Titus Groan

Volume 1 of the Gormenghast Trilogy

By: Mervyn Peake

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

In Volume 1 of the classic Gormenghast Trilogy, a doomed lord, an emergent hero, and an array of bizarre creatures haunt the world of Gormenghast Castle. This trilogy, along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, reigns as one of the undisputed fantasy classics of all time. At the center of everything is the 77th Earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom.

In this first volume, the Gormenghast Castle, and the noble family who inhabits it, are introduced, along with the infant firstborn son of the Lord and Countess. Titus Groan is sent away to be raised by a wet nurse, with only a gold ring from his mother, and ordered to not be brought back until the age of six. By his christening, he learns from his much older sisters that epileptic fits are "common at his age." He also learns that they don't like his mother. And then, he is crowned, and called, "Child-inheritor of the rivers, of the Tower of Flints and the dark recesses beneath cold stairways and the sunny summer lawns. Child-inheritor of the spring breeze that blow in from the jarl forests and of the autumn misery in petal, scale, and wing. Winter's white brilliance on a thousand turrets and summer's torpor among walls that crumble..."

In these extraordinary novels, Peake has created a world where all is like a dream - lush, fantastical, vivid; a symbol of dark struggle.

©1967 Mervyn Peake (P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"[Peake's books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience." (C.S. Lewis)

Great book

Would you listen to Titus Groan again? Why?

Definitely, I read these about 30 years ago and have really enjoyed listening and recalling the detail, its the kind of story that will always have something new, the interwoven story lines are so complex I'm not sure you could grasp it in one reading/listening anyway!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Steerpike, complex, misunderstood, sufficiently bad to be really engrossing.

What does Robert Whitfield bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Not sure, its very well read, an excellent performance, its been too long from when I read them to answer the question well.

One of a kind, outstanding prose

I really liked this book.

If for not anything, for Peake's prose which present his ideas like a walk through the Uffizi. It's gorgeous, mesmerizing, admirable. There are just not many authors who can write like this.

One of the main criticisms I have of this book is the plot. It's flat. The key to overcoming this disappointment is not to expect anything out of the book early on. If you have to ask "where is this all going?" you are asking the wrong question. It's not about the destination, but the journey. Keep in mind you will experience undulations, not crescendos. This is by design, I'm certain. The story has no morals to derive. There is no point being made. Things happen, and they are odd but plausible things (in the context of fantasy), but that is all. Clear your mind. Expect no revelation and you won't be disappointed.

The second criticism (a minor one) was the dialogue of the two countesses. Irritating twaddle. It broke immersion.

If you can forgive these two challenges, you are due a unique literary experience. To spend time absorbing and reflecting on the author's kind and artful words, while the blur of the story recedes into the background, is enough of a reason to read it.

What an interesting story.

This book is as if Terry Pratchet and the mad men behind Monty Python wrote Downton Abbey. The characters are just so bizarre and wonderful! The castle is just as peculiar and has a personality of it's own. I would love to see an animated series made from this.

The Pleasures of a Rich & Vivid Baroque Nightmare

Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan (1946) is unique. Dense, funny, sad, hermetic, and epic, it stands alone in the landscape of literature, like the labyrinthine, "umbrageous," and craggy castle Gormenghast, in which the Groan family of earls and their servants and workers are ruled by iron tradition and obscure ritual. The novel begins with the birth of Titus, the unsmiling son of Sepulchrave, the 76th Earl, and with the escape of Steerpike, the amoral, clever, and ambitious kitchen boy. These events initiate "that most unforgivable of all heresies," change. Peake writes the stifled life of the decaying castle and its grotesque inhabitants with humor and empathy. And with intense detail, so that it might be difficult for a first time reader/listener to enter Peake's world of baroque descriptions and bizarre yet apt metaphors.

But the persevering reader drawn more to the strange pleasures of a poet-painter's skewed imagination than to the familiar excitements and moral clarity of Tolkienesque fantasy will discover a strange world full of unforgettable characters, events, and images. A few of my favorites are: a room full of white cats; a field of flagstones framed by clouds; a poem read out of a window by a wedge-headed poet; a gift ruby red "like a lump of anger"; a room tangled by painted roots; a library refuge of row upon row of priceless--and flammable--books; a sinister equestrian statue; a funeral featuring a headless human skeleton, a calf's skull, and a blue ribbon; a one-legged, foul-mouthed dwarf walking back and forth over the dishes of a ceremonial breakfast; a deadly duel featuring a two-handed cleaver, a sword, and a room full of spider webs; a pair of voluminous purple dresses floating on a lake; a serious baby making "a tiny, drunken totter . . . on a sandy beach."

Robert Whitfield (Simon Vance) reads Titus Groan with flawless enunciation, rhythm, and feeling. I often found myself rewinding to enjoy again his enthusiastic reading of Peake's rich language and eccentric characters. Although I was disappointed by his Fuchsia (more simper than passion), his other characters were great, especially his Flay (terse gravel), Swelter (flabby unction), Steerpike (cold, cocky working class), Nannie Slagg (wrinkled querulousness), Dr. Prunesquallor (falsetto trilling "Ha-ha-ha-ha!"), and the twin sisters (vain and venomous monotone).

There is none of the magic or supernatural of typical fantasy novels in Titus Groan. Nevertheless, it is a fantasy novel because it presents a more ugly, beautiful, absurd, sad, and hermetic version of our real world. And the themes of Titus Groan remain relevant: the conflicts between imagination and ambition, emotion and calculation, and new and old; the detrimental effect on human minds and relationships of tradition, ritual, and class; the pain and wonder of artistic creation; and the difficult but vital need to find our own special place where we can be fulfilled.

interesting....

I loved the prose - the book is wonderfully written, but I found it ponderous. Rather like the characters themselves, slow and heavy.

Just too tedious

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend Titus Groan to those who really, really love their atmospheric detail.

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

Vance has done a fantastic job, in my opinion, though he does not create a meaningful narrative out of intricately voiced characters.

Was Titus Groan worth the listening time?

I couldn't manage to finish - it was simply too much peering into every nook and cranny of castle life.

Any additional comments?

I genuinely enjoyed the craft of Peake's writing, but it just was too much without any clear purpose.

Excellent Narrator, Sub-par Story

This book is more poem than plot. The performance is flawless, though Audible seems confused about whether it's Simon Vance (who can do no wrong, in my opinion) or Robert Whitfield. If you want someone to paint you pictures with words and aren't too worried about a solid story, go for it.

they don't make books like this anymore

It's difficult to write a review of this book, since it's got the sort of tangled plot/setting without rhyme or reason that books don't seem to have anymore. It's a story about the inhabitants of Gormenghast castle, and it's hard to say more. The novel starts with a chapter long description of the keeper of carvings and then mentions the man only once or twice for the rest of the novel. Characters come and go, sometimes in fascinating detail, sometimes only passing by. If a lack of a clear plot arc is going to anger you, then stay away from this book. If, on the other hand, you're interested in a meandering story without clear heroes or villains, then you'll adore this.

The book is all about wonderful, fantastical and imaginative descriptions, of people, rituals and the strange castle in which they all exist. Characters are both caricatures and utterly empathetic, they are frustrating and devious. The writing style, as much as the plot, is sadly abandoned in newer books.

If you are a fan of Gene Wolfe (in particular his Book of the New Sun series), then I think you'll love this book, and vice versa. Those who like the improbable yet detailed New Crobuzon of China Mieville might also like this book populate by the strange and varied.

Simon Vance did an amazing job, giving all the wild and varied characters voices which suited them perfectly. His delivery of the strange and wonderful descriptions of the castle was superb, the action scenes were well paced and not over-done.

Bottom line: excellent all around for those looking for something different.

Kind of hard to get into but well worth it

Let me first admit that I failed in my first two attempts to read the print book. The writing as very dense. However, when you really plow into it the book is really quite engaging and remarkable. Gormenshast is a weird setting, to say the least, but it seems to suit itself. The names of the male characters (Sepulchrave, Steerpike, RottCodd, Sourdust, ettc.) are both inspired and really appropriate to the characters (I don't think the female characters win quite as well on this point). As with many books the basic storyline is rather simple and standard (an ursurpation of power), it is the delivery of the narrative that is really incredible. As I noted up front, it can be challenging to read this, and with this very good audiobook performance, you will likely find it more approachable. If you've already read this (and the others in the trilogy) I think you'll really like this. #CastleFantasy #Intrigue #manipulation #Poetic #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Great reading of this classic text

Wonderfully read, this brings the characters to life and gives the air of the castle perfectly.