Take a photo of a barcode or cover
__sol__ 's review for:
Titus Awakes: The Lost Book of Gormenghast
by Mervyn Peake, Maeve Gilmore
Summary:
Titus freezes in a barn during the winter, a young woman stumbling in just before he passes out. The two are rescued and fed by a small village. Titus initially fits in among the villagers and becomes infatuated with the girl, who does not speak the same language. After impregnating her Titus loses interest, and the villagers become distrustful. The child is stillborn, and Titus leaves, joined by a large dog. The two stop and rest at a small family's cottage, where Titus tells his story and attempts to abandon Dog, but he is let out as Titus leaves.
As the two head toward the sea, they nearly freeze to death, but are picked up by three soldiers in a boat. As the soldiers disembark to raid a riverside hut, Titus and Dog attack the last soldier to get off and escape. The two reach the shore, and Titus builds a boat and they travel among a chain of islands. Eventually a gale blows them ashore, knocking Titus unconscious. Dog's howling attracts a captain (called Old Rhino Eyes by Titus) of another squad of soldiers, who rescues them. Titus refuses food, and plots to escape. In the night an unknown man enters his tent and passes him a knife. A week later the man returns and leads Titus through a yew wood, but leaves him and returns to the camp as they reach the forest's edge.
Titus wanders to a crossroads, where a woman in a car named Ruth Saxon picks him up, taking him to her apartment/painting studio in a city. She introduces him to Herbert Drumm, who offers to pay Titus to model for paintings commissioned by a rich old woman, Mrs Sempleton-Grove. Titus sits for the painting in Herbert's house, which is divided between Herbert's disorder and his wife Sophia's cleanliness. After being paid, he returns to Ruth and the two have sex, and he tells her his story. After living together for a month, Herbert takes Titus to Mrs. Sempleton-Grove, an old woman trying desperately to retain her youth. She asks Titus to allow her to paint him as well, but he refuses.
Titus considers returning to Ruth and Dog, but instead wanders to a dilapidated part of town. There he meets Mick, an alcoholic, who begs for money. Titus gives him some, and Mick purchases alcohol, returning to his hovel where there are several other alcoholics. Titus enters the building, but soon after all the occupants are arrested and put in jail. In his cell Titus meets Peregrine Smith, an orderly under arrest for being drunk and disorderly. He offers Titus a job to get him out of jail, and Titus accepts.
The two drive to a mental asylum outside the city where he is hired as an orderly. He spends his days caring for the inmates, until a man is brought there by his wife in a drugged sleep, his wife saying she will return for him. The man cannot speak and moves stiffly. His wife tells Titus he was an artist and had written books, but he can no longer do either. Titus feels an inexplicable connection to the man, despite being unable to communicate with him. After caring for him for several days, the man is removed to a hospital as he is not insane, and Titus quits.
Wandering to a small town, Titus enters a busy funeral in small building, after which he is mistaken for the absent great-grandson of the deceased. On his way out of town, he is apprehended by a group of teenagers who claim to be "Destructionists" who only destroy and hate. They demand Titus' possessions, but he claims to have none, and his lack of fear causes their leader to let him go.
Wandering to a monastery, Titus is invited to stay, but he meets the artist in the refectory, and the recognition of Titus causes the artist to noisily leave, breaking the silence of the meal. The Prior praises the artist's open, gentle, and intelligent spirit, but the disruption his illness causes means he will one day have to leave. The next day the same disruption occurs, but Titus follows the artist and helps him back to his room, where he sees him trying to draw.
The next day he learns the artist has left, and so does Titus. He is picked up by an ornate car on the way to the sea, and its occupant reads horrible poetry to him. He takes Titus to his home, which is built in a deep pit and barely visible from the road. His house has many occupants who have no regard for the master's poetic ability. The master becomes enraged during dinner and threatens murder to no one in particular. The other guests perform a seance and Titus witnesses an apparition of a horse and a floating table.
After leaving the house, he walks, then takes a bus, then a train to the sea, where he takes a boat to an island, then a smaller boat to a smaller island, where he sees the artist and his children. Feeling a sense of peace and purpose, Titus follows them up the island's hill.
I had an uneasy feeling reading this case of literary therapy/necromancy, of intruding where I wasn't meant to be. I'm not one to respect the wishes of authors, but the fact that Gilmore wrote this in the 70s, never attempted to publish it, and it went unknown until its discovery in 2010, tells me it was never intended to be public. Well, now it is.
Opening with a fragment by Peake, the rest is written by his wife based only on a fragmentary list of locations/people. She makes little attempt to mimic his ornate style or absurd humour. The early events of the story are fragmentary and staccato, only attaining a sense of structure as Titus meets Ruth and later the sick artist (who clearly represents Peake suffering from Parkinson's disease). Though her style is more plain than Peake, Gilmore achieves moments of poetry, especially in the depiction of Peake's illness. What did she feel writing this? Do the women Titus meets have anything of herself in them? These things are beyond knowing. All I know is that it momentarily achieves a solemn beauty, in a widow trying to give her husband's work an ending.
Spoiler
Titus freezes in a barn during the winter, a young woman stumbling in just before he passes out. The two are rescued and fed by a small village. Titus initially fits in among the villagers and becomes infatuated with the girl, who does not speak the same language. After impregnating her Titus loses interest, and the villagers become distrustful. The child is stillborn, and Titus leaves, joined by a large dog. The two stop and rest at a small family's cottage, where Titus tells his story and attempts to abandon Dog, but he is let out as Titus leaves.
As the two head toward the sea, they nearly freeze to death, but are picked up by three soldiers in a boat. As the soldiers disembark to raid a riverside hut, Titus and Dog attack the last soldier to get off and escape. The two reach the shore, and Titus builds a boat and they travel among a chain of islands. Eventually a gale blows them ashore, knocking Titus unconscious. Dog's howling attracts a captain (called Old Rhino Eyes by Titus) of another squad of soldiers, who rescues them. Titus refuses food, and plots to escape. In the night an unknown man enters his tent and passes him a knife. A week later the man returns and leads Titus through a yew wood, but leaves him and returns to the camp as they reach the forest's edge.
Titus wanders to a crossroads, where a woman in a car named Ruth Saxon picks him up, taking him to her apartment/painting studio in a city. She introduces him to Herbert Drumm, who offers to pay Titus to model for paintings commissioned by a rich old woman, Mrs Sempleton-Grove. Titus sits for the painting in Herbert's house, which is divided between Herbert's disorder and his wife Sophia's cleanliness. After being paid, he returns to Ruth and the two have sex, and he tells her his story. After living together for a month, Herbert takes Titus to Mrs. Sempleton-Grove, an old woman trying desperately to retain her youth. She asks Titus to allow her to paint him as well, but he refuses.
Titus considers returning to Ruth and Dog, but instead wanders to a dilapidated part of town. There he meets Mick, an alcoholic, who begs for money. Titus gives him some, and Mick purchases alcohol, returning to his hovel where there are several other alcoholics. Titus enters the building, but soon after all the occupants are arrested and put in jail. In his cell Titus meets Peregrine Smith, an orderly under arrest for being drunk and disorderly. He offers Titus a job to get him out of jail, and Titus accepts.
The two drive to a mental asylum outside the city where he is hired as an orderly. He spends his days caring for the inmates, until a man is brought there by his wife in a drugged sleep, his wife saying she will return for him. The man cannot speak and moves stiffly. His wife tells Titus he was an artist and had written books, but he can no longer do either. Titus feels an inexplicable connection to the man, despite being unable to communicate with him. After caring for him for several days, the man is removed to a hospital as he is not insane, and Titus quits.
Wandering to a small town, Titus enters a busy funeral in small building, after which he is mistaken for the absent great-grandson of the deceased. On his way out of town, he is apprehended by a group of teenagers who claim to be "Destructionists" who only destroy and hate. They demand Titus' possessions, but he claims to have none, and his lack of fear causes their leader to let him go.
Wandering to a monastery, Titus is invited to stay, but he meets the artist in the refectory, and the recognition of Titus causes the artist to noisily leave, breaking the silence of the meal. The Prior praises the artist's open, gentle, and intelligent spirit, but the disruption his illness causes means he will one day have to leave. The next day the same disruption occurs, but Titus follows the artist and helps him back to his room, where he sees him trying to draw.
The next day he learns the artist has left, and so does Titus. He is picked up by an ornate car on the way to the sea, and its occupant reads horrible poetry to him. He takes Titus to his home, which is built in a deep pit and barely visible from the road. His house has many occupants who have no regard for the master's poetic ability. The master becomes enraged during dinner and threatens murder to no one in particular. The other guests perform a seance and Titus witnesses an apparition of a horse and a floating table.
After leaving the house, he walks, then takes a bus, then a train to the sea, where he takes a boat to an island, then a smaller boat to a smaller island, where he sees the artist and his children. Feeling a sense of peace and purpose, Titus follows them up the island's hill.
I had an uneasy feeling reading this case of literary therapy/necromancy, of intruding where I wasn't meant to be. I'm not one to respect the wishes of authors, but the fact that Gilmore wrote this in the 70s, never attempted to publish it, and it went unknown until its discovery in 2010, tells me it was never intended to be public. Well, now it is.
Opening with a fragment by Peake, the rest is written by his wife based only on a fragmentary list of locations/people. She makes little attempt to mimic his ornate style or absurd humour. The early events of the story are fragmentary and staccato, only attaining a sense of structure as Titus meets Ruth and later the sick artist (who clearly represents Peake suffering from Parkinson's disease). Though her style is more plain than Peake, Gilmore achieves moments of poetry, especially in the depiction of Peake's illness. What did she feel writing this? Do the women Titus meets have anything of herself in them? These things are beyond knowing. All I know is that it momentarily achieves a solemn beauty, in a widow trying to give her husband's work an ending.