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10th Mar '13 2:56:09 PM Xtifr

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A series by Mervyn Peake made of the novels ''Titus Groan'', ''Gormenghast'', and ''Titus Alone'' and the lesser-known novella "Boy In Darkness", which [[{{Interquel}} take place sometime before the second book]]. They are fantasy and take place in an [[TheVerse imaginary world]] but do not have any elves, dragons, magic, or PatchworkMap. They focus on [[DysfunctionJunction a group of weird and horrible people]] who live inside a [[CityInABottle huge castle with an apparently self-sustaining structure and no contact with the outside world other than a few villages, some lakes, and a mountain]].

Titus Groan, the 77th Earl of Groan, is the ruler of Gormenghast, the eponymous castle. He dreads the long life before him, a life of ruling a single building, never leaving the moth-eaten, rusted-shut, claustrophobic, crumbling halls of pointless, decaying ritual. The castle/city's other inhabitants include the MagnificentBastard NietzscheWannabe {{Antihero}} (or AntiVillain) terrorist Steerpike, Titus's sister [[BrokenBird Fuchsia]], the good Dr Prunesquallor, [[EvilChef chef Abiatha Swelter]], Titus's gloomy father [[MeaningfulName Sepulchrave]], and Titus's mother Gertrude, the original CrazyCatLady.

The novels are ''very'' gloomy, disguising their actually fairly left-handed place on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism. They have been described variously as [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs Dickens on acid]], an Edward Gorey drawing that goes on for a thousand pages, Kafka mainlining Yorkshire pudding and opium, and a DarkerAndEdgier Shakespeare. They are also cluttered and sprawling in a way that few major authors have managed to get away with before or since. The physical clutter of Gormenghast's sprawling castle and spiritual clutter of pointless custom and ritual are all lovingly described, sometimes at great length. In addition, there are [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment whole passages where Peake departs from the plot(s)]] to stage dialogues and visit places and characters that are not even vaguely tied to the story and are never referred to again. Think ''[[TheLordOfTheRings LotR]]'' needed some ruthless editing? ''Gormenghast'' will have you reaching for the shears.

The series should have been the first three in a series which should have followed the protagonist's entire life; sadly Peake's rapidly-evolving Parkinson disease prevented this goal from being realized; the fourth novel would have been entitled "Titus Awakes" and a fragment of it is said to have been penned by Peake before he became totally incapacitated, along with a list of events which would have taken place in the following volumes. It has since been found and edited by Peake's daughter, and published June 2011.

MichaelMoorcock is a great admirer of Gormenghast, which he judges a masterpiece of fantasy and has praised vocally in several instances.

In 2000, the BBC adapted the work for the small screen as a project explicitly for the new millennium, focussing on the first two books involving Steerpike. Peake purists criticised it for being LighterAndSofter than the books.

Brian Sibley adapted the books for BBC [[{{Radio}} radio]] ''twice'' - the first time also adapting the first two books as separate plays, the second as a series, ''The History of Titus Groan'', adapting the entire trilogy.

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!!This series displays the following tropes:

* AffablyEvil: Steerpike [[spoiler:at first...]]
* AManIsNotAVirgin: averted with Prunesquallor, who is a fifty-something virgin and probably the single most BadAss character in the novels (a BadassBookworm, no less!). ManlyTears are shed in many scenes involving him.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Prunesquallor.
** His vocal disgust with Steerpike's naked chest is a little ''too much'' protest.
*** Also, in TheSeries , he is played by StraightGay actor John Sessions... 
* AmbitionIsEvil: Although Gormenghast is a world of social immobility taken to truly ridiculous extremes, Steerpike's particular methods of bringing himself up in the world quickly veer away from the sympathetic.
* AnyoneCanDie
* AppropriatedTitle: ''In''appropriately appropriated - the focus of the series was Titus Groan, title character of the first book, not Gormenghast, the childhood home that he departed from two books into [[AuthorExistenceFailure what should have been]] a much longer series. Double inverted in that Titus Groan, the first book, does not significantly feature Titus as a character, as he's a very young child. 
* AssholeVictim: Most people in Gormenghast are complete and utter tools. Steerpike kills a lot of people. Do the math.
** AxCrazy [[spoiler: Swelter]] might also count.
* AuthorExistenceFailure: Peake was planning on a cycle of seven novels, but contracted Parkinson's Disease, which aggravated his emotional and mental instability, before writing the third and died after finishing only one chapter of ''Titus Awakes'', which would have been the fourth.
** The omnibus edition ends with a ''list of the tropes Peake intended to use later on'' (although not referred to by WikiWord, of course) and the words "[[WhatCouldHaveBeen what these books could have been]]." This was perhaps the biggest TearJerker of the whole damn series. For example, there was going to be a revisitation of Gormenghast during an interregnum in which ''Prunesquallor is in charge''. 
** ''Titus Alone'' had to be edited severely because Peake had put in plot elements that arguably ''made absolutely no sense'' given the plots of the previous two books. You have to be pretty sick to forget the plot of your own epic...
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: So, so subverted...
* AwesomeYetPractical: Steerpike kills people with a ''slingshot'' and a '''''sword cane.'''''
** The gag is that whenever a character ''plans'' a particularly dramatic method by which to kill somebody, it inevitably fails. (The Twins' execution axe device, Steerpike's initial plan for Barquentine, Swelter's obsessively detailed cleaver ritual) The library burning is the only instance that ''doesn't'', and is particularly poignant in the post-9/11 conspiratorial era. 
* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler:Flay.]]
* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Muzzlehatch]]
* BrokenBird: Fuchsia.
* BuildingOfAdventure: Castle Gormenghast.
* CityInABottle
* CobwebJungle: The attic in which Flay and Swelter fight.
* ConsummateLiar: Steerpike is possibly the only character in literature who ''never'' makes a ''single'' unambiguously truthful statement.
* CoolChair: Cora and Clarice desperately want a pair of thrones back that they once possessed when they were young. They don't want 'the throne' in the sense of ruling the kingdom, they just want the furniture.
* CoolBigSis: Subverted to hell and back.
* CrapsackWorld: Gormenghast. In quite an original way- full of pointless rituals that must never be broken, at the expense of everybody's sanity and lives.
* CrazyCatLady: Gertrude. She also likes birds.
* CreatorBreakdown: The aforementioned Parkinson's Disease killed him at the age of only 57, three novels into a planned seven-novel sequence.
* CreepyTwins: Cora and Clarice. Although "grotesque" twins would be more accurate.
* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: [[spoiler:the world outside Gormenghast]].
* DeadlyDecadentCourt
* DoomedHometown: Sort of.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Sepulchrave]].
* DyingLikeAnimals: Mice, mostly, but there are some bats, ostriches, and sheep to spice things up.
* EarnYourHappyEnding
* EvilAlbino: Steerpike's physical description (in the book) borders on this.
* EvilChef: Swelter
* FisherKing: Sepulchrave.
** All the Earls have this potential, and it seems like Titus is the only one ''aware'' of the curse of being captain aboard the sinking ship that is Gormenghast. 
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Steerpike, and very much an InvokedTrope.
* FutureImperfect: Oh so very much.
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:Fuchsia, then Titus. They are not unrelated...]]
* HeterosexualLifePartners: RealLife example: Peake and [[Literature/AClockworkOrange Anthony Burgess]].
* ImAHumanitarian: Swelter; implied.
* IncendiaryExponent: Steerpike seems to do a lot of important things while on fire [[spoiler:as does Muzzlehatch]].
* InterestingSituationDuel Flay and Swelter have it out on the flooded, cobweb covered attic.
* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: The Masters of Ritual--Sourdust, Barquentine, and [[spoiler:Steerpike]].
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Fifty-five major characters and many more bit parts.
* LoveMartyr: Fuchsia all the way.
* MeaningfulName: Just about every character in the series.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: subverted. Dr Alfred Prunesquallor is used by Steerpike, but he's still probably the most genuinely ''good'' character in the entire series.
* MrsRobinson: Irma Prunesquallor, [[spoiler: plus Juno in ''Titus Alone'' with rather more success]].
* NietzscheWannabe: ''Guess.''
** The Philosopher leads a small cult of existentialist professors that only see the errors in his theories after he has been immolated. 
* NobleSavage: [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]] with the Bright Carvers.
* OldMaid: Avoiding becoming an OldMaid is the motivation of Irma Prunesquallor. She marries an eighty-six year old man out of desperation, meeting him after holding a party with no women invited, wherein the only invitees were hopelessly pathetic professors of the castle's school. 
* OnlySaneMan: Prunesquallor.
** Bellgrove is sane, but lazy. 
* TheOphelia: '''''Guess.'''''
* ThePowerOfHate: What nearly gives [[spoiler:Barquentine]] the edge over his killer. Where someone else might be motivated by self-preservation, he's gripped by a bloody-minded loathing of a heretic and traitor which is so unexpected it shocks the attacker.
* PragmaticAdaptation: The 2000 serial adaptation, ''Gormenghast'', which covered the first two novels, altered some plot and character elements (particularly the circumstances surrounding [[spoiler:Fuchsia's]] death).
* PurpleEyes: Titus 
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Steerpike's actions are this trope incarnated as a crazy-awesome BatmanGambit.
** Swelter's plans. 
* RoyallyScrewedUp
* SceneryGorn: Much of the exquisitely detailed description of the dusty, decaying castle of Gormenghast.
* SceneryPorn: The wilderness surrounding Gormenghast.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Idealistic, although the gloominess disguises this ''very'' well.
* TheSociopath: Steerpike frequently reflects that part of his manipulation of people involves having to fake such things as empathy, love, basically any human quality beyond personal ambition. Everyone he meets is just a tool he wants to learn how to use to his benefit.
* SpaceAmish: The world outside Gormenghast has RaygunGothic technology and a CrystalSpiresAndTogas feel. It isn't clear if this is the future, another planet/universe, or both, though.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: [[spoiler:Titus at the very end.]]
* StuffBlowingUp: The end of ''Titus Alone''.
* StuffedInTheFridge: [[spoiler:Fuschia and the Thing]] basically die for no purpose other than to further Titus's story.
* SympatheticMurderer: Steerpike, before he murders the twins.
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Barquentine]] attempts this, but doesn't quite succeed in killing his murderer. He does leave him burnt and with a severely rattled ego, though.
* ThatRemindsMeOfASong: Peake was never shy about inserting his nonsense poems into the narrative, usually apropos of nothing.
* TheVamp: [[spoiler:Cheeta]]
* UpperClassTwit: Almost every character except Steerpike and Swelter, who aren't upper class. Justified in that Gormenghast was written as a parody of English society. 
* VillainProtagonist: Steerpike in the first two books, though he does not serve as the only protagonist. 
* VillainousGlutton: Swelter
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Who was the person who knocked on Fuschia's door, [[spoiler:causing her to slip off the windowsill and fall to her death?]]
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27th Sep '12 7:09:43 PM johnnye

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26th Sep '12 10:39:09 AM johnnye

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