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From: clapper@nadc
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Gormenghast Trilogy
Message-ID: <3766@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Tue, 24-Sep-85 10:31:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3766
Posted: Tue Sep 24 10:31:37 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Sep-85 06:32:13 EDT
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: clapper@NADC

 
>From: Dave Godwin <godwin@uci-icse>
>
>        Have any of you folks read the Gormenghast trilogy, or parts
>there of ?  I'll reserve further discussion until I hear more.

I read the Titus Groan saga about three years ago.  I never could decide
whether the author, Mervyn Peake, intended the trilogy to be satire,
art, or just depressing.  I thought Peake did a marvelous job of portraying
a "royal" establishment rotting from within.  The environment he described
was in such a state of decay that I could almost smell the odor.  To me,
the books were a study in the futility of the characters' lives.
     The characters themselves were rather flat, as though Peake intended
each one to personify a certain idea, almost to the exclusion of any
other character trait.  For example, Steerpike was the ultimate conniver
and misogynist.  Titus' sister, Fuschia (what a name!), was the caricature
of a girl lost in her daydreams and romances.
     On the whole, the atmosphere of Gormenghast, particularly the castle,
made more of an impact on me than the plot.  I found the tone of the
three books to be relentlessly despairing.  I also never quite got over the
feeling that Mervyn Peake was somehow pulling my leg.

                          Brian M. Clapper


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