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A review by kerrygold
Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake
4.0
Titus Alone, first published in 1959, is the third volume in Mervyn Peake's Gormengast Trilogy. This edition was published in 1968 as one of the precursors to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series proper, before Lin Carter became series editor. The Ballantine edition has a cover designed by Bob Pepper. As with the other two books, Titus Alone contains Peake's pencil sketches of some of the characters, although in this third volume they are integrated into the book on regular pages rather than on separate glossy plates.
Over the years I have read Titus Groan and Gormenghast several times, but Titus Alone only once previously. I remember being disappointed, coming from Peake's transcendent vision of the rise and fall of arch villain Steerpike in the first two volumes, with its background of Gormenghast Castle and its vivid and surreal collection of characters.
Titus Alone has the very nasty Cheeta and the subterranean Under-River, as well as the likes of Muzzlehatch and the trio of beggars Crabcalf, Slingshot, and Crack-Bell, but Peake's writing in this third book piles images on top of each other with less restraint than in Titus Groan and Gormenghast, at least early in the book. The writing in the first two books is more precise.
The same exuberance is present at Cheeta's party at the end of the book, although I couldn't quite believe the story here. Peake writes fantasy, but even an invented world needs an internal logic—in Titus Groan and Gormenghast, the internal logic is provided by the Ritual and the Law of the Stones, and everything interpreted in these terms makes a strange kind of sense.
The main character in this work is clearly Titus, though Muzzlehatch participates on and off throughout the book. Early in the book, poor Juno is discarded, not to be seen again. Most of the Under-River characters come and go quickly. Titus isn't a likeable character in that he is callous and selfish in his quest for complete freedom. In his favour, he is a young man of twenty with a very strange upbringing who is trying to makes sense of the world.
While Steerpike is a surreal and demonic invention who dominates the first two volumes, the villains and wrecks in Titus Alone are all too human. Only Titus from the first two volumes may be said to be a real human character, with perhaps the exception of Keda and the Bright Carvers—along with Keda's daughter, Titus' foster sister, the Thing. This distinction doesn't necessarily make Titus Alone less of a book, just different. Titus Alone does however lack the narrative arc of the first two books.
Interestingly, Titus Alone contains some examples of advanced technology, ahead of Peake’s own time. For example, the sophisticated drone that Titus destroys belongs more to the 21st century than the mid-20th. Gormenghast and its environs don’t even display combustion-engine or firearm technology; Steerpike’s deadly weapons are a sword-stick and a catapult rather than a gun. It seems odd that Gormenghast belongs to the same world as that of Titus Alone, although perhaps the technological difference acts to emphasize the isolation of Gormenghast.
Titus Alone is nevertheless unmistakably Peake. After the first two books, it's great to read something that connects with them so strongly. We know what Titus is running from, and we know he is wracked by guilt at his treachery. Gormenghast and Titus' rank of 77th Lord Groan is mentioned throughout the book. Gormenghast is still in the background, though now only known through Titus' memories—except at the end in the bizarre parody of Gormenghast and its characters designed by Cheeta to drive Titus insane because he has spurned her.
At the climax of the book, Titus does find his way back to Gormenghast, proving to himself that it is not just his insane invention. At that point, I wished him to return to his home, but he turns his back on it for good. We have to wonder where fortune will take him. All in all, Titus Alone is another great Peake fantasy, though in a different way from the first two books.
Over the years I have read Titus Groan and Gormenghast several times, but Titus Alone only once previously. I remember being disappointed, coming from Peake's transcendent vision of the rise and fall of arch villain Steerpike in the first two volumes, with its background of Gormenghast Castle and its vivid and surreal collection of characters.
Titus Alone has the very nasty Cheeta and the subterranean Under-River, as well as the likes of Muzzlehatch and the trio of beggars Crabcalf, Slingshot, and Crack-Bell, but Peake's writing in this third book piles images on top of each other with less restraint than in Titus Groan and Gormenghast, at least early in the book. The writing in the first two books is more precise.
The same exuberance is present at Cheeta's party at the end of the book, although I couldn't quite believe the story here. Peake writes fantasy, but even an invented world needs an internal logic—in Titus Groan and Gormenghast, the internal logic is provided by the Ritual and the Law of the Stones, and everything interpreted in these terms makes a strange kind of sense.
The main character in this work is clearly Titus, though Muzzlehatch participates on and off throughout the book. Early in the book, poor Juno is discarded, not to be seen again. Most of the Under-River characters come and go quickly. Titus isn't a likeable character in that he is callous and selfish in his quest for complete freedom. In his favour, he is a young man of twenty with a very strange upbringing who is trying to makes sense of the world.
While Steerpike is a surreal and demonic invention who dominates the first two volumes, the villains and wrecks in Titus Alone are all too human. Only Titus from the first two volumes may be said to be a real human character, with perhaps the exception of Keda and the Bright Carvers—along with Keda's daughter, Titus' foster sister, the Thing. This distinction doesn't necessarily make Titus Alone less of a book, just different. Titus Alone does however lack the narrative arc of the first two books.
Interestingly, Titus Alone contains some examples of advanced technology, ahead of Peake’s own time. For example, the sophisticated drone that Titus destroys belongs more to the 21st century than the mid-20th. Gormenghast and its environs don’t even display combustion-engine or firearm technology; Steerpike’s deadly weapons are a sword-stick and a catapult rather than a gun. It seems odd that Gormenghast belongs to the same world as that of Titus Alone, although perhaps the technological difference acts to emphasize the isolation of Gormenghast.
Titus Alone is nevertheless unmistakably Peake. After the first two books, it's great to read something that connects with them so strongly. We know what Titus is running from, and we know he is wracked by guilt at his treachery. Gormenghast and Titus' rank of 77th Lord Groan is mentioned throughout the book. Gormenghast is still in the background, though now only known through Titus' memories—except at the end in the bizarre parody of Gormenghast and its characters designed by Cheeta to drive Titus insane because he has spurned her.
At the climax of the book, Titus does find his way back to Gormenghast, proving to himself that it is not just his insane invention. At that point, I wished him to return to his home, but he turns his back on it for good. We have to wonder where fortune will take him. All in all, Titus Alone is another great Peake fantasy, though in a different way from the first two books.