The Wonderful World of Gormenghast

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I noticed references on another thread, but I think these books deserve a home of their own.

I loved this trilogy, although the third volume feels as if it belongs elsewhere. The BBC screened an adaptation about two years back and captured the castle and characters fairly well. At least, it wasn't referred to in the Hutton Report, so I guess the BBC adaptation was fairly accurate.

A schoolfriend of mine once formed a band called Steepike. Great name for a band. Appalling music.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 2 February 2004 14:14 (twenty years ago) link

A dear friend of mine says that the final volume of Gormenghast is the only book he's ever read where he could literally feel the author losing his sanity as the book went on.
I personally haven't read it. I'm really, really looking forward to (esp. to discuss it with the aforementioned friend), but I'm booked with books at the moment. (I don't know much about the plot, but I do know that any book recommended by C.S. Lewis, W.H. Auden AND the aforementioned friend is gonna be fantastic.) Tell a little more about why you find it so amazing.

― Phil Christman, Monday, 2 February 2004 18:16 (twenty years ago) link

this has to be the most richly detailed book I've ever read (I'm only on page 50 of Titus Groan). reading it during my commute makes me want to stay on the train for another 50 stops

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Monday, 2 February 2004 18:28 (twenty years ago) link

Phil: that's an excellent way to describe it, although he wasn't technically insane. It was a degenerative neurological disorder (or similar).

― August (August), Monday, 2 February 2004 18:43 (twenty years ago) link

although if you're looking for a book where you CAN see the author's sanity slip away, try The Exquisite Corpse by Alfred Chester. Unnerving and bizarre.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Monday, 2 February 2004 22:07 (twenty years ago) link

August: Don't be silly, the man was obviously bonkers. Deliciously so.

― writingstatic (writingstatic), Monday, 2 February 2004 23:49 (twenty years ago) link

There's some dark comedy in Gormenghast that separates it from nil humour books like Lord of the Rings. The characters have human emotions and speak as if you or I would (if locked in a bizarre castle).

However, what sets it apart (in my opinion) is the density of the descripions. I felt I lived in that castle while I read the trilogy. Actually I lived in a tiny flat in Kilburn, but you get my drift.

If I'm in a book shop, I always take the trilogy out of the fantasy section and put it into general fiction.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 3 February 2004 12:57 (twenty years ago) link

why?

― robin (robin), Tuesday, 3 February 2004 15:59 (twenty years ago) link

oh days on end and years on end
and what shall we spend on a wrinkled friend...

The doctor's (?) mad song hit me like a brick pie when I was a freshman in H.S. and I had to read the whole thing. I shall re-read it again now because of this thread. All-time classic.

― Begs2Differ, Tuesday, 3 February 2004 16:43 (twenty years ago) link

"why?"

Sexual kick.

x-post

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 3 February 2004 17:01 (twenty years ago) link

Damn, sounds a lot like The Worm Ouroboros, which I loved... should I buy the complete bound trilogy (cheap used!!!) or is it too much to carry anywhere?

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 04:39 (twenty years ago) link

Just get the Penguin modern classics editions (um if you have them around), the complete'd yeah be pretty tiresome to carry. It's pretty fucking incredible as I remember but was somehow too DENSE to reread last time I tried, jsut too slow, so full of everything. Um it's good. I kept wanting to keep reading each sentence WAY too much, if I knew where it was I'd prob read it again tomorrow

― Silly Sailor (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 13:26 (twenty years ago) link

There are some great 1970's editions hiding away in secondhand bookshops. They tend to have Pink Floyd style jackets.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 14:01 (twenty years ago) link

My paperback edition of Titus Groan just has a lovely, naive charcoal portrait of a melancholy child on the front. Am I thinking Bantam? Penguin? Lord knows. I think it's handsome as hell, as these things go, and highly appropriate, and somehow not as chintzy as the much glossier charcoal wash of a generic castle that seems to grace the new 3-in-1 volume. I bought it in a church basement in Munich.

Anyway, I've maybe been convinced, now, to pick up the succeeding two. I did like Groan.

― Matthew K (mtk), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 18:37 (twenty years ago) link

Ann: I have a recentish collected softcover edition by Vintage. It looks good on the shelf, yeah, but is pretty cumbersome and difficult to manipulate, and the writing is densely packed, the pages tissue-paper thin. It's a sitting-in-a-big-armchair sort of edition, not one I'd much like to carry about with me during the day. It might be better to get the three separate volumes if you find yourself hithering and thithering a fair bit.

― writingstatic (writingstatic), Thursday, 5 February 2004 06:04 (twenty years ago) link

As a complete Gormenghast neophyte, I just wanted to let y'all know that this thread (along with all of the lovely raves) has inspired me to order this trilogy. Thanks.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, 5 February 2004 12:52 (twenty years ago) link

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