Other editions of book Titus Groan

[Read by Simon Vance] An undisputed classic of epic fantasy, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels represent one of the most brilliantly sustained flights of Gothic imagination. A doomed lord, an emergent hero, and an array of bizarre creatures haunt the world of the Gormenghast novels which, along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, reigns as one of the undisputed fantasy classics of all time. Peake has created a world where all is like a dream -- lush, fantastical, vivid, and yet symbolic of a dark struggle. At the center of everything is the seventy-seventh earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom. 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. When Titus is crowned, he is called ''Child-Inheritor of the rivers, of the Tower of Flints and the dark recesses beneath cold stairways…Child-Inheritor of the spring breezes that blow in from the jarl forests and of the autumn misery in petal, scale, and wing.''

The Gormenghast series comprises three novels by Mervyn Peake, originally published between 1946 and 1959. The series features Castle Gormenghast, and Titus Groan, the title character of the first book. A fourth book, written by Peake's widow, was published in 2009. The series is regarded as the first fantasy of manners. The series draws heavily on Gothic and Regency literature. The series is usually described as a fantasy work, though it does not depict anything magic or paranormal. Another valid classification would be to place Gormenghast in the genre of the grotesque, with marked gothic and surrealist influences. It may also be considered a fantasy of manners. Gormenghast is less focused on a central protagonist than many novels. Though Titus and Steerpike are often considered the main characters, they share the narrative with many of the other denizens of the castle. In a way, the main character could be seen as the setting itself, with the castle and social structure of Gormenghast taking a central role in unifying the story.

Marking 100 years since Mervyn Peake's birth, Naxos AudioBooks releases the first novel in the Gormenghast trilogy. Lord Sepulchrave is the 76th Earl of Groan and head of the Groan family who reside in the magnificent castle of Gormenghast. The birth of Titus Groan, the heir to Lord Sepulchrave, interrupts the complex daily rituals of the residence just as intelligent, manipulative Steerpike enters into Gormenghast society. Chronicling the first two years of Titus' life, this novel follows the antics of the castle's bizarre inhabitants and Steerpike's scheming plots as he attempts to rise to power.

[Read by Simon Vance]An undisputed classic of epic fantasy, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels represent one of the most brilliantly sustained flights of Gothic imagination. A doomed lord, an emergent hero, and an array of bizarre creatures haunt the world of the Gormenghast novels which, along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, reigns as one of the undisputed fantasy classics of all time. Peake has created a world where all is like a dream -- lush, fantastical, vivid, and yet symbolic of a dark struggle. At the center of everything is the seventy-seventh earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom. 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. When Titus is crowned, he is called ''Child-Inheritor of the rivers, of the Tower of Flints and the dark recesses beneath cold stairways...Child-Inheritor of the spring breezes that blow in from the jarl forests and of the autumn misery in petal, scale, and wing.''