....Gormenghast.
I am almost two thirds through this massive and extraordinary novel series, having completed 'Titus Groan', and now crawling to the conclusion of 'Gormenghast'. ('Titus Alone' lies ahead.) Thy are the work of the artist and illustrator Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) and were written over some fifteen years from the mist of WWII to 1959. 'Titus Groan' was published in 1946, 'Gormenghast' in 1950, and 'Titus Alone' in 1959. A further novel was attempted but it remained unfinished at his death, to be completed by his wife. They sort of defy categorization - certainly defy my limited powers of description - beyond saying they belong to a wider literary family of British fantasy writing like Tolkien and Lewis. Though the sequence makes for an uneasy bedfellow with the work of those two titans of the genre. Harold Bloom thought them superior to Tolkien, rating them so highly that they deserved a place in the canon. I am no not sure that that has happened and perhaps they are now somewhat neglected.
All of this is made the more remarkable when one considers how fragile Peake's mental health was during that period of writing - at least two stays in hospital. Worse however was to come. By the time of the publication of 'Titus Alone' he was developing Dementia. Parkinson's followed. It was a pitiful end.
All of a sudden I have a social life. Family lunch Sunday, dinner with friends tonight, and London tomorrow (God willing) for the RIBA TAG summer party on Thursday and a visit to the Zurbaran exhibition at the National Gallery. See you at the weekend.
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