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Paul Bryant's Reviews > Titus Groan
Titus Groan (Gormenghast, #1)
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Mervyn Peake was one of those gifted people you burningly resent, he was a brilliant artist and then he thought oh I need something else to occupy my time when I'm not doing brilliant drawings and paintings, hmm what can I do, ah yes I'll write one of the century's greatest fantasies in one of the most individual and beautiful prose styles, and create about a dozen of the most memorable and delightful characters in all of fiction, including a real heartbreaker of a heroine called Fuchsia, yes, hmm, that's what I'll do, why not...
Well I really want to read this again, I have such great memories of being elevated into a genuinely different, gorgeous, horrifying but completely seductive world that I want to go back, I want to go back. But I remember also my unhappy experience re-reading Something Wicked this Way Comes (see elsewhere). Should I, shouldn't I.
Mervyn Peake wrote an equally glorious sequel called Gormenghast, also 500 pages, then he developed dementia, to the point where his wife attached a big label to his clothes which said something like "If found wandering aimlessly, please return to the following address..."
Update : okay, I went and bought the new illustrated edition of the whole trilogy in one big fat volume (illustrated by Peake himself that is). So there, it's going to happen.
Well I really want to read this again, I have such great memories of being elevated into a genuinely different, gorgeous, horrifying but completely seductive world that I want to go back, I want to go back. But I remember also my unhappy experience re-reading Something Wicked this Way Comes (see elsewhere). Should I, shouldn't I.
Mervyn Peake wrote an equally glorious sequel called Gormenghast, also 500 pages, then he developed dementia, to the point where his wife attached a big label to his clothes which said something like "If found wandering aimlessly, please return to the following address..."
Update : okay, I went and bought the new illustrated edition of the whole trilogy in one big fat volume (illustrated by Peake himself that is). So there, it's going to happen.
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Cecily
(last edited Dec 21, 2011 12:51AM)
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rated it 5 stars
Dec 21, 2011 12:33AM
I bought the new, illustrated, one too. It is a thing of beauty, like the words it contains.
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i bought that too... irresistible...
Would you consider this at all similar to Lanark? I'm thinking not of the autobiographical thing but the literary-fantasy one-hit-wonder illustrations stuff. Probably harsh to call either of them one-hit-wonders though, I imagine.
The Titus Groan duology was a one hit wonder, if that's not a paradox. Alisdair Gray has written many other books, some of which have fantasy elements. But Lanark kind of towers above all his stuff, it's a real corker. And yes, they were both author-illustrators. Also, there are grand fantasy cities in both. So yes, there are strong similarities. But if i recall lanark correctly, there wasn't too much in the way of a big plot involving Unthanks, whereas all of Titus groan/Gormenghast is one big (very slow and really very simple) story .
That sounds...awesome, actually. I may have to look into it.
Drew wrote: "That sounds...awesome, actually. I may have to look into it."Seconding the Peake rec, he's amazing.
Cecily wrote: "I bought the new, illustrated, one too. It is a thing of beauty, like the words it contains."OMG, is that this one? http://www.goodreads.com/review/new/9... Shoot, I might have to get it....
that's the one - it's winking at me from my shelf right now - hello there, handsome Groan
Don't expect anything like this, though, its just a lighthearted farce. A very good one, though.
