The literary equivalent of heavy molasses.
The odd glimmer of style is not enough to make a good story.
Horribly tedious and boring read.
You will improve your 1940's english though.

It is not so much the plot of the book which amazes me, but the sheer brilliance and craziness of the characters themselves! Its such a strange book, but easy to follow and well worth reading.

By and large I would agree with most of the reviews already here. Firstly I think that the comparison with Kafrka nd Dickens is a good one. He captures the fairytale bureacratic entrapment of Kafka, and the acute,depth of personality that is charcteristic of Dickens. But then Peke is so much more than these to writers. He is drifts off on to flights of inspired poetic beauty, a gorgeous, rich, thick adjectival style, totally evocative of person and place alike. The dialogue of characters such as Prunesquallor is simply divine, there is an air of such precise definition within what they say tht the persona's despite being so extraordinary and outlandish, take on an existence that seems far more real than most other authors can ever hope to reach. Peake as a boundless imaguination, it dives and swoops in a frenzyied rush through a dramscape land, before being deilberatly and exquistly encapusalted on the page. Personally I am in awe of Peake. He should now I think take his rightful place alongside Joyce Hemingway and all the rest as one of the grestest writers of the twentieth century.

Comparison is futile. I first read these novels as a fifteen year old and am reading them through again ten years later. What was an earth-shaker as an adolescent is an earth-shaker now. I don't care much for fantasy novels in general. Mervyn Peake's novels thankfully defy genre and allow us a panoramic vision of a world at once fascinating and abominable, expansive and stifling. Gormenghast presents itself to the reader again and again, long after the words are spent, in half-waking images that reek of childhood bogeys and birthdays. All of this praise expended, the Gormenghast series is not for the weary-eyed. The third of the trilogy differs from the first two a great deal and presents its own challenges. Perhaps the first two are were more perfected. However, as a reader you must dedicate yourself to this work and see the race to the end to judge the finish.

The Gormenghast Novels are works that are in a class of there own. The rich words bring a texture that is not accomplished by many. The story is captivating and keeps your attention. It is hard to describe it and is better read than told. If you like Anventure mystery fantacy and background that is accomplished by few (exe J.R.R. Tolken) then you will thuroughly enjoy these books. Review by: Thomas C. Ryan