Titus Groan
by Mervyn Peake
from Overlook TP
Mervyn Peake's gothic masterpiece, the Gormenghast trilogy, begins with the superlative Titus Groan, a darkly humorous, stunningly complex tale of the first two years in the life of the heir to an ancient, rambling castle. The Gormenghast royal family, the castle's decidedly eccentric staff, and the peasant artisans living around the dreary, crumbling structure make up the cast of characters in this engrossing story. Peake's command of language and unique style set the tone and shape of an intricate, slow-moving world of ritual and stasis:
The walls of the vast room which were streaming with calid moisture, were built with gray slabs of stone and were the personal concern of a company of eighteen men known as the 'Grey Scrubbers'.... On every day of the year from three hours before daybreak until about eleven o'clock, when the scaffolding and ladders became a hindrance to the cooks, the Grey Scrubbers fulfilled their hereditary calling.Peake has been compared to Dickens, Tolkien, and Peacock, but Titus Groan is truly unique. Unforgettable characters with names like Steerpike and Prunesquallor make their way through an architecturally stifling world, with lots of dark corners around to dampen any whimsy that might arise. This true classic is a feast of words unlike anything else in the world of fantasy. Those who explore Gormenghast castle will be richly rewarded. --Therese Littleton
An undisputed classic of epic fantasy, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels represent one of the most brilliantly sustained flights of Gothic imagination. For the first time in years, Titus Groan, the first book in this timeless series, is available in an individual paperback volume, complete with striking new packaging.
As the novel opens, Titus, heir to Lord Sepulchrave, has just been born. He stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle. Inside, all events are predetermined by a complex ritual whose origins are lost in history and the castle is peopled by dark characters in half-lit corridors. Dreamlike and macabre, Peake's extraordinary novel is one of the most astonishing and fantastic works in modern English fiction.
Titus Alone
by Mervyn Peake
from Overlook TP
With Overlook's new single-volume republication of Mervyn Peake's timeless Gormenghast novels in individual volumes, readers everywhere have embraced Titus Groan all over again. Peake's trilogy is an undisputed classic of epic fantasy, and finally Titus Alone, the final volume in the series, is available again.
As the novel opens, Titus, lord of Castle Gormenghast, has abdicated his throne. Born and brought to the edge of manhood in the huge, rotting castle, Titus rebels against the age-old ritual of which he is both lord and prisoner and rushes headlong into the world. From that moment forward, he is thrust into a stormy land of a dark imagination, where figures and landscapes loom up with force and vividness of a dream--or a nightmare.
This final installment in the Gormenghast trilogy is a fantastic triumph--a conquest awash in imagination, terror, and charm.
Boy in Darkness and Other Stories
by Mervyn Peake
from Peter Owen Publishers
Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor
from Candlewick
Back in the 1930s, a young man named Mervyn Peake fled the pressures of modern society for the Channel Islands in hopes of living a free, bohemian life with his wife and two sons. Each Sunday, he would draw pictures of pirates, comical animals, and shipboard scenarios for his family's amusement. Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor, first published in 1939, is a stunning collection of those marvelously detailed illustrations and a splendid, swashbuckling story to boot. As the salty sea captain's name might suggest, he is as bloodthirsty a pirate as they come. One day, blue-tattooed mate Charlie Choke spies a pink island on the horizon. "'Pink!' shouted the Captain, leaping to his feet. 'That's just the sort I like. Sail me there and hurry up or I'll chop you all up into mincemeat.'"
On the island, they capture the gentle Yellow Creature (much to its glee) and bring it back to their boat. The other island inhabitants, all purple, silently watch the Y.C. leave, except for the bottom-dwelling Plummet who "couldn't see that anything was happening, but he felt it was." Suffice it to say that this nonsensical Lewis Carrollific, Edward Learesque story is a pure delight. Peake's imaginative, R. Crumb-style illustrations of pirate life and fanciful creatures are rich with detail that children will love examining at length. To top it all off, he offers a story of unlikely friendship of a ferocious pirate who comes to wonder how he could have ever enjoyed battle so much and the Yellow Creature, who is an expert at lounging around and eating fruit. Eccentric, playful, and as utterly original as all of Mervyn Peake's work (The Ghormenghast trilogy), Captain Slaughterboard is a classic that well deserves this no-less-than-fantastic recasting. Yo-ho! (Ages 6 and older) --Karin Snelson
The Fisherman's Son
by Marilyn Peake
from Double Dragon Publishing
The Fisherman's Son is a children's novel filled with fantasy, adventure and the heroic qualities of a brave, young boy. At the same time, it includes accurate and beautiful descriptions of life under the ocean, villages similar to those of real nineteenth century island villages, and cities similar to those of ancient Greece and Rome. Part of the book is based on research accounts of what may have happened to Atlantis if it once existed.
The main character is a twelve-year-old boy named Wiley O'Mara. He lives on an island far up north where it is very cold, around the beginning of the nineteenth century. The island scenery and culture in some ways resemble that of Ireland around the same time. After meeting a dolphin who allows him to swim underwater, Wiley takes part in an extraordinary adventure through which he and the dolphin accomplish an incredible rescue mission. Along the way, Wiley and his friend encounter both real and imaginary creatures - the real fish, dolphins, coral reefs and changing depths of the North Atlantic Ocean, as well as imaginary creatures in the island forest and ocean depths surrounding Wiley's home.
THE FISHERMAN'S SON is a children's novel filled with fantasy, adventure and the heroic qualities of a brave, young boy. At the same time, it includes accurate and beautiful descriptions of life under the ocean, villages similar to those of real nineteenth century island villages, and cities similar to those of ancient Greece and Rome. Part of the book is based on research accounts of what may have happened to Atlantis if it once existed. The main character is a twelve-year-old boy named Wiley O'Mara. He lives on an island far up north where it is very cold, around the beginning of the nineteenth century. The island scenery and culture in some ways resemble that of Ireland around the same time. After meeting a dolphin who allows him to swim underwater, Wiley takes part in an extraordinary adventure through which he and the dolphin accomplish an incredible rescue mission. Along the way, Wiley and his friend encounter both real and imaginary creatures - the real fish, dolphins, coral reefs and changing depths of the North Atlantic Ocean, as well as imaginary creatures in the island forest and ocean depths surrounding Wiley's home.
The Art of Gormenghast
by Estelle Daniel
from HarperCollins (UK)
A lavish, behind–the–scenes companion to the spectacular BBC production of Mervyn Peake’s gothic masterpiece, featuring 150 color photos, film stills, illustrations, and storyboard drawings.
Gormenghast: Library Edition
Letters from a Lost Uncle
by Mervyn Peake
from A&C Black
Lost in the frozen polar wastes, an explorer huddles in his shelter, typing with freezing fingers the journal of his lonely, extraordinary exploits, preparing to send the story to the nephew he has never seen. With his only companion, the tortoise-like mutant Jackson, the Uncle has gone in search of his ambition and destiny: the awesome and mysterious White Lion.
Illustrated on every page with stunning, beautiful, eerie drawings, this edition has been completely re-originated from the original artwork. Reproduced here for the first time in full color, Letters from a Lost Uncle is the triumphant production of a unique imagination and a distillation of all that is most powerful in the strange genius of Mervyn Peake.
The Gormenghast Trilogy
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