This is not the first time I've read Gormenghast. It will not be the last. I adore everything about it - the imagery, the plot, the language. The utter ridiculousness and tragedy of the characters. True, I am less interested in Titus than I am in everyone around him - the most compelling of the characters in this volume is surely the Countess Gertrude, with a strong supporting role going to the comic hideousness of Irma Prunesquallor - but Titus is there to represent a feeling, a desire for escape, a way out of monument. Because that's what Gormenghast Castle is: a monumental beast of a place, one which looms and smothers and covers everything over with the dust of centuries.

I'd still give my eye teeth to be able to explore it. Or to be able to write like this. Oh, Mr. Peake. How sorry I am for what happened to you. It was cruelty worse than Steerpike.