Gormenghast Comments
Gormenghast (Mervyn Peake)
Description (Book)
A doomed lord, an emergent hero, and a dazzling array of bizarre creatures inhabit the magical world of the Gormenghast novels which, along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, reign as one of the undisputed fantasy classics of all time. At the center of it all is the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom, unless the conniving Steerpike, who is determined to rise above his menial position and control the House of Groan, has his way.
First, this isn’t fantasy that you are used to. This is not Robert Jordan. This is not George R.R. Martin. This is not Steven Erikson. But yet, this is a novel deserves, no needs, to be read. It’s bizarre, haunting, joyless, gothic in the extreme and oh so rich in character and detail. The sheer sustained and imaginative power of this novel, the incredible attention to detail, and the stifling rigidity of the castle and cast of characters supersede pretty much every other work in the English language. Peake has been compared to Tolkien and even Charles Dickens – Gormenghast is literature in the purest sense but it’s also another side of the fantasy coin and deserving to be on the list as both one of the great works of the English language and a dizzyingly bizarre novel that refuses to be defined by any one genre. If you have a short attention span, having been weaned on the likes of magic rich, action heavy books like Feist and Jordan, you might not appreciate the richness of these novels. This description of the novel does seem ambiguous, but like the series itself, words cannot capture what it is. There are three novels in the series and the 3rd novel is disappointing, but the first two are like rich custard: delicious and sweet leaving you hungering for me. But if you value yourself as a true fan of the fantasy genre, the incredibly odd and totally endearing world of Gormenghast has to be experienced once. You will never, ever forget the characters. Read it and be changed forever.
Feel free to rate Titus Groan on the Community Book Review section of the site.
I plowed through this entire thing, even own the sequels but I have to say it has nothing on any modern quality fantasy writer. Not a terrible book, really, you have to consider when it was written and and under what circumstances (post WWII black reflection) and style (old school reader-be-damned) but I think in the end it is rewarding. Top 25? Well at least its not Glen Cook.
Most of your recommendations are great, but this book is sooo bad. R.A. Salvatore with any Drizzt series should be in it's place. This book is flat out boring and uninteresting.
absolutely agree. i got 200 pages in and quit . nothing interesting goes on in this boring drawn out dictionary of a book.
For those looking for a fantasy story.. this probably isn't for you. It's fantastical in its own way but there is no story of love or power to latch onto. As a story yes, the build up and climax is intense but for the majority of the time as a reader, you're drifting about with little sense of plot direction. In many ways it's the opposite of Lord of the Rings.
Why bother then? beacuse there is nothing quite like it. It rejoices in keen description, not flowery and neither so much imagery but more... a subtley of nuances. The charachters defy stereotype whilst being caricatures... drawn with a very high resolution.
It's not for everyone and putting it in a list of fantasy books is a little misleading when alot of people want to read dragonlance and terry goodkind.
I've been following this list for a few years now and I've really enjoyed some of the other books that the author recommends, like Erikson, Rothfuss, and Martin, but this one wasn't for me. I found the long-winded writing style very off-putting; Peake spends paragraphs describing the characters and the layout of the castle in painstaking (unnecessary) detail.
People laud Peake for his poetry and writing ability but imo it is really more awkward than anything else - think watered down Shakespeare. For instance, he often describes the facial features of various characters as if they were landscapes, which is an interesting approach at first but gets annoying.
While his writing style might be refreshing at first, it quickly becomes tedious. I've only read about 150 pages (although these pages are DENSE - I might as well be on page 300) and nothing much has happened. There is no action to speak of and no real mystery or anything to draw you in, so I just can't find the motivation to continue. Maybe I'll try and slug through these someday but for now I've got better things to read.
I have been a serious fan of this site for some time and have been only reading fantasy novels for about 5+ years. Of course I started with Tolkien years ago, read all George RR, Rothfuss, Lynch and Abercrombie novels. I am using this site as my reference guide to best fantasy books. SInce this is ranked #5, I am about to buckle and will write a review when I'm finished. Thank you so much for the site.......totally appreciate it!!!
i found these books when i was in high school,30 years ago, have reread them every few years, so much in each book that it takes a few times to absorb it all.
they are like an old friend, they get better with each reading. his writing is poetic and sad and funny and will never leave you.
always thought that i would have found my soul mate when i found another gormenghast fan!
Surreally fabulous, fabulously weird, richly and deeply fascinating...What a shame if the dirth of comments here indicates the dirth of readers. There is nothing like this writing in fantasy or elsewhere, I would say. The characters are all unique and unforgettable. A brilliantly imaginative and rich work.
I also thought the BBC series was wonderful. Sit and watch it!
I don't think any other writer in the fantasy genre has achieved what Mervyn Peake did with the first two Gormenghast novels. Imagine, a compelling story in a fantasy setting that in no way involves a quest, a prophecy, or a lost relic. In fact, the setting of the first two books is claustrophobically insular, taking place pretty much entirely in the vast spiritual prison that is Gormenghast castle. Peake had an incredible gift for description and metaphor that he wields with a master's grace. His characters and settings are described in bizarre, unconventional ways that nonetheless create vivid, striking images in the mind of the reader. He has a great cast of characters that are clearly distinguishable from one another, unlike many writers today who have about a dozen characters who could change places and nobody would know the difference. Peake writes in a unique, surreal style that is like nothing else that exists. These books have humor, tragedy, pathos, beauty, and even a couple of moments of sheer, spine-tingling horror. Steerpike is also one of the greatest villains in all of fantasy fiction history. While true that the third book is of a decidedly different quality, it is true that Peake was suffering a great amount of both physical and mental anguish at the time of its writing (he was being treated, badly, for Parkinson's Disease) so some allowances can probably be made.
Also worth noting:
*Two other authors on the list, Tad Williams & Stephen R. Donaldson, are self-admitted Gormenghast fans.
*There was a miniseries adaptation done starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Steerpike, but watch it at your own risk as it is of dubious quality.