The Gormenghast Triology (Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone)

The first two books of this trilogy are the major work, as most agree. What a major work too. This is not a traditional Gothic novel, though it has a setting and certain tortures and deaths which is Gothic.. it is timeless, literally, in that one cannot pin down the place and events to any definitive period of history. No doubt Peake's childhood in China gave him a fundament, the despotic world with many attendant horrors, the redundant bureaucracy-feudalistic religion and social order… but it also reflects the colonial British Empire and the core values of 19th century English aristocracy. (Some would say still there beneath the gloss). It has much of the essence of Napoleonism, also of Stalinism, Maoism and Islamic fundamentalism (Barquentine is as a mullah in full flower)

The writing is not boring, not to anyone with a broad knowledge of the world and a critical eye for human life, social inertia, futile religions and social revolt. Nor for those with an understanding of writing as truly originality of image and metaphor, which requires that one knows much of world literature to appreciate fully. It is certainly deeper than The Lord of the Rings, which is not a shallow work either, though Tolkien's masterpiece relies too much on magic, romantic fantasy and traditional heroism.

That Titus Groan is a central character comes of the core fact of Gormenghast, the rule of primogeniture, about which the plot revolves. The third volume (Titus Alone) had to be written, even though Peake was suffering from Parkinson's disease whereby he lost touch more and more with the world, because without it there would have been no realisation of freedom, rejection of the entire old order… despite the sad and often unacceptable consequences of this, as Titus Groan undergoes in his roaming of the world.

The BBC series in four parts (with an additional part with interviews of the cast) is literally an amazing production which can surely never be surpassed. Not only did it come out in 2000, like a closing comment on the previous century by those who had lived through most of it, but it employed most of Britain's most gifted character actors and especially the comic ones. Sir Spike Milligan, Eric Sykes, Stephen Fry, Michael Clunes to name just a few. Acting the unprecedented characters of Peake's imaginative humour, pathos and horror called on reserves of expression which had few if any forerunners to instruct the actors. I give this the maximum praise, both book and film, and one can hardly ever say that these days.