An oddly entertaining book. Way over written and using words that I never read or heard and not having much of a plot it none the less was difficult to put down. Peake created a strange world at Gormenghast mixing modern references with a hint of magic. I will read the next in the trilogy. But not soon. ( )

Tried it several times, can't get into it at all. ( )

Here's what I see as the central dilemma of Titus Groan (perhaps the whole series?): What do you do when your life is a metaphor? The big themes of good and evil, human fulfillment and self-realization, and the pushmi-pullyu of the Freudian tripartite psyche are all there, all compelling. But the characters that are compelled to demonstrate them are problematic, because they're more than ciphers, but less than fully human. They're compelled to inhabit an allegory, and an ugly one, and inside they're suffering. And so when they each of them get frothed up into enacting their own little psychodrama (something which happens again and again in this book, and reminds me of Final Fantasy characters doing their little pose-and-theme-music routine when they come onstage or do something awesome), it's uncomfortable. Peake is unable to repress his evocative talent, it seems, and so Fuchsia's feelings of violation when she finds Steerpike in her attic, or Cora and Clarice's spinning resentful idiocy, or Irma's old-maid routine, feel real--we are a little too much with them in their suffering, but then we have to watch them suffer further as they are compelled by the author to enact that suffering for ludicrous reasons and in histrionic and one-dimensional ways. It's interesting that I picked all women--not to say it isn't true of the male characters too, but it's also interesting that the exception to this caricature problem, the Dweller wetnurse Keda, is so nobly and exhilaratingly alive. Going from the scene where the two dudes fight it out for her love in the clearing back to the castle and its gothytwee intrigues is more than uncomfortable, it's a bit depressing.

None of which is bad, exactly--or certainly it takes talent, and a lot of scenes make for wonderful reading, either in a painterly way, in keeping with Peake's first career, or in a dramatic way, like the stunningly choreographed fight between Swelter and Flay, or Steerpike's climb to the attic. Here is one of the former:

"This is a love that equals in its power the love of man for woman and reaches inward as deeply. It is the love of a man or woman for their world--for the world of their centre where their loves burn genuinely and with a free flame.

"The love of the diver for his world of wavering light. His world of pearls and tendrils and his breath at his breast. Born as a plunger into the deeps, he is at one with every swarm of lime-green fish, with every coloured sponge. As he holds himself to the ocean's faery floor, one hand clasped to a bedded whale's rib, he is complete and infinite. Pulse, power, and universe sway in his body. He is in love.

"The love of the painter standing alone and staring, staring at the great coloured surface he is making. Standing with him in the room the rearing canvas stares back with tentative shapes haunted in their growth, moving in a new rhythm from floor to ceiling. The twisted tubes, the fresh paint squeezed and smeared across the dry upon his palette. The dust beneath the easel. The paint has edged along the brushes' handles. The white light in a northern sky is silent. The window gapes as he inhales his world. His world: a rented room, and turpentine. He moves toward his half-born. He is in love.

"The rich soil crumbles through the yeoman's fingers. As the pearl diver murmurs, 'I am home' as he moves dimly in strange water-lights, and as the painter mutters, 'I am me' on his lone raft of floor boards, so the slow landsman on his acre'd marl says with dark Fuchsia on her twisting staircase, 'I am home.'"

I'll keep reading! ( )

"Oh my God." Those were my initial thoughts when I opened Titus Groan and glanced at the first sentence – an extremely long and complex sentence with few words that I could actually understand. Luckily for me, the rest of the novel was a little more readable, but it was still quite a slog. Peake's novel may read like a masterpiece, but his target audience is clear – especially from the introduction, which is written by a fan even more verbose than the author! To read a novel like Titus Groan, a strong grasp of the English language is required. To fully enjoy a novel like Titus Groan, an exceptional grasp of the English language is required.

For those willing to grit their teeth and push through it, however, there is enjoyment to be had. The descriptive language flouts the very idea of pace in favour of utterly breathtaking detail, rendering the world of Gormenghast in phenomenal clarity. It is a bizarre and unique world of light and shadow, filled with mysteries, surprises and brilliant ideas. In fact, Gormenghast Castle is not too far removed from Hogwarts; they both share a wondrous, warren-like quality that fills readers with a desire to explore. The style is elaborate and quirky, with a dry, veiled humour lurking constantly in the wings.

At the very heart of this book are its delicious characters: a cast of vibrant, varied and vivid individuals who drive the novel along. All are exaggerated, but none are mere caricatures. Readers will love, hate, laugh at and pity them, from start to finish. Above all, they are really what makes this novel worth reading.

Unfortunately, it would be a blatant lie to say that the slowness and complexity of the writing does not detract from the reading experience. It does. The pace may pick up a little towards the middle of the novel, but it soon falls back again. Tense switching and time jumping, while they are interesting techniques, only exacerbate the problem. For most readers, enjoying this book on the same level that one might enjoy a mainstream novel will simply not be a possibility. The best they can hope for is a more sophisticated kind of enjoyment, quietly permeated by a lurking, peripheral impatience. If you're feeling brave, however, then I say 'go for it'. Rest assured, it will be unlike anything you've read before.

Isimply can't say enough about this masterpiece.
The book is set in the huge castle of Gormenghast, a vast landscape of crumbling towers and ivy-filled quadrangles that has for centuries been the hereditary residence of the Groan family and with them a legion of servants.
Creepy, gothic, musty, mystic, epic, brilliant.
Mervyn Peake is a virtual lterary god, an anomoly, not unlike John Kennedy O'Toole (Confederacy of the Dunces). These two mysterious enigmas have created modern works of timeless art--though very different in style and subject matter.
It is a smorgasbord, a banquet, a frothy overblown decadent gawdy horrific fantastic freakshow of wonder.
I am in awe. ( )