Titus Groan

Dreamlike, macabre, and richly atmospheric, Mervyn Peake's extraordinary novel Titus Groan—first in the Gormenghast Trilogy—is one of the most astonishing works of gothic and literary fantasy in modern fiction.

As the novel opens, Titus, heir to Lord Sepulchrave, has just been born. He stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle.

Meanwhile, far away and in the kitchen, a servant named Steerpike escapes his drudgework and begins an auspicious ascent to...