« The pursuit of authenticity - Raw Milk division | Main | Piles of Dominicans »
August 8, 2007
Albatrosses of a feather . . .
Mervyn Peake, the Gormenghast trilogy man, made illustrations for "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Figures - two things I can't bring myself to finish meet. They look like sub-Symbolist dreamy things to me.
Gormenghast was one of my first exercises of Taste - not good taste or bad taste, but Taste. I was 12 or 13, and I did not enjoy the books. I never bothered to read the third. I'm not certain, at this distance, that I finished the second one. Tastes differ - and Peake was not to mine.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at August 8, 2007 9:51 AM
Comments
Don't feel too bad about the Gormanghast trilogy, Mervyn didn't finish it either. :)
By the time he started on Titus Alone Peake was dying of brain cancer. He wrote when he could, and he never got around to substantial revisions and rewrites. You can see hints of the deterioration in the first two books, but it's in Titus Alone where you get the full effect.
Over all the trilogy is a dark, disturbing work. It's nihilistic in a basic sense. I think the first two books were supposed to be a prelude to the story of Titus Groan. But the cancer got in the way. That and Mervyn Peake becoming obsessed with them and the story they told. That is, he got distracted, and then illness ended any plans he had for the original story itself.
Still and all Steerpike is one of the great villains of British literature. Obsessed, possessed, and driven. Vengeful and envious, Satan as a half-starved 15 year old. The next time you read Titus Groan and Gormanghast, read them for Steerpike.
Posted by: Alan Kellogg at August 12, 2007 1:09 AM