Discussion of non-Tolkien literature: any place for it around here?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Sydney

Fanatic though I'm fast becoming, I'm not sure how well-known the series is. Is anyone here familiar with Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series, sometimes referred to as "The Titus Books"? Consisting of Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone, the "low-fantasy"/gothic triology was originally conceived as a sprawling epic, cut short by the author's early death. I see an amazing potential for popularity in these books, particularly in the wake of the Lord of the Rings films, but maybe that popularity exists already; I read somewhere that the BBC did a miniseries on the first two books, and I'm in the process of tracking it down.

The BBC series of Gormenghast was superb. Even down to the level of the sets, which had a glimmer of the Forbidden City, something Peake had in mind as he wrote his story. The cast is top-notch (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Christopher Lee, Celia Imrie etc) and even though it rattles through (as it has to do), it works. You can get it from Amazon UK.

It's an amazing story, and well worth comparing to Tolkien as they were contemporaries and a lot of comparisons can be drawn between both men and their work. Not least the influence of war on them - Tolkien having endured the Somme and Peake witnessing the aftermath of Auschwitz (he was commissioned to draw what he saw).