Titus Awakes: The Lost Book of Gormenghast by Maeve Gilmore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I think Maeve Gilmore did a wonderful job with this book. While it certainly lacks Peake’s sense for the grotesque (which anyway felt more at home in Gormenghast than outside of it) it certainly does read like a Gormenghast book and, in particular, is an excellent counterpoint and closure to the part of Titus’ life that started in Titus Alone.
The story of Titus … (Read more)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Titus Alone turns the whole world introduced in Gormenghast on its head: gone is the aloof gothic castle with its quasi-fantasy atmosphere and its days punctuated by rites and tradition, and in its place is a country of squallor and modernity, Bond-like contraptions and sentient machinery, sleek airplanes and smelly cars, menageries of animals and factories populated by identical drones. The only constant is Titus, wandering lost and alone, … (Read more)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don’t think there are enough words to describe the genius that Mervyn Peake put into creating the world within a world that is Gormenghast. Living in a dimension all of its own between the historical, the fantastical and the grotesque there is a land and a castle whose inhabitants’ lives are punctuated by century-old rituals. Every one in Gormenghast is peculiar – the Countess, surrounded by white cats; … (Read more)
