Gormenghast

Volume 2 of the Gormenghast Trilogy

By: Mervyn Peake

Narrated by: Robert Whitfield

In Volume 2 of the classic Gormenghast Trilogy, a doomed lord, an emergent hero, and an array of bizarre creatures haunt the world of Gormenghast Castle. This trilogy, along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, reigns as one of the undisputed fantasy classics of all time. At the center of everything is the 77th Earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom.

In this second volume, Titus comes of age within the walls of Gormenghast Castle and discovers various family intrigues. His twin aunts, Cora and Clarice, have been imprisoned in their own apartments, believing that they alone among the castle inhabitants were free of a hideous disease referred to as "Weasel plague." Titus has discovered secret hiding places in abandoned parts of the castle from which he can watch and learn, unobserved: for he has been "exiled" to grow up with the common children until the age of 15. And so, not feeling connected to his future responsibilities, Titus drifts back and forth between the complicated social world he will grow up to govern, and a world of fantasy and daydream.

©2000 Mervyn Peake (P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"[Peake's books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience." (C.S. Lewis)

Satisfying conclusion to the story in Titus Groan

The same reader, Robert Whitfield, did this unabridged Gormenghast as read the first volume, Titus Groan. His reading is brilliant, in my opinion: this is of course a very difficult book to read well, as it's experimental fiction on the order of Ulysses and it is a form of poetry in prose: note the very careful choice of every word, for the dire, the scary, the unsettling. The plot is vivid and full of action, but could be told in a third the words: but the words are the point. So enjoy them. This book is not about the plot, exciting though that is. It's not about the characters, fascinating though they are. It's about the second-by-second elaborate description of the experience.

There is a production problem that did not occur in Titus Groan: I counted eleven times when the reader repeated whole sentences, having apparently stopped, taken a break, and then went on repeating from the top of the paragraph. Obviously the editor should have edited out the repeats!! Bad production not to bother. It should be done right and reissued. However, it's still a very good rendition and well worth hearing.

The conclusion is highly satisfying and there is no need to go on to the post-mortem third volume cobbled together from notes on the author's desk. I would advise first reading the two works, then listening to them, and finally watching the excellent BBC movie starring John Rhys Meyer as Steerpike. It's a star-studded cast: you will be surprised at the important actors you recognize. They stay very close to the text, though it must have been hard to make, given the spectacular scenery and events.

True mastery of English language. Unreal.

Such magnificent turn of phrase, such a billowing, enormous and unexpected masterpiece. I'm buying the next--the third--at this moment and falling back in. Narrator amazing. In fact, he's the voice of the great castle to me.

not that good...bad characters and setting

by the end I could barely stand to hear about Titus and how he was growing up and how all these people dying were experiences that shaped him as a man. who cares. Titus sucks. Team Steerpike here. #steerpikedidnothingwrong

Editor

Editor was asleep at the wheel. Repeated sentences annoying. I thought it was my device.

A “Supernaturally Outlandish” Masterpiece

Gormenghast (1950), the second novel in Mervyn Peake’s classic fantasy trilogy, opens with seven-year-old Titus Groan, the 77th Earl of Gormenghast, already conflicted by rebellious desires to be free from the meaningless ritual and dry duty of the castle and from his role as its figurehead. The novel depicts his maturing into a sensitive and self-aware young man scarred by violence, seasoned by loss, and attracted by the world outside. Into that plot Peake weaves the career of the amoral ex-kitchen boy Steerpike, scheming his way ever deeper into the heart of Gormenghast. And for comic relief, Peake spends (almost too) much time with Professor Bellgrove, his bachelor colleagues, and Irma Prunesquallor, who wants a husband.

There are many memorable set pieces in the novel, like the moment when Titus and his sister Fuchsia discover that they love each other, the “Bachelorette” soiree at the Prunesquallors, the demise of an anile headmaster, the game of marbles in the Lichen Fort, the tracking of a satanic outlaw, the aborted ceremony of the Bright Carvings, the encounter with the wild Thing in the forest cave, the Biblical flooding of the castle, and the schoolboy game featuring a classroom window 100 feet above the ground, a giant plane tree, a pair of polished floor boards, and a gauntlet of slingshots.

Reader Robert Whitfield’s narrator is clear, refined, and sympathetic, and his character voices varied and on target (especially Dr. Prunesquallor, Irma, Bellgrove, Barquentine, Steerpike, and Flay). But his Fuchsia needs more raw passion and less nasal whine and his Countess Gertrude more gravitas and less dowager quaver. And there is an odd glitch whereby about twenty times during the course of the book Whitfield’s sentences jarringly repeat.

Gormenghast resembles Titus Groan, the first novel in the trilogy. Both novels are set in a vividly realized castle world populated by grotesque denizens. Both intoxicate the reader with rich language, baroque detail, painterly description, and blended humor and pathos. Both leave images etched upon the mind’s eye. Both feature long passages of conversation or description punctuated by unpredictable scenes of suspenseful action. Both express themes about the primacy of passion and imagination over reason and calculation and the comforting and stultifying influence of tradition on human lives. Although both novels are “fantasies of manners,” however, Gormenghast is also a romantic comedy, a British school story, a gothic thriller, and a bildungsroman. And it highlights new themes: the conflict between duty and freedom and the transformations, wonders, and absurdities of love and aging.

Finally, Gormenghast, like Titus Groan, is a unique masterpiece that offers a satisfying conclusion to the story arc of the first two novels that perhaps renders the third book, Titus Alone, unnecessary.

Great re-read after 50+ years

I first read this as a teenager and now I can understand what I was reading! Peake was an amazing storyteller, but even more, a wonderful writer. His turns of phrase, even in the most harrowing sections, are marvelous.

For some irritating reason, a number of sentences are repeated. It's an annoying glitch that breaks the flow. But the book as a whole isn't affected.

As good as writing gets.

Ignore the negative reviews. This is for those who love language and not for watchers of superhero movies. This trilogy is something that stays with you. It is one of the most remarkable things I have encountered in literature.

One of the masterpieces of English literature

While the Gormenghast trilogy is often compared to The Lord of the Rings, in my opinion any comparison is an apples and oranges thing. they both are great but different.

Weird and Wonderful

Despite 30+ years of reading almost exclusively in the Fantasy genre, I only recently discovered the Gormenghast series while researching works considered the “most important” in the genre. After reading that this series is an overlooked gem from the time of Tolkien, and an important part of the genre, I decided I had to try them and wow! What a bizarre and enjoyable pocket dimension of beautiful weirdness this series is!

I was expecting an epic fantasy, what I found was a series of books that defy easy classification, as well many conventional storytelling techniques. These series has absolutely amazing, lush prose. Some sentences are a paragraph long, yet don’t seem like they could have been written any other way. The language used is deft, inventive, and boldly unique. It’s alternately beautiful, grotesque, satirical, and silly - yet consistently compelling.

There are no true main characters, only a collection of highly memorable (weirdo) characters with personalities as odd as their names. While there are broad story arcs that conclude by the end of the second book, the story meanders constantly to odd side stories, some without real resolution. The whole mess would seem to collapse under the weight of its own weirdness, but the books somehow form a coherent whole.

The series is typically considered “Gothic Fantasy”, though there aren’t many of the usual Fantasy ingredients present. There are a few mysterious moments that could be considered magical, and the castle Gormenghast itself certainly fits the mold of the classic “Castle the size of a City” trope, but otherwise the series seems to mostly be categorized as Fantasy because no one knows where else to put it.

Apparently folks like to argue about which is better: LOTR or Gormenghast. The comparison seems meaningless, as they are dramatically different. I wouldn’t say Gormenghast is any “better” or “worse” than Tolkien, they’re just too individually unique to compare fairly. Tolkien is more approachable, Peake is more.... weird and beautiful.

I will say that the first book in the series, Titus Groan, is in my opinion better than the second book, titled Gormenghast. Titus Groan was weird and perfect, whereas Gormenghast felt a little like the author was indulging himself. Both books certainly ramble off onto weird paths, but the first book was interesting throughout, while the second introduced new characters that simply distracted from the main cast and weren’t as interesting. The second book also has several stories that seem to have led nowhere, whereas the first book was more tightly plotted, though I use the term “tightly” in the loosest way possible. (Ha, see what I did there?)

I have to give the caveat that I did not read the third book. I’ve heard that it is drastically different and inferior to the first two, likely due to the authors poor health while writing it. The second book is a good place for the story to end, so I chose to stop there.

If you’re looking for something weird, wonderful, and thought provoking, this series is as timeless as Tolkien, but waaay weirder.

Amazing book and reading, but some technical issues

The book itself is incredible, surpassing its predecessor in every respect. Whitfield’s performance is commendable, and it is clear he spent a lot of time crafting each voice and personality, and finding exactly the right cadence to read each passage. This is one of the few works that I feel is probably enhanced significantly as an audiobook. I have not read the actual novel, but Whitfield’s characterizations have such life and depth it is hard to imagine Gormenghast without them.

Unfortunately this book has two technical issues. First, the book will randomly repeat a sentence every hour or so. This is not an issue with my player, but the audio track itself seems to occasionally duplicate the content. Second, the chapter numbers do not align with the names of chapters in Audible. By the end of the novel, the narrator’s chapter number announcement will be 10 chapters ahead of that listed on the track.

These issues are minor, and do not detract from the work itself, but they should be fixed.