2021 EDIT: Great writing and descriptions, but it proved to be too much. I prefer stories that focus on the characters and the, you know, stories, more than anything else. Five hundred pages of an effective oppressive and stagnant atmosphere can quickly grow into a trying chore to read. I don't think I ever enjoyed 'Titus Groan'; it's an academic classic through and through. In my original review I said that my dad once read and liked it, but I may likely be mistaken about that; if he ever did read 'Titus Groan', he certainly wouldn't remember any of it now. I sure didn't on rereading.
Final Score: 3/5
Original Review:
This was recommended to me in my fantasy writing module at university, and by many online lovers of fantasy. My dad also read it a long time ago and could remember it very well. So I knew I had to give it a go. In fact, I think that everyone should try reading this book at least once, if that doesn't sound too pushy.
Because I can see why 'Titus Groan' won't be liked by everyone, for different reasons.
First, the writing style. It can read as being overly descriptive and prosy. But I think it captures the repressive and dreary mood of the set-in-its-old-ways world of Gormenghast without drawing attention away from its inhabitants. The style fits wonderfully with the setting of large stone castles and dewy woods. It grabs at you, intrigues you, and you read faster than you thought you would - at least for me the reading experience was like that. Like a picture you can't forget, the prose is absorbing and it makes you think - and as author Mervyn Peake was also an artist/illustrator that is not surprising.
Plus I love the occasional poems in the book, my favourite being 'The Frivolous Cake'.
Second, for a book labelled as a fantasy, there are no dragons, fairies, wizards (at least not obviously), trolls or a typical hero's quest you would normally expect from a fantasy "epic". Indeed this would usually have put me off, but it turns out not to be misleading. The real magic of 'Titus Groan' lies in its unfamiliar yet familiar world of routine and tradition, and characters who are not who they first appear to be. It explores the redundancies and loneliness of living in a castle with so many old rooms and towers that it may take a lifetime to find them all. Gormenghast castle is like a city; a city which is too afraid of change to even knock down or improve unneeded areas. They still exist, though they might as well not, since nobody seems to know about them anymore, not even the Earl of Gormenghast. A different approach to fantasy, but one that works.
Third, the plot. There's not really a plot per say, just a string of events that happen that revolve around the many characters that inhabit Gormenghast and how their actions take effect on the first couple of years of Earl Titus's life. These events are subplots, as it were. Each is interesting in its own bizarre way, and they tell of the complex thoughts and strange yet relatable idles of the characters.
And fourth, the titular character himself, Titus Groan. The book starts with his birth and finishes before he turns two years of age, and he is not in the story much and is known only through the actions of others (at least until the very end). He is not a main character in the traditional sense. Indeed it is hard to point out who the protagonist could be, since there a lot of characters and their stories are told fairly equally. But the book aims to foreshadow Titus's life that is ahead of him, where he will soon rule over a land powered by rituals which are potentially destructive.
Secrets lurk everywhere; in the castle walls, in the Mud Dwellings (full of people also accepting of their impoverished positions with no thought for improvement or rebellion. Or is there?), and in the far-reaching woods. The characters get through the boring days (even sitting and waiting is considered an activity), but behind their personal walls they are different people, each a little mad in their own unique way.
Thus I don't think it matters that there isn't a clear main character in 'Titus Groan'. As I've said they are all interesting, because they are very flawed and oddly sympathetic and relatable in a deep-dark-human-desires-and-weaknesses kind of reflection. I especially grew to love Fuchsia, Flay, Prunesquallor, Slagg and Steerpike - man did I enjoy the diabolical rise of that seventeen-year-old conniving devil in sheep's clothing, who also single-handedly finds the lost parts of the Gormenghast castle.
Their quirks - such as Lady Gertrude's devotion to her birds and cats rather than to human beings - gave me a vivid picture of who they are. As did their habits, surprise actions (especially those of Gertrude), grotesque appearances (no one is described as being beautiful in this book, even Keda the Mud Dweller is said to be losing her beauty at the end of childhood fancies), interactions with one another and their surroundings, and their ways of speaking. I would confidently call them three-dimensional. And that fits with the book's setting - with its shadows, its dim orange and blue lights that signify the end of another day, its stone cold walls, and the rules and traditions that play within them.
To conclude then, 'Titus Groan''s strongest points lie in its world building and characterisation. Sometimes sad yet full of life, other times funny yet macabre. I think that if you give it a chance, it will stick with you, like it did with me and my dad. It can get repetitive and overly long and prosy, but it is a unique novel that I would consider calling a start of an epic.
Maybe I will read the sequel, although I have others books at the moment that are high on my reading list. But who knows. One day I might revisit the most-definitely changing world of Gormenghast.
Final Score: 4/5
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