Titus Groan (1946) by Mervyn Peake is the first novel in the Gormenghast trilogy, a gothic masterpiece that defies genre with its lush, grotesque prose and sprawling castle setting. The story introduces the ancient, ritual-bound world of Gormenghast, where the birth of heir Titus Groan disrupts the stagnant order, while the scheming kitchen boy Steerpike plots his rise from servitude.
Peake’s painterly descriptions—of the melancholy Lord Sepulchrave, the wild Fuchsia, and the monstrous chef Swelter—create a dreamlike atmosphere of decay and grandeur. A seminal work of weird fiction, Titus Groan is Alice in Wonderland meets Dracula, with a touch of Dickensian satire.
