I read Titus Groan and fell in love with the darkly whimsical world it contained. It is definitively a very dark book, however, with very little light in it. One of the only spots of light, in fact, is the cheerful (but profoundly thick and clueless) Fuchsia.

Naturally upon finishing the first book, I proceeded with Gormenghast after a short recovery period. If anything this following work is even darker and it was becoming overwhelming to read. I was finally defeated when Fuchsia died and the last ember of light in Gormenghast was extinguished and actually put the book down and stopped reading.

A decade later I re-read Titus Groan and with some trepidation Gormenghast. This time I read through to the end without becoming overwhelmed and reached the end (as well as the end of the follow-up Titus Alone).

These books are some of the absolute very few I dragged with me when I moved to China, so that should be a clue as to the esteem I hold them in. Peake has a vocabulary that rivals the Oxford English Dictionary's board of editors, and he uses it to good (if sometimes mind-spraining) effect. The books are part whimsy, part horror, part comedy, and part tragedy. But all quality and well worth reading.