02-07-2016, 20:23
Just finished the "Gormenghast Trilogy" by Mervyn Peake.
The first two Titus Groan and Gormenghast are excellent, highly descriptive, atmospheric and densely written - possibly too slow moving in terms of plot for some and it's a doorstop of a volume: but it's worth persevering with, it's really character driven, with a lot of it describing the events via the thoughts and viewpoints of various characters (although it's always written in the third person). The claustrophobic ritual-bound world of the weird ancient crumbling castle and its various inhabitants is really well constructed. The prose is very evocative and often cinematic in tone : you get whole paragraphs describing exactly how the sun filters through the dust of an ancient timber-beamed attic etc; but is also excellent at building up tension and suspense as various plots and feuds between characters in the castle develop. The BBC TV version didn't really do it justice.
I wasn't so keen on the third book, it seemed different in tone, more fragmentary and hallucinatory; and for me did not really seem to be part of the same "universe" : this I suppose suited the plot of the main character Titus being lost and out of his element, but for me it introduced a jarring tone with all the references to modern elements like cars, planes and scientists etc, when the first two books seem so clearly set in a mythical medieval-era society.
The first two Titus Groan and Gormenghast are excellent, highly descriptive, atmospheric and densely written - possibly too slow moving in terms of plot for some and it's a doorstop of a volume: but it's worth persevering with, it's really character driven, with a lot of it describing the events via the thoughts and viewpoints of various characters (although it's always written in the third person). The claustrophobic ritual-bound world of the weird ancient crumbling castle and its various inhabitants is really well constructed. The prose is very evocative and often cinematic in tone : you get whole paragraphs describing exactly how the sun filters through the dust of an ancient timber-beamed attic etc; but is also excellent at building up tension and suspense as various plots and feuds between characters in the castle develop. The BBC TV version didn't really do it justice.
I wasn't so keen on the third book, it seemed different in tone, more fragmentary and hallucinatory; and for me did not really seem to be part of the same "universe" : this I suppose suited the plot of the main character Titus being lost and out of his element, but for me it introduced a jarring tone with all the references to modern elements like cars, planes and scientists etc, when the first two books seem so clearly set in a mythical medieval-era society.