Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" novels are every bit as good as "The Lord Of The Rings" even though they stand in complete contrast to Tolkein's epic. They are claustrophobic rather than expansive and the narrative (for the first two novels anyway) barely leaves the vast, labyrinthine castle of Gormenghast. There is also a striking absence of the mythological; although the lives of the castle's inhabitants are governed by a seemingly endless sequence of arcane rituals, any semblance of meaning behind it all has long been forgotten. No quest is offered as means of renewal; there is only stagnation, decay, intrigue and insanity. This all sounds extremely dour but they're also laugh-out-loud funny at points, hauntingly surreal at others and the inhabitants of the castle are unforgettable and written with a level of characterisation truly worthy of Dickens. This is world-making of a different sort.

The first two books are stunning and form a complete story in themselves. The third is very different in tone and takes place outside of the castle. By comparison it feels more hastily written and is less compelling than it's predecessors. There is apparently a fourth, left unfinished at Peake's untimely death and later completed by his wife. I've not read that one though and it's not usually included in omnibus editions of the series.

#bookstr