TITUS GROAN

by Mervyn Peake ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 1946

A ponderous effort in Gothic fantasy, overlong, obscure, and only rarely lightened by any measure of the inventive talent that might redeem it. A sombre, night-marish book, with a strange and serie tale set in a vacuum of place and time. The scene is the ancient seat of the house of Groan, wherein a tragic Earl rules, or fails to rule, his household, his wife, surrounded by her snow-white cats, her magpie and raven and rook and owl, his chief servant, Mr. Flay; Swelter, the huge, sadistic head cook and his minion; the librarian Sourdust and his crippled son, both dour ancients, ; the curator, the nurse, first to his fey? daughter, then to the newborn heir who gives the name to the book. Outside the castle are the whinnying Dr. Prunesquallor, Steerpike, once kitchen apprentice, now on his own search for power, the old twin aunts, vengeful and bitter, and the strange people who submit their carvings once a year for the Earl's approval. The story covers a year in the life of the newborn babe, punctuated by strange rituals, by Steerpike's climb to power, by the Earl's disappearance, and by the saga of Keda, the wet nurse. Perhaps the most interesting character is Fuschia, the daughter, but even she is not much more than a gleam in the author's eye. A difficult book, impossible to place, and very limited in its appeal.

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1946

ISBN: 184379540X

Page Count: -

Publisher: Reynal & Hitchcock

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1946

Categories: FICTION