Comments on: “Titus Groan” by Mervyn Peake

By: Hans

Hans — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:50:25 +0000

It’s rather well-known that Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island was one of Mervyn Peake’s favorite youth books. However, when I read the Gormenghast novels I cannot help but see it that way, that Kafka’s work made about the same impression on him, and in terms of his style, far more so. I’m quite happy about it, as I admire Kafka’s style and I think it gives Mervyn Peake’s novels some of his most distinguished trademarks around writers of the fantastic, although not without him applying such masterful effects to his own ends, and with his own dickensian grammar and blakean poetry and deeply original characterisation. I think Mervyn Peake was a connaisseur of the expressionist scene, and perhaps as the essay title “From Beowufl to Kafka” suggests about anything else in literature. It is at least good enough to give you such a strong impression when reading the work.

It is easy to dislike his works but I happen to have fallen in love with it.

By: Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast and Titus Alone (David Louis Edelman’s Blog)

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:22:54 +0000

[...] I’ve finally completed Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast Trilogy and thought I’d share my impressions. (Read my review of the first novel, Titus Groan.) [...]

By: Armchair Anarchist

Armchair Anarchist — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:35:14 +0000

A slippery piece of work indeed…Gormenghast is (arguably) even better, though you may find Titus Alone a little clunky, if full of interesting ideas (it almost verges on Moorcockian SF, to be honest). His surreal/absurd poetry is well worth a read too, if you can find it. Hard to get hold of, though, even over here.

Happy reading!

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 13:42:20 +0000

The interesting thing about the book’s meaning/moral (as Anthony Burgess rightly points out in the introduction) is that Peake throws so many red herrings at the reader.

At times you think you’re reading a satire about class warfare or religion or the conformity of society; and then Peake purposefully thwarts your expectations. It’s almost a meta-novel in that way, a novel about what a novel should be; but of course, Peake thwarts that expectation as well.

By: Armchair Anarchist

Armchair Anarchist — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 13:35:54 +0000

A compelling and unique work of literature indeed; nothing in the world of literature is even close.

But I’d contest the lack of an escaping meaning or moral; I believe some British academics have seen it as a satire on British society at the time of writing, and (with the aid of the admittedly poor grasp of history I have) I think I can see where they’re coming from.

But meaning be damned; it’s still fine fiction, and that’s the important thing. Glad you enjoyed it.