#titusgroan

[houl]

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake 24 of 2022 4.5 stars . Titus Groan is a great, meandering beast of a novel which explores the fantastical, if esoteric. routines and rituals of Gormenghast Castle and the occupants who are bound to these. It’s a slow novel, filled with beautiful detail and odd moments, but forget all that and pay attention to the names. Sepulchrave, Flay, Swelter, Nannie Slagg, Steerpike, Rottcodd, Sourdust, Dr. Prunesquallor and so many more. Honestly, the novel has some of the best names in Fantasy. Forget Daenerys, Galadriel and Severus, wrap your lips around Lord Sepulchrave. To call them inspired is an insult, in fact to describe them as anything at all is an insult because, to quote Steerpike, “We are all imprisoned by the dictionary. We choose out of that vast, paper-walled prison our convicts, the little black printed words, when in truth we need fresh sounds to utter, new enfranchised noises which would produce a new effect” I won’t say it’s a novel for everyone. There’s something drab and dolorous about it, and the plot is thin, but it’s the depth of the location and the characters that tell you more than any plot could. . #titusgroan #mervynpeake #gormenghast #gormenghasttrilogy #minimonotonebookclub #booksivereadin2022 #booksivedrawnin2022 #booksreillustrated #bookstagram #houlart #houl https://www.instagram.com/p/CmgZakMB3M_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ariellamermaid]

Gormenghast

[rj-anderson]

If you haven’t read Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast books, the first thing you should know about them is that they are deeply, unapologetically weird. . Peake’s prose is so dense as to be opaque at times, and whole chapters go by where much is described yet little happens. When I first encountered these books as a teen, I read through the opening chapters in a state of mild perplexity, wondering which of the numerous bizarre individuals I’d just met was the hero. (The answer is: none of them. The titular protagonist of TITUS GROAN does nothing for the vast majority of the book, because he’s a baby.) . And yet I kept reading, because the eccentric, gothic, ramshackle fantasy realm Peake created had swallowed my imagination whole. Plus by then I’d met Steerpike, and though I feared his story wouldn’t end happily, I had to know what happened to him. I devoured TITUS GROAN and its sequel GORMENGHAST back to back in less than 24 hours, and finished with my head spinning. Then I dragged a long-suffering friend out for a three-hour walk while I babbled at her about the story. . Reading Peake taught me two lessons as a writer: one, that a well-drawn setting (like Gormenghast) can be just as fascinating as the characters in it, or more so; and two, what makes characters vivid and compelling is not necessarily that they do the right things, but that (like Steerpike) they do something when everyone around them seems to be doing nothing. We might not like or approve of what they’re up to, but we won’t find it easy to look away. And that’s why I count this series among the #booksthatmademe. . Have you read the Gormenghast books, or seen the BBC adaptations? What did you think? . . #gormenghast #titusgroan #mervynpeake #bookish #readersofig #bookishlove #bookishfeature #bookdragon #bookreader #booklife #readmorebooks #readmore #bookrecommendation #bibliophiles #bookishescape #timetoread #readingbook #readingbooks #bookreading #bookreviews #bookbloggers #bookaddicts #bookaddiction #bookaddicted https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ThpuIAeC3/?igshid=hkiz6dvs0epi

[lehegarat]

Added the 3 candles to Ruth’s Gormenghast leg sleeve. Getting closer and closer to wrapping it up and I’m sad to start saying goodbye to one of my fave project and client 🖤 done at @sangbleutattoolondon . 🇬🇧 Space in December and January in London. . . . #btattooing #blackworkers #blacktattooart #onlythedarkest #tattrx #TAOT #WTT #tattoodo #QTTR #london #tttism #sbldnttt #vgnink #lehegarattattoo #queerbodmodcompass #qbmcartist #gormenghast #mervynpeake #titusgroan #steerpike #christopherlee (at Sang Bleu Tattoo London) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrN1HFUB-Sk/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=pli7sf69isl0

[ariellamermaid]

Gormenghast

[ariellamermaid]

“In the presence of real tragedy you feel neither pain nor joy nor hatred, only a sense of enormous space and time suspended, the great doors open to black eternity, the rising across the terrible field of that last enormous, unanswerable question.” ― Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan

[bonnettsbooks]

A really nice, hard-to-find #slipcased #boxset of #MervynPeake's classic #GormenghastTrilogy arrived recently. #TitusGroan–spine wrinkles, #Gormenghast–as new, #TitusAlone–cover bend & spine tear. Box has minor wear. 8/2/22 Open 6-9p Mask recommended. No open containers, please. (at Bonnett's Book Store) https://www.instagram.com/p/CgxQRQ4PStc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[beesbibliodex]

2020 #1: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

Soooo it’s halfway through January and I’ve already read four books-- (thank youuuu, audiobooks + long commute) --so let’s get this show on the road!

First up was Titus Groan, by Mervyn Peake. Technically, I started this book at the end of last year, but it was long enough that it took me into January to finish. It was a recommendation from a friend of a friend, who had described it as being weird and dark, but with an immersive world and interesting characters. I found that description to be spot-on. Weird books are good, because it always means it’s something different and unique. And this book was certainly that. My first impression was that it was very slow. Before I knew it, I was on Chapter 22, nothing of seeming importance had really happened, and I still wasn’t even sure what the heck the plot was supposed to be. The eponymous character is born at the beginning of Chapter One, and, as a baby, isn’t a very integral part of the story. Instead the book centers around the castle and kingdom he will inherit, and he diverse cast of characters responsible for his upbringing. I love complicated, gray characters-- characters that are neither totally good nor bad-- and this book has them in spades.

It was at this point I did a little online research and confirmed my suspicion that this was, in fact, just the first book in a series named after the castle, Gormenghast. With that in mind, Titus Groan definitely did an excellent job setting up the world. To me, it certainly said something that I was willing to keep reading even though there was so little plot-- the writing and the world in and of themselves were interesting enough to keep me constantly entertained. The deep, rich history of the world and the fullness of detail are on par with Tolkien. All in all, I do plan to track down the following books in the series to see where it goes from here.