Gormenghast

Volume 2 of the Gormenghast Trilogy

By: Mervyn Peake

Narrated by: Robert Whitfield

Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

In Volume 2 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 second volume, Titus comes of age within the walls of Gormenghast Castle and discovers various family intrigues. His twin aunts, Cora and Clarice, have been imprisoned in their own apartments, believing that they alone among the castle inhabitants were free of a hideous disease referred to as "Weasel plague." Titus has discovered secret hiding places in abandoned parts of the castle from which he can watch and learn, unobserved: for he has been "exiled" to grow up with the common children until the age of 15. And so, not feeling connected to his future responsibilities, Titus drifts back and forth between the complicated social world he will grow up to govern, and a world of fantasy and daydream.

©2000 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)

An All Time Classic

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely have recommended all three of the trilogy. The reading is as good as it gets. The writing is the best in genre.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Gormenghast?

The meeting between Titus and "the thing" in the cave perhaps but this is a series full of memorable moments.

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

I think I would be so enamored by the descriptiveness that I might not let it flow like it does from Whitfield.

stunning book

Haunting, surreal, funny and very beautifully sculpted book. Check it out. I can't recconend it enough.

Editing issues

Many paragraphs in the story are repeated; makes me wonder how much was left out!

an entire course in english

Mr. Peake is the pinnacle of the use of language. This book is a hallmark of 20th century writing.

It's a pity it's not well edited

Beautiful all around except that the editing of the recording is so that it tends to repeat itself by about one sentence each hour or so. Otherwise FANTASTIC PERFORMANCE!

A sensory immersion

If you could sum up Gormenghast in three words, what would they be?

A sensory immersion

What did you like best about this story?

The vast wealth of detail.

Have you listened to any of Robert Whitfield???s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.N/A.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No.

Any additional comments?

A long, slow, quiet and thought-provoking submersion in a place that has a tinge of Doctor Caligari's Cabinet and yet is uniquely it's own universe.

Repeated segments

Throughout this reading of Gormenghast there are repeated segments. It really throws off the narrative flow! Otherwise I would have given this 5 stars. The narrator is flawless, It's in the editing.

One of the masterpieces of English literature

While the Gormenghast trilogy is often compared to The Lord of the Rings, in my opinion any comparison is an apples and oranges thing. they both are great but different.

Amazing book and reading, but some technical issues

The book itself is incredible, surpassing its predecessor in every respect. Whitfield’s performance is commendable, and it is clear he spent a lot of time crafting each voice and personality, and finding exactly the right cadence to read each passage. This is one of the few works that I feel is probably enhanced significantly as an audiobook. I have not read the actual novel, but Whitfield’s characterizations have such life and depth it is hard to imagine Gormenghast without them.

Unfortunately this book has two technical issues. First, the book will randomly repeat a sentence every hour or so. This is not an issue with my player, but the audio track itself seems to occasionally duplicate the content. Second, the chapter numbers do not align with the names of chapters in Audible. By the end of the novel, the narrator’s chapter number announcement will be 10 chapters ahead of that listed on the track.

These issues are minor, and do not detract from the work itself, but they should be fixed.

Weird and Wonderful

Despite 30+ years of reading almost exclusively in the Fantasy genre, I only recently discovered the Gormenghast series while researching works considered the “most important” in the genre. After reading that this series is an overlooked gem from the time of Tolkien, and an important part of the genre, I decided I had to try them and wow! What a bizarre and enjoyable pocket dimension of beautiful weirdness this series is!

I was expecting an epic fantasy, what I found was a series of books that defy easy classification, as well many conventional storytelling techniques. These series has absolutely amazing, lush prose. Some sentences are a paragraph long, yet don’t seem like they could have been written any other way. The language used is deft, inventive, and boldly unique. It’s alternately beautiful, grotesque, satirical, and silly - yet consistently compelling.

There are no true main characters, only a collection of highly memorable (weirdo) characters with personalities as odd as their names. While there are broad story arcs that conclude by the end of the second book, the story meanders constantly to odd side stories, some without real resolution. The whole mess would seem to collapse under the weight of its own weirdness, but the books somehow form a coherent whole.

The series is typically considered “Gothic Fantasy”, though there aren’t many of the usual Fantasy ingredients present. There are a few mysterious moments that could be considered magical, and the castle Gormenghast itself certainly fits the mold of the classic “Castle the size of a City” trope, but otherwise the series seems to mostly be categorized as Fantasy because no one knows where else to put it.

Apparently folks like to argue about which is better: LOTR or Gormenghast. The comparison seems meaningless, as they are dramatically different. I wouldn’t say Gormenghast is any “better” or “worse” than Tolkien, they’re just too individually unique to compare fairly. Tolkien is more approachable, Peake is more.... weird and beautiful.

I will say that the first book in the series, Titus Groan, is in my opinion better than the second book, titled Gormenghast. Titus Groan was weird and perfect, whereas Gormenghast felt a little like the author was indulging himself. Both books certainly ramble off onto weird paths, but the first book was interesting throughout, while the second introduced new characters that simply distracted from the main cast and weren’t as interesting. The second book also has several stories that seem to have led nowhere, whereas the first book was more tightly plotted, though I use the term “tightly” in the loosest way possible. (Ha, see what I did there?)

I have to give the caveat that I did not read the third book. I’ve heard that it is drastically different and inferior to the first two, likely due to the authors poor health while writing it. The second book is a good place for the story to end, so I chose to stop there.

If you’re looking for something weird, wonderful, and thought provoking, this series is as timeless as Tolkien, but waaay weirder.