History Literature / Gormenghast

** His vocal disgust with Steerpike's naked chest (demonstrated on ''two'' separate occasions!) is a little ''too much'' protest. Also, in TheSeries , he is played by StraightGay actor John Sessions...

* ShirtlessScene: Steerpike, [[WalkingShirtlessScene constantly]]. [[FetishFuel He's soaking wet every time,]] and despite the fact that he's canonically stated to be unattractive, [[EatingTheEyeCandy copious amounts of eye candy still get eaten by any female character present.]] [[RunningGag Any female character...]] [[AmbiguouslyGay and Prunesquallor.]]

* 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.

* DisproportionateRetribution: When Cheeta discovers that Titus' interest in her is purely sexual, she responds by trying to drive him insane.

* FeralChild: "The Thing" [[spoiler:the child of Keda, Titus' wet-nurse and foster sister, is abandoned in the wild on account of her illegitimacy. Titus is fascinated with her because she represents the freedom and adventure and being closer to nature. It's averted when they finally meet since the girl cannot speak, cannot understand human speech and behaves like an animal and ultimately gets struck by lightning]].

* PurpleEyes: Titus' unusually coloured eyes are remarked upon even on the day of his birth.

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

* 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.

** The palace guards wear WorldWarI-era German pickelhauben, with Soviet-style telogreikas dyed in German feldgrau.

* InterestingSituationDuel [[spoiler:Flay and Swelter have it out in the flooded, cobweb covered attic.]]

* LoonyLaws: Gormenghast has so many strange laws and rituals that by the time someone has become it's Earl they are probably quite insane themselves. So the laws and rituals become more insane. Gormenghast is the CrapsackWorld logical extreme of this trope.

* NeverFoundTheBody: Due to being [[spoiler:eaten alive by owls, Sepulchrave]] is never actually presumed dead.

* CastFullOfCrazy: The gloomy, suffocating athmosphere of the castle and the pointless, repetitive rituals take their toll on most people living in Gormenghast.

** The palace guards wear WorldWarI-era German pickelhauben, with Soviet-style telogreikas died in German feldgrau.

** The palace guards wear WorldWarI-era German uniforms, complete with pickelhauben and feldgrau.

* RisingWatrRisingTension: Book Two sees the usurper Steerpike rising to higher levels in the castle-state\'s hierarchy. As he makes his final bid to overthrow the Groan family and become ruler, torrential unrelenting rain begins and the castle is flooded. The action of the book happens on two levels. As the lower levels of the castle are progressively swamped by floodwaters, its inhabitants struggle for survival, moving themselves and their possessions to higher and higher levels. This adds to the claustrophobic menace of the situation. The flooding becomes a metaphor for cleansing, both of an ancient civilisation strangling in its own history, and of the need to destroy a cancer in the social body - Steerpike. The water rises to menacing levels, and the Princess Fuchsia dies a lonely death by drowning; Titus Groan, the legitimate heir to Ghormenghast, seeks out and kills Steerpike at the point where the floodwaters rise to their highest. Symbolically, after Steerpike's death, the rain stops and the flood recedes.

* LoveMartyr: Fuchsia, the romantic BrokenBird who is manipulated into loving Steerpike, dies when the truth about her love is revealed.

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 ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' needed some ruthless editing? ''Gormenghast'' will have you reaching for the shears.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Rather oddly, the Countess. Her cats follow her everywhere, a female goat flat out runs to her to be milked, she keeps plenty of birds...really, she gets on with animals ''much'' better than she does with people.

* ImAHumanitarian: It's implied that Swelter, the EvilChef, is capable of ... pretty much anything, including cannibalism.

* RoyallyScrewedUp: The Earls of Groan have ruled Gormenghast for centuries in a self-sustaining Kafkaesque bureaucracy, and as a family have acquired a large number of...''eccentricities'' over the years.

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 criticized it for being LighterAndSofter than the books.

* AppropriatedTitle: The intended 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 longer series. Ironically, the Titus Groan, the first book, does not significantly feature Titus as a character, as he's a very young child.

* 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.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Lots of people die, Gormenghast is devastated by floods -- but in the end, [[spoiler:Titus kills Steerpike and escapes the castle]]. It's a dark and twisted happiness, mind you.
* EvilAlbino: Steerpike is described in terms reminiscent of albinism, but it is not clear that he is actually albino (his vision appears to be unimpaired, for example).

* InterestingSituationDuel [[spoiler:Flay and Swelter have it out on the flooded, cobweb covered attic.]]

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Fifty-five prominent characters and many more bit parts.

%%** Prunesquallor. Please add context before un-commenting

** Rottcodd because he manages to ignore the events of ''Titus Groan'', lazing off in his hammock.

* RoyallyScrewedUp: The Earls of Groan have ruled Gormenghast for centuries in a self-sustaining Kafkaesque bureaucracy, and as a family have acquired a large number of eccentricities over the years.