whoneedsactions

The Gormenghast trilogy is one of my favourites. I read it when I was still in school and it affected me deeply. I tried to read it a couple of times, got only a couple of chapters through and got bored, but a friend told me to masochistically plough through, and it was incredible. I became fixed to the slow rhythm and as the pace increased, I found myself reading and reading.

Anybody else think this is a classic? Just finished Don Quixote and that's a good book too...

Stiltspear

I adore Gormenghast!
Mervyn Peake's characters are absolutely brilliant and his writing is simply exquisite - the metaphors he uses are to die for.

It's certainly one of my favourite series, yet, very ashamedly, I have to admit to only having read up to the end of the second book. You're totally right about having to stick with it - it's not that it isn't interesting, it just requires dedication... However I'm aware of the story, having seen the tv series they made from it - which considering the mammoth task of bringing Peake's characters to life and indeed Gormenghast itself, they did a very good job of.

I just love the atmosphere in the book, and I think it's brilliant how the castle becomes a character in its own right. I can't really find the words - it's one of those books that gives me shivers... you have to read it to know. (which is a bit pretentious coming from me perhaps - I must start reading again)

Also, I am yet to find a cast of characters so well described, so colourful, and so absurd. My favourites are Mr Flay and Lady Groan (I can't remember if she had a name) and of course, the most wonderfully evil, scheming, and manipulative villain I've ever encountered; Steerpike.
I think Gormenghast is utterly and deservedly a classic.

I've also been meaning to read Don Quixote actually, but have yet to find a copy...

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strangedaze

I usually don't read 'fantasy,' as it were, or books claiming to be of that genre, but there are exceptions, and I think Gormenghast might be something I'd like to read. Hmmmm. Any other comments to help convince me?

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Suile

This is coming in about a month after the last post, but when I see the name Gormenghast somewhere, I just can't turn away.

Oddly enough, I was just watching part of the tv series they made off it today, for sake of boredom and a need for entertainment.

It really is a gorgeously odd read, and the characters are simply marvelous. They have such intriguing flaws about them, and I'm a big fan of Lady Groan as well. She's one of the people who really do have potential to be someone great, but, well..yeah.

Though I will admit I haven't finished reading the books yet, I've read the first one and part of the second so far, and while I stopped randomly (I have a habit of reading too many things at once then just dropping them all), I've been dying to get back to them.

Walkio

I've just finished the first book, and although it is beautifully written - and I mean it's exquisite - I wasn't hooked at all. Mainly because I didn't think much happened in it at all. Maybe it'll pick up pace later on, but I was a little disappointed at one of the BBC's Top 100.

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