Steerpike sets fire to Earl Sepulchrave Groans beloved library, resulting in the Earls insanity and eventual suicide, setting himself up as a hero who rescued everyone else within. Genres Fantasy FictionGothicClassicsLiterary FictionNovelsBritish Literature. A gothic labyrinth of roofs and turrets, cloisters and corridors, stairwells. Published exactly one hundred years after Peakes birth, this strikingly imaginative novel provides a moving coda to Peakes masterwork. Titus Groan is seven years old, lord and heir to the crumbling castle Gormenghast. It is a kingdom of Byzantine rule and ancient ritual. Also in this episode, Andy marks the belated UK publication of Maud Martha, the sole novel by poet Gwendolyn Brooks (Faber) while John enjoys Geoff Dyer's new book about tennis and much more, The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings(Canongate). Complete Monster: Steerpike is a vicious sociopath who was once a kitchen boy but rose to become of the most powerful figures in Gormenghast. The book picks up the story of Titus, the 77th Earl of Groan, as he wanders through the modern world. Enter the world of Gormenghast, to which the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, is Lord and heir. With Joanne's expert guidance, John and Andy revisit Peake's visionary work for the first time in decades and are surprised and delighted by what they discover. Novelist Joanne Harris ( Chocolat, A Narrow Door ) is our guest for a celebration of Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast(1950) and Titus Alone(1959) by Mervyn Peake, three novels which are often referred to, erroneously, as T he Gormenghast Trilogy. Lady Fuchsia Groan is a fictional character in the Gormenghast series of fantasy novels by English writer Mervyn Peake.

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