Gormenghast
Volume 2 of the Gormenghast Trilogy
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Narrated by:
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Robert Whitfield
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By:
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Mervyn Peake
About this listen
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 AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Beneath the rolling seas and deadly atmosphere of Venus are the Keeps - fully enclosed cities that house descendants of the survivors who first harbored atomic energy to escape a dying earth. In massive superstructures built beneath the Venusian seas, a complex feudal society devoted simply to decadence has evolved. Presiding over that society are Immortals - genetic throwbacks to the mutant atomic survivors.
By: Henry Kuttner
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The Shadow of the Torturer
- The Book of the New Sun, Book 1
- By: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume epic, the tale of a young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession - showing mercy towards his victim.
Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" is one of speculative fiction's most-honored series. In a 1998 poll, Locus Magazine rated the series behind only "The Lord of the Rings" and The Hobbit as the greatest fantasy work of all time.
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great writing, won't appeal to everyone
- By Ryan on 03-20-10
By: Gene Wolfe
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The Tin Drum
- A New Translation by Breon Mitchell
- By: Günter Grass
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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To mark the 50th anniversary of the original publication of this runaway best seller, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, along with Grass' publishers all over the world, offer a new translation of this classic novel. Breon Mitchell, acclaimed translator and scholar, has drawn from many sources. The result is a translation that is faithful to Grass' style and rhythm, restores omissions, and reflects more fully the complexity of the original work. After 50 years, The Tin Drum has, if anything, gained in power and relevance.
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It's a metaphor, right?
- By Barry on 08-11-12
By: Günter Grass
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Sabriel
- By: Garth Nix
- Narrated by: Tim Curry
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since she was a tiny child, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father, the Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that world.
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Enraptured
- By T. HICKS on 06-20-09
By: Garth Nix
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October
- The Story of the Russian Revolution
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Banks
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The renowned fantasy and science fiction writer China Mieville has long been inspired by the ideals of the Russian Revolution, and here, on the centenary of the revolution, he provides his own distinctive take on its history. In February 1917, in the midst of bloody war, Russia was still an autocratic monarchy: nine months later it became the first socialist state in world history. How did this unimaginable transformation take place? How was a ravaged and backward country, swept up in a desperately unpopular war, rocked by not one but two revolutions?
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The 20th Century's New Weird History
- By Darwin8u on 08-12-17
By: China Mieville
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The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
- By: Patricia A. McKillip
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Sixteen when a baby is brought to her to raise, Sybel has grown up on Eld Mountain. Her only playmates are the creatures of a fantastic menagerie called there by wizardry. Sybel has cared nothing for humans, until the baby awakens emotions previously unknown to her. And when Coren--the man who brought this child--returns, Sybel's world is again turned upside down.
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Sooooooo thrilled to have it (finally) at Audible
- By Ljsc on 03-05-12
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Fury
- By: Henry Kuttner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Beneath the rolling seas and deadly atmosphere of Venus are the Keeps - fully enclosed cities that house descendants of the survivors who first harbored atomic energy to escape a dying earth. In massive superstructures built beneath the Venusian seas, a complex feudal society devoted simply to decadence has evolved. Presiding over that society are Immortals - genetic throwbacks to the mutant atomic survivors.
By: Henry Kuttner
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The Shadow of the Torturer
- The Book of the New Sun, Book 1
- By: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume epic, the tale of a young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession - showing mercy towards his victim.
Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" is one of speculative fiction's most-honored series. In a 1998 poll, Locus Magazine rated the series behind only "The Lord of the Rings" and The Hobbit as the greatest fantasy work of all time.
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great writing, won't appeal to everyone
- By Ryan on 03-20-10
By: Gene Wolfe
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The Tin Drum
- A New Translation by Breon Mitchell
- By: Günter Grass
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
To mark the 50th anniversary of the original publication of this runaway best seller, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, along with Grass' publishers all over the world, offer a new translation of this classic novel. Breon Mitchell, acclaimed translator and scholar, has drawn from many sources. The result is a translation that is faithful to Grass' style and rhythm, restores omissions, and reflects more fully the complexity of the original work. After 50 years, The Tin Drum has, if anything, gained in power and relevance.
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It's a metaphor, right?
- By Barry on 08-11-12
By: Günter Grass
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Sabriel
- By: Garth Nix
- Narrated by: Tim Curry
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Ever since she was a tiny child, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father, the Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that world.
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Enraptured
- By T. HICKS on 06-20-09
By: Garth Nix
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October
- The Story of the Russian Revolution
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Banks
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
The renowned fantasy and science fiction writer China Mieville has long been inspired by the ideals of the Russian Revolution, and here, on the centenary of the revolution, he provides his own distinctive take on its history. In February 1917, in the midst of bloody war, Russia was still an autocratic monarchy: nine months later it became the first socialist state in world history. How did this unimaginable transformation take place? How was a ravaged and backward country, swept up in a desperately unpopular war, rocked by not one but two revolutions?
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The 20th Century's New Weird History
- By Darwin8u on 08-12-17
By: China Mieville
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Penric’s Demon
- A Fantasy Novella in the World of the Five Gods
- By: Lois McMaster Bujold
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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On his way to his betrothal, young Lord Penric comes upon a riding accident with an elderly lady on the ground, her maidservant and guardsmen distraught. As he approaches to help, he discovers that the lady is a Temple divine, servant to the five gods of this world. Her avowed god is the Bastard, "master of all disasters out of season", and with her dying breath she bequeaths her mysterious powers to Penric.
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A Kinder, Gentler Demon
- By Carol on 01-10-16
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Lord Foul’s Bane
- The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 1
- By: Stephen R. Donaldson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas Covenant is a leper, a bitter and solitary pariah who is mystically transported to another Earth where time moves differently than ours, one in which magic takes many forms. The Land is threatened by many evils, the most immediate of which is a maddened Cavewight whose subterranean excavations have unearthed the ancient and puissant Staff of Law. More dangerous to the free people of the Land is the Gray Slayer, Lord Foul, the Despiser, who intends to destroy the actual foundations of the Earth that he might wage war against the universe’s creator.
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The most underrated saga of our time
- By Matthew D. Bixby on 09-02-20
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Elric of Melniboné
- Volume 1: Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf
- By: Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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When Michael Moorcock began chronicling the adventures of the albino sorcerer Elric, last king of decadent Melniboné, and his sentient vampiric sword, Stormbringer, he set out to create a new kind of fantasy adventure, one that broke with tradition and reflected a more up-to-date sophistication of theme and style. The result was a bold and unique hero: a rock-and-roll antihero who would channel all the violent excesses of the '60s into one enduring archetype.
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Skip the first chapter, it's not Moorcock.
- By Ted C. on 02-17-22
By: Michael Moorcock, and others
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The Master and Margarita
- By: Mikhail Bulgakov
- Narrated by: Julian Rhind-Tutt
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The Devil comes to Moscow, but he isn't all bad; Pontius Pilate sentences a charismatic leader to his death, but yearns for redemption; and a writer tries to destroy his greatest tale, but discovers that manuscripts don't burn. Multi-layered and entrancing, blending sharp satire with glorious fantasy, The Master and Margarita is ceaselessly inventive and profoundly moving. In its imaginative freedom and raising of eternal human concerns, it is one of the world's great novels.
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Satisfying Satanic Satire
- By Jacob on 12-06-11
By: Mikhail Bulgakov
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The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Christopher Tolkien
- Length: 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son was originally published in the 1953 edition of Essays and Studies. In December of that year, J.R.R. Tolkien took possession of a reel-to-reel tape recorder and, some time during the first few months of 1954, decided to record ‘the whole thing on tape’ as a way of ‘testing’ the performative quality of the dramatic dialogue between Tídwald and Torhthelm.
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Short sweet and to the point
- By Anthony Baker on 04-04-23
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
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The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized)
- By: Isaac Asimov, Patrick Tull - adaptation, Mike Stott - adaptation
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Beevers, Lee Montague, Julian Glover, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Original Recording
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The opening episode begins on Trantor, capital of the Galactic Empire, with the meeting of Seldon and Dornick, their trial, and their exile to Terminus. The action then jumps forward 50 years, to the first Seldon Crisis, where the repercussions of the recent independence of the Four Kingdoms of the Periphery are being felt on Terminus, and are handled by the first Mayor, Salvor Hardin....
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How can you go wrong with a must read book for $2
- By James on 03-06-11
By: Isaac Asimov, and others
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The Man in the High Castle
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war - and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.
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Alternative history
- By Michael G Kurilla on 07-28-15
By: Philip K. Dick
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The Dying Earth
- Tales of the Dying Earth, Book 1
- By: Jack Vance
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The stories in The Dying Earth introduce dozens of seekers of wisom and beauty, lovely lost women, wizards of every shade of eccentricity with their runic amulets and spells. We meet the melancholy deodands, who feed on human flesh and the twk-men, who ride dragonflies and trade information for salt. There are monsters and demons. Each being is morally ambiguous: The evil are charming, the good are dangerous. All are at home.
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A Decadent and Hopeful Dying Earth
- By Jefferson on 06-27-10
By: Jack Vance
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Red Mars
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 23 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, Red Mars is the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson's best-selling trilogy. Red Mars is praised by scientists for its detailed visions of future technology. It is also hailed by authors and critics for its vivid characters and dramatic conflicts.
For centuries, the red planet has enticed the people of Earth. Now an international group of scientists has colonized Mars. Leaving Earth forever, these 100 people have traveled nine months to reach their new home. This is the remarkable story of the world they create - and the hidden power struggles of those who want to control it.
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very long
- By Dana on 07-17-08
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Tigana
- By: Guy Gavriel Kay
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 24 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Eight of the nine Palm provinces of the Peninsula have been overcome by warrior sorcerers Brandin and Alberico. But the sorcerers don't know that a small band of survivors is plotting their removal. With tensions mounting, the sorcerers become increasingly at odds as each decides where his own path - and that of the land - should truly lie.
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A little self-indulgent
- By Diana M. on 05-31-20
By: Guy Gavriel Kay
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Catch-22
- By: Joseph Heller
- Narrated by: Jay O. Sanders
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy - it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he's assigned, he'll be in violation of Catch-22.
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Stop randomly adding music
- By Kenneth S. Clark on 08-31-18
By: Joseph Heller
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Ubik
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Glen Runciter runs a lucrative business - deploying his teams of anti-psychics to corporate clients who want privacy and security from psychic spies. But when he and his top team are ambushed by a rival, he is gravely injured and placed in "half-life," a dreamlike state of suspended animation. Soon, though, the surviving members of the team begin experiencing some strange phenomena, such as Runciter's face appearing on coins and the world seeming to move backward in time.
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Holy sh*t
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-17
By: Philip K. Dick
What listeners say about Gormenghast
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Phebe
- 03-04-14
Satisfying conclusion to the story in Titus Groan
The same reader, Robert Whitfield, did this unabridged Gormenghast as read the first volume, Titus Groan. His reading is brilliant, in my opinion: this is of course a very difficult book to read well, as it's experimental fiction on the order of Ulysses and it is a form of poetry in prose: note the very careful choice of every word, for the dire, the scary, the unsettling. The plot is vivid and full of action, but could be told in a third the words: but the words are the point. So enjoy them. This book is not about the plot, exciting though that is. It's not about the characters, fascinating though they are. It's about the second-by-second elaborate description of the experience.
There is a production problem that did not occur in Titus Groan: I counted eleven times when the reader repeated whole sentences, having apparently stopped, taken a break, and then went on repeating from the top of the paragraph. Obviously the editor should have edited out the repeats!! Bad production not to bother. It should be done right and reissued. However, it's still a very good rendition and well worth hearing.
The conclusion is highly satisfying and there is no need to go on to the post-mortem third volume cobbled together from notes on the author's desk. I would advise first reading the two works, then listening to them, and finally watching the excellent BBC movie starring John Rhys Meyer as Steerpike. It's a star-studded cast: you will be surprised at the important actors you recognize. They stay very close to the text, though it must have been hard to make, given the spectacular scenery and events.
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2 people found this helpful
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- RegularGuy
- 04-16-15
True mastery of English language. Unreal.
Such magnificent turn of phrase, such a billowing, enormous and unexpected masterpiece. I'm buying the next--the third--at this moment and falling back in. Narrator amazing. In fact, he's the voice of the great castle to me.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Justin Kern
- 11-27-18
not that good...bad characters and setting
by the end I could barely stand to hear about Titus and how he was growing up and how all these people dying were experiences that shaped him as a man. who cares. Titus sucks. Team Steerpike here. #steerpikedidnothingwrong
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- Victor
- 05-22-23
Editor
Editor was asleep at the wheel. Repeated sentences annoying. I thought it was my device.
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- Jefferson
- 07-27-12
A “Supernaturally Outlandish” Masterpiece
Gormenghast (1950), the second novel in Mervyn Peake’s classic fantasy trilogy, opens with seven-year-old Titus Groan, the 77th Earl of Gormenghast, already conflicted by rebellious desires to be free from the meaningless ritual and dry duty of the castle and from his role as its figurehead. The novel depicts his maturing into a sensitive and self-aware young man scarred by violence, seasoned by loss, and attracted by the world outside. Into that plot Peake weaves the career of the amoral ex-kitchen boy Steerpike, scheming his way ever deeper into the heart of Gormenghast. And for comic relief, Peake spends (almost too) much time with Professor Bellgrove, his bachelor colleagues, and Irma Prunesquallor, who wants a husband.
There are many memorable set pieces in the novel, like the moment when Titus and his sister Fuchsia discover that they love each other, the “Bachelorette” soiree at the Prunesquallors, the demise of an anile headmaster, the game of marbles in the Lichen Fort, the tracking of a satanic outlaw, the aborted ceremony of the Bright Carvings, the encounter with the wild Thing in the forest cave, the Biblical flooding of the castle, and the schoolboy game featuring a classroom window 100 feet above the ground, a giant plane tree, a pair of polished floor boards, and a gauntlet of slingshots.
Reader Robert Whitfield’s narrator is clear, refined, and sympathetic, and his character voices varied and on target (especially Dr. Prunesquallor, Irma, Bellgrove, Barquentine, Steerpike, and Flay). But his Fuchsia needs more raw passion and less nasal whine and his Countess Gertrude more gravitas and less dowager quaver. And there is an odd glitch whereby about twenty times during the course of the book Whitfield’s sentences jarringly repeat.
Gormenghast resembles Titus Groan, the first novel in the trilogy. Both novels are set in a vividly realized castle world populated by grotesque denizens. Both intoxicate the reader with rich language, baroque detail, painterly description, and blended humor and pathos. Both leave images etched upon the mind’s eye. Both feature long passages of conversation or description punctuated by unpredictable scenes of suspenseful action. Both express themes about the primacy of passion and imagination over reason and calculation and the comforting and stultifying influence of tradition on human lives. Although both novels are “fantasies of manners,” however, Gormenghast is also a romantic comedy, a British school story, a gothic thriller, and a bildungsroman. And it highlights new themes: the conflict between duty and freedom and the transformations, wonders, and absurdities of love and aging.
Finally, Gormenghast, like Titus Groan, is a unique masterpiece that offers a satisfying conclusion to the story arc of the first two novels that perhaps renders the third book, Titus Alone, unnecessary.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-28-23
Great re-read after 50+ years
I first read this as a teenager and now I can understand what I was reading! Peake was an amazing storyteller, but even more, a wonderful writer. His turns of phrase, even in the most harrowing sections, are marvelous.
For some irritating reason, a number of sentences are repeated. It's an annoying glitch that breaks the flow. But the book as a whole isn't affected.
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- mandu
- 11-18-23
As good as writing gets.
Ignore the negative reviews. This is for those who love language and not for watchers of superhero movies. This trilogy is something that stays with you. It is one of the most remarkable things I have encountered in literature.
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- Wilda E. Rowe
- 08-20-18
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.
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1 person found this helpful
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- J. Angel
- 07-28-20
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.
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- Trevor Ballard
- 12-13-20
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.
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