and watching devices rather like flying TV cameras. Titus, of course, does not fit in, and most of the friends he makes are society's outcasts. (The exception to this is a fading society beauty who falls in love with him.) Titus, once ruler of all he surveyed, is reduced to being a beggar in rags - but he is free of the ceremony which was his whole life before his rejection of Gormenghast.
The whole of the framework of the novel is allegorical. Rejecting senseless rules from his childhood, Titus becomes an adult; as an adult, difficulties make him long for the security of those rules. Yet the modern world offers nothing better than a travesty of the old rules, and we cannot return to our childhood. This is the importance of the ending of the novel, and the moment when Titus turns away once more from the Gormenghast he has almost reached makes a fitting conclusion to his story, even if not originally intended to be the final moment.
[b:Gormenghast|258392|Gormenghast (Gormenghast Trilogy, #2)|Mervyn Peake|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328001220s/258392.jpg|3599885] is Peake's masterpiece; Titus Alone is more a monument to what might have been had not illness intervened.
Absurd, macabre, grotesque and unpredictable. Titus takes Gormanghast with him and introduces us to characters and scenes worth of his roots.
I loved it!
Lxx
I loved it!
Lxx
I was vaguely aware of the poor reputation of ‘Titus Alone’ in comparison to the previous two books in the Gormenghast series, but quite honestly, I had no idea just how much of a departure it would be. Really, it’s a continuation of Titus’ story, rather than the story of “Gormenghast” as it were. This novel follows Titus as he leaves Gormenghast in search of his independence, finding himself with an entirely new cast of characters in a suddenly modern world. Really, it has only a tenuous link to the first two books through Titus. None of this novel is set in Gormenghast, and no other characters except Titus himself is carried over into this novel. If you wanted more Gormenghast after reading the first two books, I’m sorry to say that you won’t find it here.
Personally, I found this last entry to be pretty much unreadable, and I couldn’t finish it despite it being half the length of the previous two books. I honestly just couldn’t see the point, and found it very hard to keep going with it for any extended period of time - nothing within it ever grabbed my attention. It contains plenty of the same issues of the first two (a confused sense of focus and a wealth of flouncy, meandering language), but with virtually none of the positives that made them so special. The unique setting of Gormenghast is gone and the colourful and special characters we spent so long getting to know are gone (leaving only Titus, arguably the least interesting of them all). The new characters that are introduced aren’t awful, but neither are they as interesting as literally any of the characters we’ve lost which is simply unforgivable. It also seems incredibly wasteful, the point of a trilogy of books is to be able to build something that it isn’t possible to build in a single book. By the third book we should be really getting to know the characters we’ve spent so long with, instead they are nowhere to be found in anyone but Titus. I also found the ‘plot’, and I use that word tenuously, to be not incomprehensible but largely absent. It really is just many different scenes of Titus continuing to whine for his independence, even while he has it by being out on his own. There’s also no journey because of this - at the end of this book, Titus is in virtually the same place as he is at the end of the last. Still continuously abandoning Gormenghast for a perceived chance at independence.
If you really, really enjoyed the first two Gormenghast books, warts and all, or are a fan of Peake’s particularly, then I think there’s a small chance you could get something from ‘Titus Alone’. The writing is very much of the same style and quality, and the echoes of Gormenghast remain very very loosely. If you were instead invested in the setting of Gormenghast itself, the wide cast of characters or the story continuing between them, then there is very little of this that remains here. For me, I find Peake’s prose to be sparsely brilliant, but ultimately too dense for me, and the thing that kept me coming back to Gormenghast were the unique ideas, characters and setting. Without all of this, ‘Titus Alone’ felt like a shell of a series I used to enjoy. It felt like when a TV show you love goes on for just that little bit too long and starts going off the rails, changing things in a bid to keep it interesting with no real substance behind it. I’m sorry to say, this simply was not for me, and a thorough disappointment as an end to a series I otherwise largely enjoyed.
Personally, I found this last entry to be pretty much unreadable, and I couldn’t finish it despite it being half the length of the previous two books. I honestly just couldn’t see the point, and found it very hard to keep going with it for any extended period of time - nothing within it ever grabbed my attention. It contains plenty of the same issues of the first two (a confused sense of focus and a wealth of flouncy, meandering language), but with virtually none of the positives that made them so special. The unique setting of Gormenghast is gone and the colourful and special characters we spent so long getting to know are gone (leaving only Titus, arguably the least interesting of them all). The new characters that are introduced aren’t awful, but neither are they as interesting as literally any of the characters we’ve lost which is simply unforgivable. It also seems incredibly wasteful, the point of a trilogy of books is to be able to build something that it isn’t possible to build in a single book. By the third book we should be really getting to know the characters we’ve spent so long with, instead they are nowhere to be found in anyone but Titus. I also found the ‘plot’, and I use that word tenuously, to be not incomprehensible but largely absent. It really is just many different scenes of Titus continuing to whine for his independence, even while he has it by being out on his own. There’s also no journey because of this - at the end of this book, Titus is in virtually the same place as he is at the end of the last. Still continuously abandoning Gormenghast for a perceived chance at independence.
If you really, really enjoyed the first two Gormenghast books, warts and all, or are a fan of Peake’s particularly, then I think there’s a small chance you could get something from ‘Titus Alone’. The writing is very much of the same style and quality, and the echoes of Gormenghast remain very very loosely. If you were instead invested in the setting of Gormenghast itself, the wide cast of characters or the story continuing between them, then there is very little of this that remains here. For me, I find Peake’s prose to be sparsely brilliant, but ultimately too dense for me, and the thing that kept me coming back to Gormenghast were the unique ideas, characters and setting. Without all of this, ‘Titus Alone’ felt like a shell of a series I used to enjoy. It felt like when a TV show you love goes on for just that little bit too long and starts going off the rails, changing things in a bid to keep it interesting with no real substance behind it. I’m sorry to say, this simply was not for me, and a thorough disappointment as an end to a series I otherwise largely enjoyed.
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I have a rocky relationship with the Gormenghast book. I've often found the writing style too ornate - deliciously descriptive, true, but also sometimes so adorned that I can't tell what the hell is going on. I found the second book more readable than the first. I find the third more readable than the previous two. The problem is, while it was a more pleasant read, I'm not sure why it exists.
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld 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 withheld 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