Unknown to the creeping changes, Titus does what all babes do, when a lad of 17, Steerpike, at the day of his birth, begins his own Machiavellian rise towards the upper echelon of the food chain of the castle. Escaping the sadistic chef Swelter, Steerpike at first attaches himself to the side of the first servant of the current Earl. Mr Flay doesn't like the boy much, but after Steerpike manages to charm Lady Fuschia, the daughter of the Earl, he is given an apprentice with Dr Prunesquallor.
The castle lives its own life, not minding the sudden rise of the young lad. Custom bound Lord Sepulchrave follows his daily routines to a T as his masters of ceremonies dictates from the centuries-old ritual codex. The new Earl is given to a wet nurse, Kelda, who has recently lost her child and husband. Countess Gertrude is indifferent to the purple-eyed child, having love only for her cats instead of her newborn son.
Things turn darker after Steerpike manages to seduce the sisters of the Lord, twins Cora and Clarice. He devises a plan of burning down the Earl's well-loved library so that he can pretend to rescue him and other Groans. This devious plan, on which he uses the sisters, is just one stepping stone on his path towards the top.
Despite Steerpiked does manage to save the Groan family and get the master of ceremony Sourdust killed, he is in for a disappointment, when it is revealed, that the man had a son and the position is hereditary. Sepulchrave also loses his mind because of the loss of his books.
Flay and Swelter have begun to hate each other to an extent, that has turned the mutual dislike into a murderous rage. After Flay's banishment from the castle, Swelter, unknowing of his absence, decides finally to kill him by sneaking into his usual sleeping cranny. Flay has been keeping an eye on the castle because of his mistrust of Steerpike and entices Swelter to a fight during which he manages to kill the chef. Lord Sepulchrave sees the killing and in madness orders Flay to drag the body to the tallest tower of the castle. There he hopes to reincarnate as an owl, so with the body in tow, he enters the tower, where the hungry owls devour them both, the Lord and his chef. In horror, Flay flees.
After 9 days of searching, the misanthropic Master of Ceremonies Barquentine decides that no more time can be spent in trying to locate the missing Earl. A new Earl is needed so that the centuries-old ceremonies can continue, hence. Less than two-years-old Titus is to go through Earling. Steerpike has gained himself a step to power he has wanted, when Barquentine makes him his apprentice, as the old man has no children and a continuation to the succession to the position of Master of Ceremonies is needed.
So concludes the first book of the Ghromenghast saga, with manipulative Steerpike finally his hand on some genuine power and with no one the wiser of how his machinations resulted in the death of the 76th Earl.
Titus Groan is not the easiest book to read. It is a story full of terrible people, who set in their ways sail through their existence tied to age-old traditions which matter very little to anyone else besides them. A good example of this is the Lord Sepulchrave, who can't go through a day without going through pointless ceremonies, be them about his breakfast or things he has to do in clockwork accuracy just because the ancient codex says so. People around him are lulled in the bubble of their own, completely unattached of the world around the castle itself, the exception to this being the woodcarvers, who spend their days making carvings for the annual competition, in which three of the carvings are selected to the Great Hall of Carvings.
The Hall of Carvings is the prime example of how even the servants of the castle exist in worlds of their own. Rottcodd, the servant responsible for the dusting of the statues in the hall does just that, day in, day out. He sleeps in the hall, eats in the hall and sees practically no one else during his days there, just taking care of the dusting of the statues and statues alone. He has no heed for the floors or other surfaces, just statues, for caring of them is his solitary task.
Then there are the conversations, which at times are long and sprawling and disjointed. Many of the characters speak in a manner of people, who don't know how to talk or what talking means. They are only interested in what they themselves have to say and everything else is secondary. At the same time, they are trying to escape the conversation they are in and bizarrely trying to make them go on as long as they can. It all is a reflection of their mundane existence in the castle that goes beyond imagination in its vastness. Or a reflection of the insanity, that dwells within each inhabitant of the castle.
Mervyn Peake loves describing minute details of the locations and the populace of the castle. He often gets stuck pages on end in describing how matters taking place during relatively short time spans unfold. His prose is long and sprawling and dense, be it his description of locations or the emotions of the characters. At times it is easy to get lost in his longwinded passages that seem almost never-ending. But despite all that, Titus Groan is a unique and intriguing fantasy story. It doesn't let you to the end easily. It asks you to work for it.
Titus Groan was praised for its original release in 1946 and has gained further fame after the passing of its writer. Mervyn Peake had originally planned of writing several books of the life of Titus Groan, but his death at age 57 ended the series only after 3 completed books. A 4th book, mostly completed by Peakes's wife Maeve Gilmore was released in 2010. She wrote the book after the death of her husband, but the manuscript was found only decades after her own death.
I can't claim to be a huge fan of Titus Groan. I do find it interesting, thanks to its setting and the cast of oddballs who reside in the castle, but I am not a huge fan of the overall presentation of the book. I am certain, there are people, who truly enjoy the book for what it is. But as far I am concerned, it is a bit too much in its willingness to go in a grinding halt to linger in painterly moments. That is not to say, there aren't good moments in the book, there are, but the story does take its bloody time in between them.
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