Mervyn Peake

[GOLLUM]

Several of you may know that Moorcock and Peake were friends; and I've always been particularly fond of the dedication of the former's collection The Time Dweller:

I recently saw a copy at Minotaurs bookshop of The Sunday Book, where Moorcock's verse complements Peake's drawings, a project aimed to coincide with the centenary of Peake's birth. I was thinking of purchasing this but am unclear as to the quality, albeit we're talking Moorcock and Peake but still, whether it works on this occasion.... Thoughts?

Description : Every Sunday on the Isle of Sark, Mervyn Peake would tell his children stories about pirates, shipwrecks, and the Wild West. He illustrated his spontaneous stories with delightfully vivid drawings of the characters in his tales, but never set down words to go with them. Now, decades after Peake's death, world-renowned fantasy writer (and friend of the Peakes) Michael Moorcock has written verses to go with Peake's drawings. This star collaboration--funny, surprising, and haunting by turns--is accompanied by an illuminating and elegiac introduction by Moorcock.

 

[j d worthington]

I've not read it... wasn't even aware of it... but now would like to get my hands on it. Moorcock is quite versatile, and I'm seldom disappointed in his more mature work....

 

[GOLLUM]

I've not read it... wasn't even aware of it... but now would like to get my hands on it. Moorcock is quite versatile, and I'm seldom disappointed in his more mature work....

Thanks. I may consider purchasing it..a little on the expensive side though. On an entirely different track I'm really looking forward to obtaining my copy of The Art Of The Hobbit for Christmas...To celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, a sumptuous full colour art book containing the complete collection of more than 100 Hobbit sketches, drawings, paintings and maps by J.R.R. Tolkien has been released.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

He was a highly talented watercolourist, I have a lot of his pictures on my walls...

 

[Bick]

I just started Titus Groan. Enjoying it so far... more comments to come as I read it, which may revive this old but interesting thread on Peake.

(I feel slightly embarrassed to admit I've not previously read the Gormenghast books).

 

[Randy M.]

Bick, I haven't gotten past Titus Groan to the others. But I recall loving Peake's language and description in TG. Enjoy.


Randy M.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The best one is the second one.

 

[hitmouse]

The best one is the second one.

Agree. It turns into a genuinely creepy thriller in the second half. I do very much like Titus Groan though.

 

[Extollager]

I've read Titus Groan twice, but attempts of reread Gormenghast have always bogged down. Next time I think I will ruthlessly skim the Prunesquallor stuff, since I don't find him nearly as amusing as Peake evidently did.

 

[hitmouse]

I like Prune. There is much more to him than is first apparent.

 

[Toby Frost]

Likewise. But everyone has their less favourite bits. I find the Keda parts in Titus Groan rambling, and the teachers in Gormenghast feel to me like a weaker version of Prunesquallor.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The teachers are hilarious!

 

[hitmouse]

The teachers and the general atmosphere of somnolent faded academia bore an uncanny resemblance to the masters at my school: torn gowns, staff common room, general tone of conversation, etc.

 

[Bick]

It took me a while to read Titus Groan, but I did recently finish it. It is very effective, well written, with many highly memorable passages. I enjoyed it very much. It's not a book one recommends without caveats, however.

I know the Gormenghast books are referred to as fantasy, but the first book, at least, has no overt fantasy in it, at least in the sense that nothing happens that could not happen in our world, and it's not even certain it's not our world. It's also extremely slow, at times rather numbing, but at others strangely exciting. It seems to depend more on imagery than plot per se. There are some parallel plot lines that never really come together, and one ends the book wondering a little bit what the point was Peake had to make. There are many things I take to be symbolic and I can draw my conclusions of parallels Peake was making with WWII and Britain in the 40's, but I could easily be projecting ideas that have nothing to do with Peake's.

In short, it's a very strange book, hard to classify, full of odd leaps of imagination. It's imagery is second to none and I'm glad I read it. I expect I'll read the next book even though I don't know what the first book was really about. It does occur to me though, finally, that he gave the wrong titles to the first two books. Titus Groan is all about Gormenghast and its adult inhabitants and not really about Titus at all, while I understand Gormenghast is much more about Titus. But perhaps that was just another way Peake found to make these books so strange.

 

[Vertigo]

I'd very much agree with you @Bick . It took me a while to read though I did also love it. I certainly didn't feel I really understood it, though as you suggest I'm not sure there was all that much to understand. For me I loved it as a glorious, intricate and gothic painting in words; something I could savour without worrying too much things like plots and storylines.

 

[Toby Frost]

I always felt that there wasn't a point being made, which I rather liked. The books definitely reflect Peake's own experiences, and I don't think anyone else could have written them, but I don't think he's saying something about myth, or good vs evil or very much at all, even though there are clearly reoccuring themes. The only politics comes from Steerpike, and it seems likely that he is only saying them to annoy/attract Fuschia, as he seems to be entirely self-interested (the BBC adaptation falls down here). I always assumed that this kind of serious escapism was what the quotation from Bunyan about speaking to a man in the clouds was meant to be.

 

[Extollager]

Whatever else is going on, there's a theme of the conflict between stasis and passion in the books. For those who cherish it, the Gormenghast milieu is "perfect"; this is an achieved society, such that any change can only be a decline; effort must be expended to keep the rituals going, authority is hereditary, etc., while others, such as Keda in the first book, oppose this unchangingness on account of their priority being their personal passions -- the passions that are theirs and that require no greater justification for opposition to Gormenghastliness. Of course the adherents of Gormenghastliness are directed by passion too, that is, the idolatry of Gormenghastliness as the highest good. These seem to be the only possibilities that Peake imagines. There are no sages who might assess some good and some ill in each possibility, etc. My guess is that Peake doesn't believe any such wisdom is really possible, and I'm sure his sympathy is with the Keda-types who don't question their passions. Steerpike is a criminal, but Peake loves him and his crimes.

 

[Bick]

Interesting thought, Extol, which brings some focus to my reflection on the book. I think I agree, as Peake revels in Flay when he undertakes his duel with Swelter. When Flay's passion is aroused, he becomes much more interesting, but of course this puts him outside of Gormenghast acceptability.

I also think Prunesquallor was the most fascinating character. His outward 'humour' is an act - he's the most serious character, and the only one I think who sees the absurdities of castle life but he has found away to live with them. His thoughts are quite unlike his daft overly flowery speech.

I have to say, I found the Keda bits unnecessary and quite dull (apart from the fight). I suppose Peake felt he needed some 'action' to take place outside of castle life as a foil and comparator, but he didn't tie it together that well to my mind.

 

[Bick]

A thought about 'meaning': I did wonder while reading, if Steerpike represents evil, and whether Peake was making the point that there is an insidiousness to the acquisition of evil power that is enabled by entrenched thinking and a consequent resistance to recognise change blowing in the wind. I'm thinking of the inability of many UK parliamentarians to recognise the evil of Hitler for instance.

I'm not saying Steerpike is a direct Hitler figure, or that this is the major theme of Peake's, but it was written in 1946, and I find it hard to imagine the war would not have impacted the thinking of any great novelist working then.

 

[Extollager]

A lot of "me" in this message......be warned.....

As I've said before here at Chrons, I've found the Prunesquallor bits in Gormenghast unbearable -- it seems that they, more than anything else, were why I have not been able to read the book again after over 43 years, and I've figured I would skim them rapidly next time I tried. But my memory might be fooling me, or be an unreliable guide as regards how those many pages really would strike me now.

I don't have a great deal of confidence in my remarks on the Peake books since I have read Titus Groan only twice, the last time being in early 2001, and haven't even tried to reread Titus Alone.

I'd like to like them -- I was quite taken with them, and with Peake's art, from about 1974, ordering Peake books from England, getting the Mervyn Peake Review, and so on. My memory is that I did like TG quite a bit when I read it again and taught it in connection with a course I designed on "Fantasy Before Harry Potter." I had read Titus Groan in a college course myself, taught by the late Brian Bond. When the class met to discuss it, there was an unusual sense of resistance to the book from some of the students present. I don't remember anything nasty being said, but I had the impression that Bond was quite hurt or disappointed. However, the book went over pretty well as I recall in the "Before Harry Potter" course. I think I had only a very few students, probably half a dozen or so, and they may have been quite highly motivated to read fantasy. I didn't find the syllabus on my computer just now, but I think I assigned George MacDonald's Lilith, Alan Garner's The Owl Service, Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea, and The Hobbit. We watched the excellent TV movie of The Woman in Black in connection with dark fantasy.

I don't think I have ever seen any very complimentary remarks about the Keda material.

I'll have to make a serious try again at Gormenghast.