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From: moret@unmvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Mervyn Peake
Message-ID: <349@unmvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Jun-84 07:28:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: unmvax.349
Posted: Tue Jun 26 07:28:45 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Jun-84 07:05:24 EDT
Organization: Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Lines: 25

I highly recommend the Penguin edition--and not just for the reasons
discussed by Jim Janney.  Each book in the trilogy is also a substantial
work, and it pays to have a quality paperback, that won't disintegrate
from repeated readings.
To my mind, the best volume is the first (Titus Groan);  it includes
absolutely fantastic descriptions of the fortress (Gormenghast), with
an atmosphere unequalled in fiction anywhere and some very humorous passages
about education.  The main characteristic is the style: the author's prose
is *very* sophisticated, although sometimes a bit heavy or germanic.
I found myself re-reading the same few pages several times over, just
to savor the richness of the prose.
The second volume is less polished; the style is less consistent and the
atmosphere somewhat lacking.  Towards the end of the second volume,
the author starts on a wholesale campaign of (literally) character assassination
which continues in the third volume.  The third volume is definitely hasty,
as would be expected given the circumstances under which it finally appeared.
As to whether this is SF...  There is no futuristic or historical pretense,
nor is it close to fantasy; it is just good (speculative?) fiction.


Bernard M.E. Moret   (505) 277-31{31,12}
Dept. of Computer Science, U. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131

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