He speaks of a socialist revolution, equality, and the toppling of the aristocracy, but by utilizing arson and murder with not a hint of remorse to meet his ends, he becomes so malicious, he rivals both Professor Umbridge and Steinbeck’s Cathy Ames. He wants to rise to the top, escape the life of a kitchen boy and does not shy away from murder to achieve his goal. His name may be in the title of the books, but for the most part of this epic work, he is simply a boy-a passive participant in many rituals, like his own baptism. Titus never evolves into anything more than the rebellious heir who rejects his place in society.

He sees Gormenghast as confinement: murky and falling apart, – just like its bizarre inhabitants. The idea of being trapped by tradition for the rest of his life renders him miserable. Titus grows up to rebel against tradition, harbouring a strong desire to become independent, flee what he considers a prison and see the world. What will remain with the reader after almost a thousand pages is the prose, the chilling atmosphere, the exceptionally detailed descriptions of the castle, the rituals, and the characters, which results in an immersive, lasting experience.Īt the beginning of the first book, Titus, the heir of Gormenghast, is born, while at the same time Steerpike, a seventeen-year-old boy, escapes the castle’s kitchens where he’d spent his childhood. In fact, the Gormenghast trilogy doesn’t offer much in terms of plot and could probably be summarised in a single paragraph. Each character has their own chapter and while discovering a place filled with people who follow complex, ancient rituals, unwilling to modernise or evolve, the reader is dunked into an atmosphere of gothic novels resembling Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, where the setting becomes more important than the plot. It opens with a series of chapters introducing the titular crumbling castle, Gormenghast, and its many residents. We enter the world of Gormenghast as unwelcome intruders in Titus Groan. Back then, it left doctors baffled, today we know he was afflicted by dementia with Lewy bodies, a neurodegenerative illness, dismantling a brilliant mind while still far too young.

Twisting his mind with visual hallucinations and paranoid delusions, it rendered his words incoherent and his illustrations crude and nightmarish. He planned to write more but alas, an illness struck him down, gradually stripping him off his artistic abilities. In 1946 Titus Groan was published, followed by Gormenghast in 1950 and finally Titus Alone in 1959. He began working on the Gormenghast novels while in the army. Gormenghast Illustrations courtesy of Qess-sie for Three Crows Magazine©

The gormenghast trilogy review